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

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.