Created in 2005, Minalogic is the competitiveness cluster for digital technologies in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. Located on three sites in Grenoble, Lyon and Saint-Etienne, it runs a unique ecosystem of more than 500 members, including companies covering the entire digital value chain, universities and research institutes, local authorities and investors.
Its objective is to accelerate targeted connections between these players and boost their innovation and business projects in France, Europe and internationally. Since 2005, 969 projects have been labeled and financed to the tune of €1.2 billion in public subsidies, for an R&D investment of more than €2.8 billion.
Of the 9 projects labeled by Minalogic as part of these 2 calls for proposals, 8 were selected, representing a success rate of nearly 90%. This success demonstrates the impact of the label issued by Minalogic, a major asset for securing financing and structuring projects on the technical and commercial levels, and confirms once again the crucial role of the cluster in the ecosystem of technological innovation in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
Philippe Wieczorek, Innovation Director at Minalogic, emphasizes:
“These results illustrate the contribution of Minalogic’s support, which goes well beyond the label that the cluster awards. A big congratulations to the winners, because we must not forget that it is the excellence of their innovations that is rewarded. The public financiers, the State and the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region, make no mistake in the selection of the actors they support.”
The eight selected projects
Artificial Intelligence Theme
Amédée.IA
The Amédée.IA project aims to accelerate the launch of the first robotic surgery planning system, directly accessible in the operating room and assisted by AI, driven by patented geometric algorithms. Validated with the help of clinical experts from CHU Grenoble Alpes, MAIA Medical Technologies’ technology, once integrated into surgical robotics platforms, such as that proposed by SPINEM Robotics, will automate more than 90% of the planning effort for complex procedures for the surgeon by demonstrating the sub-pixel precision required for robotic orthopedic surgery. The overall challenge is thus to streamline surgical planning and secure the execution of complex procedures such as spinal arthrodesis.
- Partenaires : MAIA Medical Technologies (porteur) (38), CHU Grenoble Alpes (38), SpinEM Robotics (38)
- Program: R&D Booster Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
DATAWISE – Data Annotation Technology Advancement With Innovative Solutions for Efficiency
Having annotated data is one of the keys to obtaining high-performance AI models. These data cleaning and annotation tasks are very time-consuming and tedious. The DATAWISE project proposes to develop a tool to automate these tasks and thus allow Data Scientists to focus on the added value of their profession: data analysis. Neovision’s tool will accelerate AI development cycles and improve their performance.
- Partners: Neovision (carrier) (38), LIRIS – Laboratory of Computer Science in Image and Information Systems (69)
- Program: R&D Booster Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
EcoMobiliSim
Cognidis offers an analysis and prediction platform, expert in mobility, to help public authorities in optimizing their mobility plans, particularly with regard to the impact of soft mobility on health. Combining AI expertise and cognitive sciences, Cognidis provides a decision-making tool that provides communities with turnkey performance indicators and a simulator configured to facilitate the projection of variations in the mobility offer and analyze their impacts.
- Partners: Cognidis (carrier) (38), TIMC IMAG (38)
- Program: R&D Booster Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
IA for Green Books
4.71 is developing a software solution to draw up a company’s carbon footprint based on its accounting data. The AI for Green Books project will enable 4.71 to enhance its existing AI engine, while making it more efficient, less energy-intensive, and faster in its learning phases.
- Partners: 4.71 (carrier) (63), Clermont Auvergne University (63)
- Program: R&D Booster Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Microelectronics theme
Cubics II
More than 350,000 sites are classified as potentially polluted in France (BASIAS, 2020), including around 60,000 in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. 65% of the sites concerned are polluted by organic compounds that are not miscible with water (or NAPL: Non Aqueous Phase Liquid), such as petroleum hydrocarbons, halogenated derivatives or PCBs.
The national methodology for the management of polluted sites and soils (DGPR, 2017) requires for sites containing concentrated pollution an estimate of the volume of polluted soils and the mass of pollutants. The investigation methods usually used are based on soil surveys coupled with soil sampling and laboratory measurements of pollutant concentrations. These methods are generally insufficiently secure, costly and time-consuming to implement. In this context, the CubicS II project aims to develop a probe to estimate in situ organic phase saturations (NAPL) and petrophysical properties of soils using a camera on board a drilling machine coupled with image processing software.
- Partners: Ginger Holding (holder) (69), Adison (73), LIRIS – Laboratory of Computer Science in Image and Information Systems (69), Reactiv’IP (38), Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (69)
- Program: i-Démo regionalized (France 2030 regionalized | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes)
SEPO450
The SEPO450 project aims to develop and shape large sapphire crystals, i.e. for diameters ranging from 300 to 450 mm, dimensions not currently available. The work will consist of the development, control, characterization and shaping of titanium-doped and non-doped sapphire crystals. The industrial partners will develop new methodologies for the specific equipment required for the entire sapphire component manufacturing process, including furnaces, shaping of these crystals (cutting and polishing), as well as characterization.
- Partners: ECM Greentech (carrier) (38), Altimet (74), ILM – Institut Lumière Matière (69), LMA – Laboratory of Advanced Materials (69), SOMOS International (73)
- Program: i-Démo regionalized (France 2030 regionalized | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes)
Photonics Theme
Auraball
The AURABALL project concerns the development and production of specific connection components for use in the electronics field. More specifically, it aims to produce multi-material balls used for the soldering assembly of ball grid array (BGA “Ball Grid Array” and CBGA “Ceramic Ball Grid Array”) packages on printed circuits. These PCSB solder balls can be used in high-performance electronic equipment that can operate under severe conditions of use, from the civil and military aeronautics fields to the automotive field.
- Partners: IREIS (carrier) (42), Georges Friedel Laboratory – Saint-Etienne School of Mines (42), Nicomatic (74), STMicroelectronics Grenoble (38), Thalès AVS Valence (26)
- Program: i-Démo regionalized (France 2030 regionalized | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes)
Cassiopeia
In the Atacama Desert in Chile, construction of the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), the most powerful optical instrument ever built, is underway. Its construction, at an altitude of over 3,000 metres, is being financed by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) for 1.3 billion euros and should produce images 15 times sharper than the best devices available today. The collecting power of its ultra-giant mirror, 39 metres in diameter (compared to 10m currently with the Very Large Telescope – VLT), will be equivalent to bringing together the 16 largest telescopes in the world. This new “eye on the sky” will multiply the current observation capacity by 5,000.
One of the main scientific motivations for building this gigantic project is the direct imaging of extrasolar planets that could support life.
The detection of CO2, water or even complex molecules in the atmosphere of a rocky exoplanet would undoubtedly be one of the greatest revolutions in our vision of the Universe, and one of the major scientific results of the next decade.
- Partners: First Light Imaging (carrier) (13), Bertin Alpao (38), LAM – Marseille Astrophysics Laboratory (13), Onera (91)
- Project co-labeled with the Optitec competitiveness cluster (main cluster)
- Program: i-Démo regionalized (France 2030 regionalized | Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes)
