From China

I'm posting this from Macau - a small island located in the South China Sea and famous for its nightlife and mixture of Asian and European cultures. I'm here for the weekend before heading back to my assignment in mainland China, in the city of Jingdezhen.

My first five-month assignment in Marseille went very smoothly and I feel that it was a success as I have learned and contributed a great deal of concepts, ideas, and actual deliverables and results.

The month I have spent in China so far proved to be very enriching as this country is very different from anything I could have imagined and not a day passes without me learning a couple of new things.

The work is progressing at a fast and consistent pace and I am confident that the end result will meet the team's as well as my own expectations.

Plus I started learning to speak Chinese - mandarin - and aim at saying a few sentences and having small conversations by the end of my stay in here: only time will tell if I manage to keep my drive and motivation until the end.

Eurocopter Engineer

So here am I working for Eurocopter within the selective Graduate Take-Off Program - GTop. Eurocopter is the number one helicopter manufacturer in the world as the company has a global market share of over 50% in the civil and parapublic markets - about half of all the world's helicopters are made by Eurocopter. We are one of the main divisions of EADS, alongside Airbus, Astrium, Defense and Security and Military Transport Aircraft. 

Today, I am working on the all new EC175 helicopter (cf. picture above) and will conduct several missions and be based in a number of locations including France and China. All along the job, I will be mentored and coached and have various high level trainings in subjects incuding: management, communication, negotiation, multicultural awareness, interpersonal skills, chinese culture, business, and language etc. I will also have the opportunity to work in a team on a project of strategic importance to Eurocopter and sponsored by the group's Executive Committee.

Systems Engineering Placement at Airbus

Today, my first week of a five and a half months internship at Airbus comes to an end. The placement started perfectly: the job is very interesting and motivating, the team seems to be quite nice, and my last summer's work at EADS IW seems to have been really well appreciated.

Christmas holidays in Lebanon

I just came back from Lebanon where I spent some excellent vacation. I got together with my family and friends, and got to visit some very nice places in Lebanon, ranging from the north to the south of the country, including some beautiful sites in northern and southern Mount Lebanon as well as its coastal cities.

Right now, I'm getting prepared for my last five months Systems Engineering placement at Airbus starting February, and working on some industrial and academic projects and courses for the end of my last semester at INSA.

INSA Systems Engineering - Rob'AFIS winners

So after an excellent summer placement at EADS where I had the chance to contribute to a new multi-program aircraft function with an outstanding team, I lead a three months project of Robot Design using systems engineering and our nine-members team finished first in the national competition that took place last week in Nancy where I spent four magnificent days attending the AFIS sponsored systems engineering seminar and competing to win the title.

Economic Mobility

A society built to last needs to be constructed on the principle of providing the equality of opportunity, instead of guaranteeing the equality of outcome. This means that everyone - no matter his origins, social status, religion, age, sex, or race - should be given an equal chance to prove himself. But on the other hand, he or she should know that any outcome depends on one's actions. And that an equal task has an equal effect no matter the author. Moreover, no one should expect the same results regardless of his actions or work, and the effort put into performing them.

The values of work, talent, and skill become even more meaningful in such societies. And a society, no matter its economic supremacy, its industrial development, or its cultural past, is vowed to fail if its members lose faith in their economic mobility, and thus in the aforementioned values.

That's because the economic mobility - which is one's ability to climb the economic ladder, more or less quickly, during a lifetime, but also from one generation to another, and, on the other hand, the risk of moving down this ladder - is inherent to this society.

And as this mobility is essential to the development and economic growth of a society - think for a second about a community where the poor can never become rich, no matter their effort: this would have tremendously negative consequences, because denying someone hope is simply crushing him - it is also necessary for a company to provide such mechanisms to its members sine qua non it puts its survival in jeopardy.

But how can one assess and evaluate a person's work and effort both in societies and in companies?

One approach, the most direct, and probably the most adapted to this context, would be to weigh the outcome. In other words, this approach consists in measuring the added value, or the wealth created by one's work.

[...]

Moreover, affirmative action, or positive discrimination, can be seen as a tool to guarantee the principle of equality in some difficult cases like, for example, women's career opportunities and salaries compared to men's - in some countries. But any tool must help guarantee this equality in both directions. This means, for instance, that affirmative action must not result in men having less opportunity than women, which goes against the equality principle mentioned earlier in this text.

EADS here I come!

After a very appreciated oral presentation of the modeling project of a production system for Latécoère, and a few other reports, exams, and meetings, this fourth year is over now.

On monday, I'll be starting my summer three months and a half internship at EADS where I hope I'll be spending some good time learning valuable things and contributing to the design of the A350 and the A380. Especially that EADS seems to be back on its feet now with all the good news I'm reading in the press.

Score historique pour Airbus au Bourget - Le Figaro

Avec 688 commandes annoncées, le constructeur européen sort grand vainqueur du salon du Bourget.

L'ÉDITION 2007 du Salon aéronautique du Bourget restera dans les annales comme un cru exceptionnel. Ce sont en effet près de 105 milliards de dollars de contrats, dont 89 milliards pour le seul Airbus, qui ont été rendus publics hier, à la fin de la dernière des quatre journées dédiées aux professionnels.

Arianespace commande 35 fusées à EADS Astrium - Le Monde

Arianespace a signé la commande de 35 fusées Ariane 5 ECA, la plus puissante de la gamme, à EADS Astrium samedi 23 juin, au salon aéronautique du Bourget. Les signataires Jean-Yves Le Gall, président d'Arianespace, et François Auque, président d'Astrium, la filiale spatiale du groupe européen d'aéronautique et de défense EADS, n'ont pas indiqué le montant de la commande. Toutefois, de sources professionnelles, ce montant serait d'environ 3,5 milliards d'euros.

Astrium se lance à la conquête du tourisme spatial - Le Monde

"Un fabuleux moyen de réveiller l'ambition européenne pour l'espace." C'est ainsi que François Auque, président d'Astrium, a présenté, mercredi 13 juin, la maquette de l'avion-fusée conçu par cette filiale du groupe EADS pour se lancer dans le tourisme spatial.

De la taille d'un jet d'affaires, cet appareil emportera quatre passagers. Pouvant décoller de n'importe quel aéroport, il s'élèvera jusqu'à 12 kilomètres d'altitude grâce à ses turboréacteurs. Ensuite, le moteur-fusée à l'arrière sera mis en route pendant 80 secondes permettant de propulser l'avion à 60 kilomètres de haut. L'inertie fera le reste pour atteindre une altitude de plus de 100 kilomètres.