On 18 November, IMT Atlantique inaugurated the new building on its Rennes campus, Cencyble. Dedicated to cutting-edge research in cybersecurity and IoT, it also houses teaching spaces, offices, a fablab and the new student lounge.
The construction of the "Cencyble" building is a response to the development of cybersecurity activities and the need for premises on the Rennes campus. Since July 2021, the 760 m2 of the new building has been home to administrative offices, a laboratory, a meeting room, a FabLab, the student lounge and, of course, research laboratories, including a "Faraday cage", which is an enclosure used to block electromagnetic fields. This equipment, which is quite rare outside the military and hospital sectors, offers optimal conditions for cybersecurity research. It is a "civilian" complement to the existing cyber infrastructures in Brittany, such as the DGA Information Management site in Bruz, and the building dedicated to the Cybernavale chair research consortium at the Ecole Navale.
This new infrastructure or secure computing space will provide a benefit to companies in their research and experiments, students in various training courses (for simulations), and start-ups with a cyber security focus.
The construction of Cencyble started in September 2019 and was completed in February 2021, taking into account environmental impacts. The financing of the real estate operation, with a total cost of €1.9 million, was supported by the Brittany Region, Rennes Métropole and IMT Atlantique. Following the space created for the incubator in 2016, Cencyble in 2021 demonstrates the strong development dynamics of IMT Atlantique's Rennes campus.
The inauguration took place in the presence of Guillaume Texier, President of the IMT Atlantique Board of Governors; Paul Friedel, President of IMT Atlantique; Francis Jutand, Deputy Director General of IMT, Jean Le Traon, Head of IMT Atlantique's Rennes campus; Jérôme Tré-Hardy, Regional Councillor in charge of cybersecurity, digital and data at the Brittany Region; Isabelle Pellerin, Vice-President of Higher Education, Research and Innovation at Rennes Métropole; and Pierre Janin, City Councillor in charge of digital and innovation for the Rennes City Council.
by Pierre-Hervé VAILLANT
