High tech and the sociology of its usage : MINATEC IDEAs Laboratory

• Michel IDA
  Director, MINATEC IDEAs Laborator
  
• Philippe MALLEIN
  Pierre Mendès France University, partner in MINATEC IDEAs Laboratory
  

Summary

MINATEC IDEAs Laboratory is located in the heart of Minatec, the Grenoble Centre of Excellence. Its aim is to devise new products and their derivatives using micro and nanotechnologies. It encompasses both technological progress and the impact on man from a very early stage in the innovation process. This laboratory, unique of its kind, was founded in 2003 as a joint venture between the Atomic Energy Commission (Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique), STMicroelectronics and France Télécom. Essilor and the Pierre Mendès France and Stendhal universities quickly associated themselves with this enterprise and were then followed by Rossignol and Teamlog. MINATEC IDEAs Laboratory combines creative ability with talent in scale-modelling, and the creation of prototypes and user tests. It calls on specialists in micro and nanotechnologies and in various human and social sciences in order to design new products and services, while at the same time reducing the risk of failure in the marketing of such products.

Summary translated from French by Rachel MARLIN.

• The entire article was written by Élisabeth BOURGUINAT.

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• download it in French (PDF help) using your password or contact ecopar@paris.ensmp.fr (Reference RT140905).