This October morning, the atmosphere is almost electric in a classroom, usually civilized, of the EPF, the engineering school of Sceaux (Hauts-de-Seine). “Oh no, but now I don’t understand! I have a code error from m…. I am blocked whereas two seconds ago, it passed! “, exasperates a student. Her neighbor, Justine, 22, advises : “Open the file, do an arduino serial.flush while loop. ” The explanation is intended to be clear. ” Oh yeah ? Suddenly, we will have to remove a lot of stuff that is useless. I can’t even manage the alerts on Python ”, gets carried away a sidekick. Welcome to engineering and health class.
That day, the thirty or so students – as many girls as boys – worked on collecting health data, transferring it and using it. “The exercise consists of learning to program objects”, explains Amin Zammouri, teacher-researcher in computer science and digital technology. Working in pairs, the students place sensors capable of measuring body temperature, perspiration and heart rate on their neighbor, then they have to drag the raw data to the appropriate place within a server. To summarize: transforming data into useful information for a caregiver. All these students have chosen to put their engineering and computer skills at the service of the healthcare professions.
Most will enter the labor market in 2022, where they are eagerly awaited. Frédérique Vidal, Minister of Higher Education, underlined this on Monday, October 18, during the presentation of the government’s future investment program: 2,000 engineers and digital health specialists must be trained in five years. The needs are growing. If the sector is still little known, the professions are in full development, and the investments will be considerable. According to a report published in 2021 by France Biotech, the association of health innovation entrepreneurs, the French “Health Tech” ecosystem consists of more than 2000 companies, their turnover has doubled in five years to reach 800 million euros in 2020. A drop of water, compared to projections for 2030 with an annual turnover estimated at 40 billion euros, and 130,000 additional jobs in the territory, according to Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister Delegate to the Minister of economy, finance and recovery, responsible for industry.
For young engineers specializing in data, health is an attractive sector because it gives meaning to their trajectory. ” I want to help, summarizes Lucas Ribes, 22, in his final year at the EPF. I project myself better in my future career in an engineer-patient relationship than in an engineer-client relationship. “ All repeat it, taking care, looking after others, relieving are the engines that attracted them to the industry. Within the engineering and health major, “Many are the students who wanted to do medicine after the baccalaureate and who were refused access as the level is lunar to access it”, notes Thomas Provot, teacher-researcher and co-leader of the major at EPF, created in 2017.
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