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Industrial companies expect engineers to take an external and critical look at their activities through reflexive practices. Recognising the criticality of reflexivity, Project Based Learning approaches include assignments for students to implement reflexive approaches on their projects. However, it remains unclear in the literature whether those assignments help the students experience the value of reflexive practices or if students consider them as academic exercises. In this concept paper, we present a new teaching module that intends to make students experience the value of reflexive practices for engineers. In this module, an industrial partner asks a group of master engineering students to design and implement a Proof-of-Concept (POC) to help the company explore an innovation field. This eight-week project is mainly conducted within the company. Teachers act both as coaches through regular meetings and as experts through lectures focusing on specific engineering reasoning (statistics, modelling, simulation, design of experiments...) that are necessary to design a robust POC. At the end of the module, students present conclusions drawn from their POC to the company which explain to students the next steps envisioned from their contribution. The module is two years old : so far, the authors supervised twelve students split into four industrial projects. Feedback for both companies and students were collected, as well as the lectures and the final presentations. Based on these, we conducted a preliminary analysis that suggests that students experience the value of reflexive practices for engineering work during the module.

The challenges of contemporary innovation – particularly in the health sector – call for a new transformation of organisations and, more broadly, of socio-technical systems. One lever for regenerating these organisations is the establishment of a regime of repeated and sustainable innovation. Through a unique case study, we explore the ability of proofs of concept (POC) to contribute to the development of collective design capabilities to support this regime. This case study is based on a design project entitled "rethinking medical emergency for elderly patients with loss of autonomy and patients with disability". It was carried out by the Research Chair in Philosophy at the Hospital and the design agency les Sismo, and financially supported by the French National Solidarity Fund for Autonomy (CNSA). Our analytical framework describing design-oriented organisational capacities has the virtue of outlining the plurality of forms that these collective design capacities can take, and of the actors who express and develop them thanks to the POC in a training-action type modality. The POC should be used as a "flash" method to validate value hypotheses, but also to develop and explore the organisational conditions (knowledge, skills, legitimacy, ...) that are missing to continue the collective design process, and thus initiate the regeneration of the organisation. Our study also underlines the methodological limits of POC in this mission, notably that of restricting the exploration to a few design alternatives, and moreover alternatives for which the experimental fields are already known and easily accessible. To identify and control the risk of fuelling a regime of "orphan innovation", we recommend that POC managers produce a Concept-Knowledge (C-K) design framework.; Les enjeux d’innovation contemporain – notamment dans le secteur de la santé – appellent à une transformation nouvelle des organisations, et plus largement des systèmes sociotechniques. Un levier de régénération de ces organisations est l’instauration d’un régime d’innovation répétée et durable. Au travers d’une étude de cas unique, nous explorons l’aptitude des preuves de concept (POC) à contribuer au développement de capacités de conception collective permettant de soutenir ce régime. Cette étude de cas s’appuie sur un projet de design intitulé « repenser les urgences pour les patients âgés en perte d’autonomie et en situation de handicap ». Il a été porté par la Chaire de philosophie à l’hôpital et l’agence de design les Sismo, et soutenu financièrement par la Caisse nationale de solidarité pour l’autonomie (CNSA). Notre cadre d’analyse décrivant des capacités organisationnelles orientées conception a la vertu d’esquisser la pluralité des formes que peuvent prendre ces capacités de conception collective, et des acteurs qui les expriment et les développent grâce au POC selon une modalité de type formation-action. Le POC doit être utilisé comme une méthode « éclair » pour valider des hypothèses de valeur, mais aussi pour développer et explorer les conditions organisationnelles (connaissances, compétences, légitimités, …) manquantes pour poursuivre le processus de conception collective, et donc amorcer la régénération de l’organisation. Notre étude souligne également les limites méthodologiques du POC dans cette mission, notamment celle de restreindre l’exploration à quelques alternatives de conception, qui plus est des alternatives pour lesquelles les terrains d’expérimentation sont déjà connus et faciles d’accès. Pour identifier et contrôler le risque d’alimenter ainsi un régime d’« innovation orpheline », nous recommandons aux managers de POC de réaliser un référentiel de conception Concept-Knowledge (C-K).

