Principal Investigators

Jean-François Caron is research director, head of the Architectural Materials and Structures (MSA) team at the Navier laboratory and professor at the Ecole des Ponts ParisTech.

 

He is interested in the modeling of composite and multi-layer structures as well as in the innovative use of composite materials in construction. He was co-winner of the Tsuboi Prize by the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS) in 2006 and the "Oustanding Paper Award" by the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE) for his work on gridshells in composite materials. Since 2012, he has been a member of the European working group WG4 Fiber Reinforce Polymer Structures which is developing the Eurocode for composite materials.

 

Since 2016, his research has also focused on digital construction, in particular 3D printing of fiber-reinforced concrete, a process for which he has filed a patent for invention. He is the scientific advisor of the Build'in platform and actively participates in scientific planning and the supervision of doctoral students.

Olivier Baverel is a professor at the Ecole des Ponts ParisTech and professor at the Grenoble School of Architecture.

 

He is also a researcher at the Navier and GSA laboratories and editor of the International Journal of Space Structures. Her research focuses on structural engineering, the rationalization of the manufacture of envelopes with complex geometry, and life cycle analysis.

 

He has developed innovative construction systems, such as composite material gridshells and nexorades. He is a member of the board of directors of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures.

 

Since 2017, he has also been an academic advisor to the Build'in platform and has developed partnerships with research and higher education institutions in France and abroad.

Romain Mesnil is the project manager of the Co-Innovation lab des Ponts and the Build'in platform since 2017.

 

As structural engineer and graduate from the Ecole des Ponts ParisTech and MIT, he is interested in design processes informed by digital technology and has contributed to the development of the thinkshell project. His thesis subject, defended at the Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, dealt with the design of structures with complex geometry and was awarded the Hangai Prize in 2017 by the International Association for Shells and Spatial Structures.

 

He coordinates the Build'in platform, in collaboration with Jean-François Caron and Olivier Baverel. He supervises research work on concrete 3D printing, robotic assemblies and structural optimization. He is a lecturer at l'Ecole des Ponts where he teaches structural design and constructive geometry. He has published fifteen articles in peer-reviewed journals, presented his work in ten international conferences, and is a co-inventor of a patent.

Researcher at the Navier laboratory since 2004 and assistant professor at the Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, Adélaïde Feraille works particularly on the development of life cycle analysis tools in the construction field and taking end-of-life into account (reuse, recycling) in environmental reports. She has supervised several PhD theses on this topic in collaboration with architecture and engineering consulting firms aimaing at improving their environmental footprint.

 

She also participates in the development of an environmental database for construction materials used in the national context in connection with manufacturers.

Arthur Lebée is Engineer of the Corps des Ponts des Eaux et Forêts and HDR researcher at the Navier Laboratory (École des Ponts - IFSTTAR - CNRS).

 

His research themes are:

 

 

• Homogenization and scale changes for advanced structural calculation

• Generalized environments and architectural materials

• Fold and origami linked to structures

• Geometry for structures and microstructures

• Mechanical modeling of wooden structures (cross laminated wood panels)

Cyril Douthe, Dr. Ing. MCF ENPC, is a researcher at the Navier laboratory (UMR 8205) and lecturer at the Ecole des Ponts ParisTech where he is responsible for the course of “design of structures studio”, as well as many design-build workshops.

 

His research themes are:

• constructive geometry or the study of the geometry of curves and surfaces for the optimization of design methods and construction of structures,

• the calculation of structures in large displacements with applications to the shaping of materials, to blocking nets and to the stability of structures,

• light structures: shape research, analysis and optimization of thin shells, gridshells, nexorades, membranes, etc.

 

He is responsible for the Thinkshell website

Vincent Lepetit has been a researcher at ENPC ParisTech since 2019. Before that, he was a professor at TU Graz (Austria) and even before, a researcher at EPFL (Switzerland).

 

His research is at the interface of machine learning and 3D computer vision, and he is currently focusing on the 3D understanding of scenes from images. He is regularly Regional Chair for major computer vision conferences, and is an associate editor for the main newspapers in the field.