The "Spin" PhD program, headed by Sandrine Vaton, has 21 specialties and works in conjunction with no fewer than 8 research units. Interdisciplinarity is ubiquitous, and a key factor in innovation.
Interdisciplinarity is part of our DNA
"Interdisciplinarity is part of our DNA": for Sandrine Vaton, head of the SPIN (Digital and Engineering Sciences) PhD program, cross-fertilization between disciplines is both a matter of course and an imperative.
In fact, it's hardly surprising: supported by IMT Atlantique on behalf of the Institut Mines-Télécom and co-accredited by ENSTA, the SPIN institute, created in autumn 2022, covers three major fields: mathematics and digital engineering, physics and engineering sciences, and human and social sciences. These three fields lead to no fewer than 21 doctoral specialties. As for the associate professors who supervise the PhD students, they are attached to 8 different laboratories (1). All the more reason for inter-disciplinary exchanges.
"It's a rather atypical situation among PhD programs, which often have a mono-disciplinary profile,” observes Sandrine Vaton. This leads us to encourage research work that lies at the intersection of several fields - notably through the allocation of doctoral contract funding."
As a result, most of the 320 or so theses in preparation are interdisciplinary. "Data analysis for understanding the dynamics of social networks” or ‘Image processing for computer-assisted surgery": examples are legion.
Cross-disciplinary themes for professional development
The teaching provided also draws on a variety of disciplines. In addition to courses directly related to their thesis topic, PhD students are also trained in “cross-disciplinary” themes, with a view to professionalization. "The aim is to broaden their field of vision, with notions on issues such as entrepreneurship, project management, sustainable development, bibliography and manuscript writing," continues the director. "All these skills prevent them from becoming locked into a specific subject."
For Sandrine Vaton, "taming the tools of two distinct fields and having a foot in two different worlds means collaborating with experts from other specialties. This encourages new ideas and creativity. This dual expertise, which helps solve many industrial problems, is a typically contemporary challenge."
Interdisciplinarity thus appears to be a key vector for innovation - which is precisely another of SPIN's strategic priorities. Indeed, the institution's own project was designed around the “3i” principles: interdisciplinarity, innovation and internationalism.
The institution's close links with the business world are also pushing in the same direction. "Around a quarter of SPIN's theses are the subject of a Cifre (2) contract," explains Sandrine Vaton. "This makes it possible to combine the laboratory's scientific excellence with industrial needs." Here again, a factor of innovation.
As for the international dimension, it is also well represented: "Half of our PhD students are international, and a significant number of theses are prepared under joint supervision with partner universities abroad", emphasizes the manager. Another way of encouraging exchanges and the cross-fertilization of ideas... All elements that enable SPIN PhD students to have several strings to their bow.
- (1) Lab-STICC, LS2N, IRISA, GEPEA, IRDL, LATIM, LEGO, LEMNA.
- (2) Convention industrielle de formation par la recherche.