International audience; There is abundant literature on the consequences of academic engagement with the industry, on overall scientists' commercialization and scientific performances. Nevertheless, the literature remains silent on how those performances are contingent on the research orientation's choice at the project level. This paper aims to fill this gap by exploring different research orientations in the context of university-industry collaborative Ph.D., a topic of interest as private companies are becoming more involved in Ph.D. training. To do so, we relied on a unique dataset comprising of 635 Collaborative Ph.D. projects through the CIFRE program in France. We classified the projects' ex-ante research directions: market-pull-oriented (MPO), research-push-oriented (RPO), and simultaneous-discovery-invention-oriented (SDI), and we observed their ex-post performances. First, as expected, an orientation towards industry needs conduct to higher commercialization performances. However, counter-intuitively, those projects are also prone to have similar scientific performances than those oriented towards scientific discoveries. Second, while SDI projects were considered over-performing other research orientations, they led to more significant scientific performances than traditional orientations but generated as many patents as MPO projects. Finally, we highlight that initial research orientation is a crucial determinant variable of scientific and commercialization performances, and our paper opens rooms for further research to the literature on academic engagement, university-industry collaborations, and Collaborative Ph.D.

International audience

International audience; Because of the possible response to main, current and global issues, a particular attention is paid to deeptech start-ups and their growth mechanisms. Nevertheless, first observations on technological start-ups point out a limited growth. As deeptech start-ups are developing by nature advanced technologies, they are intended to be deployed on different markets, revealing technological genericity. Scaling these technologies encounters unfortunately some hurdles and seems to be more complex. This article focuses on scale-up for deeptech startups and on means to achieve this development phase. Literature usually considers scale-up as a phase of business model replication, suggesting low learnings. On the contrary, our hypothesis is to regard scale-up as a more complex phase in deeptech start-ups development, through additional means and learnings that have to be determined. This research is based on 8 case studies from different fields: For each start-up, we study what should be learnt and what should be relevant design strategies to ensure scale-up. Main issue in scale-up phase appears to prove that most of activities will not change, that should refer to the concept of creation heritage, taking into account external interactions.

International audience

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International audience

International audience; As teams become increasingly cross-functional, defixating leaders, who guide their teams toward creativity by overcoming the fixation bias, must now manage the heterogeneity of fixations in their teams. In this study, we conducted an experimental protocol that aims to find out whether leaders who do not share the same fixations as ideators will still manage to defixate them through minimal directive feedback, and whether leaders are able to adapt to the ideator's fixations. Our results show that leaders with heterogeneous fixations with respect to the members of their teams will have more facility guiding their teams to achieve better creative outcomes. Moreover, we showed that leaders do not seem to be able to adapt to the ideators' fixation to give their feedbacks. On the one hand, we show that leaders tend to reject highly creative ideas and on the other hand, that they are not able to recognize the ideas that are in fixation with the ideator. Thus, to foster the creativity of teams by giving feedback, it would be better to have leaders who do not have the same fixations as their teams.

International audience; Les urgences hospitalières françaises sont sous tension alors qu’elles “ont jusqu’ici fait la preuve d’une forte résilience face à l’accumulation des difficultés” (Cohen et al., 2017) étroitement liées au vieillissement de la population. Dans ce contexte, la Chaire de philosophie à l’hôpital et l’agence de design les Sismo ont soumis une proposition fin 2018 à l’appel à projet de la Caisse Nationale de Solidarité pour l’Autonomie intitulé “Design social : handicap et perte d’autonomie”. Le projet retenu a pour ambition de s’intéresser à la manière dont le design peut apporter du soin (au sens de care) aux urgences (institution du cure par excellence) dans le cadre d’un proof of care ©.Suivant la même approche que Lenay et al. (2019), nous nous intéressons à la double question du soin apporté (1) par les artefacts mis à l’épreuve lors de l’expérimentation (POC) et (2) par la démarche de conception. Pour répondre à ces questions, nous nous appuyons sur la vulnérabilité et les capacités, deux notions clés de l’éthique du care (Nussbaum, 2007 ; Sen, 2010; Tronto et Maury, 2009).Cette étude nous apprend que : (1) les artefacts en situation d’usage permettent de réduire la vulnérabilité des individus en développant leurs capacités et révèlent des formes de vulnérabilités nouvelles, (2) la démarche de construction d’artefact permet de développer les capacités cognitives et sociales des collectifs et provoquer des effets de re-théorisation de l’éthique du care et du design.

International audience

International audience; Chapô : La Covid 19 a provoqué une crise des rapports entre politique et expertise. Face à l'épidémie, l'Etat a tout naturellement constitué un conseil scientifique pour éclairer sa gestion. Mais pourquoi cette épidémie at -elle mis à si rude épreuve les principes habituels d'un gouvernement éclairé par la science ?

