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ETABLISSEMENT PAU LACQ
The Pau 2024 AI Festival, held from December 6-8, 2024, is a flagship event in the artificial intelligence sector. It attracted some 500 people, who attended either in person or online. Since the creation of the event in 2018, it gathers together researchers, students, entrepreneurs and the general public, to explore AI opportunities and challenges. TotalEnergies, as a major player in the energy and technology sectors, and proactively involved in its region, has actively participated in the festival for several years, thereby strengthening its commitment to young people.
Among the well-known speakers, TotalEnergies was represented by its DataLab team, comprising data scientists and IT engineers, specializing in artificial intelligence. The event was an opportunity for the team to present innovative solutions in data analysis and data science, resources, and computing power, to illustrate the Company’s expertise in these areas.
Eliana RAAD-LOMBARDI, Data Scientist Lead, spoke about the Low-code approach in one of the Pitch your AI presentations: "Imagine being able to create powerful applications using your data and an intuitive visual interface, without needing to code thousands of lines. Low-code applications are based on a logic of pre-developed bricks that require simple configurations, without having advanced knowledge of code that business-line users may not have," she explains.
Among the tools available on the market, a platform that is intuitive and easy to use for neophytes was chosen, so that data could be combined, cleaned up and converted, and intelligent Machine Learning algorithms tested to obtain simple, fast results. Low-code is a means for everyone to speak the same language and work better together by capitalizing on the continuous collaboration of data and business-line expertise: "Using coaching for an improved acculturation to data, and raising awareness to best practices, coders on one side and non-coders on the other will be able to collaborate on a visual, shared, centralized interface" the specialist enthuses.
Biodiversity and Student Data Challenge
"The weekend was a unique opportunity to enhance our knowledge of AI, while capitalizing on the support and advice from passionate and approachable experts. As regards the challenge, it was an extremely pleasant, informative, and well-organized experience. We took advantage of valuable support through training sessions and the high-quality mentoring proposed by AI Pau. The meticulous organization made for a smooth, stimulating event - one which gave us the opportunity to work on an actual problem inspired by a real situation," explain Fatma ATTIA and Timothée COSTE, Data scientist interns at the TotalEnergies DataLab.
The event effectively proposes a Data Challenge, an occasion for students - 125 this year - to challenge each other on actual problems proposed by partner companies. TotalEnergies asked the participants to work on a strategic challenge for the Company: studying biodiversity, an issue that researchers at the CSTJF in Pau have taken to heart, deploying tangible initiatives for biodiversity (find out more here: Our commitment to biodiversity).
For the 45-hour competition, the students are coached in the technical and more general aspects of the topic, including the way in which they choose to present their solution. This time, for the groups that chose the topic proposed by TotalEnergies, it involved counting and automatic identification of animal species based on data obtained by phototrap (a camera used to capture images or videos of fauna in their natural environment without any direct human action). Data, problems, subject analysis, the approach proposed, presentation, etc. - the jury’s final choice was a difficult one, as the students had all worked extremely hard on the different challenges proposed by the partners.
"Of the 28 teams of students, 10 chose the TotalEnergies topic, and the finalist team came second in the overall ranking! It was an impressive competition and, as the members of the jury pointed out, a lot of hard work was done, and the coaches and mentors were extremely impressed. Overall, between the workshops, conferences and relations with the students, the event was particularly informative. There were a lot of lively discussions and innovative ideas to help understand how AI can transform companies and their industrial processes - It was a very positive experience for all who attended", concluded Eliana RAAD-LOMBARDI.