International audience; Une recherche intervention conduite lors de la première vague de l’épidémie de Covid19 a permis de montrer que la mise en œuvre de la théorie de la conception dans des situations de gestion de crise permet de faire émerger des formes opérationnelles inédites. L’article montre comment un acteur collectif doté d’une rationalité inventive constitue une « war room créative et activatrice » capable de soutenir, articuler voire initier les forces créatives sinon dispersées. Cette forme de gestion de crise est notamment comparée aux cellules de commandement classiquement décrites dans la littérature.

International audience; Pendant la pandémie de la Covid-19, de nombreux produits de santé se sont trouvés en tension voire en pénurie. Dans cet article, nous examinons comment la preuve de concept (POC) peut soutenir la conception d’une résilience organisationnelle proactive et réactive. Une double étude de cas – celle de la pénurie des pousse-seringues électriques et celle des dispositifs d’aide respiratoire –, montre que les POC, en tant qu’outils d’apprentissage collectif sur le connu mais aussi l’inconnu, permettent aux organisations de santé de développer des capacités de résilience. Ainsi, menées de manière proactive, les POC permettent d’organiser l’exploration collective dans l’inconnu et aider à révéler cet inconnu, tandis que de manière réactive, les POC permettent de fédérer les acteurs et leurs initiatives autour d’une action collective et réduire rapidement les “inconnus résiduels”.

International audience; The paper suggests a new taxonomy of knowledge search modes to describe the creative process of new invention design, in particular how firms combine knowledge components from their own knowledge base-taking into account both the components and the structures of knowledge bases-with those from newly acquired or newly internally developed. Using network theory techniques, we defined four knowledge search modes: (1) refinement, (2) clustering, (3) absorption and (4) recomposition. We conducted an exploratory study on the oil & gas industry, reviewing 50,776 utility patents filed by 16 major firms between 1989 and 2016. The results showed, first, that firms relied to varying extents on different knowledge search modes in their invention design processes. Second, reviewing the technological originality of the designed inventions showed that simply absorbing new knowledge components, without major changes in knowledge base structure, was associated with low technological originality, but constituted one of the main knowledge search modes used by the analyzed firms. In contrast, major changes in knowledge base structure favored technological originality, with or without new knowledge components, but were nevertheless the least used mode. Understanding organizational learning practices associated with the phenomena described here can foster innovation performance in firms.

International audience; Even though proof-of-concept (POC) has become a common practice of organizations in decision-making, and internal and external coordination processes, the literature on strategic management has so far little taken on the subject. In this paper, we looked at the following questions: Where does the concept of ‘proof-of-concept’ come from and how has it evolved over time? How does ‘proof-of-concept’ relate to a peculiar category of proof? To answer these questions, we first conducted a historical perspective of the genesis of the concept, namely in the U.S. aerospace and aeronautical ecosystem. Then, we conducted an analytical study of the transfer of the notion in the ecosystems of biomedical, public research, new product development / innovation / entrepreneurship and finally information technologies. This paper showed that the term, which was born in the 1960s, gradually met with success in contexts where new actors had to be brought into the previously highly integrated design value chain, and this often upstream. In this sense, POC, as proof of validation and exploration, appears to be a particularly useful tool for ‘buyers’ and ‘sellers’ in processes with an exploratory dimension.; En dépit du fait que la preuve de concept ou POC soit devenue une pratique courante des organisations dans les processus de prise de décision et de coordination internes et externes, la littérature en management stratégique s'est jusqu'à présent peu emparée du sujet. Dans ce papier, nous nous sommes intéressés aux questions suivantes : D'où vient la notion de POC et comment a-t-elle évoluée au fil du temps ? En quoi le POC constitue une catégorie particulière de preuve ? Pour répondre à ces questions, nous avons d'abord réalisé une étude historique de la genèse du concept, à savoir dans l'écosystème aérospatial et aéronautique américain. Puis, nous avons mené une étude analytique du transfert de la notion dans les écosystèmes du biomédical, de la recherche publique, du développement de nouveaux produits / de l'innovation / de entrepreneuriat et enfin des technologies de l'information. Ce papier a permis de montrer que le terme, qui est né dans les années 1960, a progressivement rencontré un succès dans les contextes où il a fallu faire entrer de nouveaux acteurs dans la chaîne de valeur de la conception qui était jusqu'alors très intégrée, et ce souvent par l'amont. En ce sens, le POC, en tant preuve de validation et d'exploration, semble être un outil particulièrement utile aux « acheteurs » et aux « vendeurs » dans des processus avec une dimension exploratoire.

National audience

Si l’entreprise du xixe siècle a inventé la R & D (recherche et développement), l’intégration du design est un des symptômes les plus marquants concernant l’entreprise de la fin du xxe siècle. Il est à rapprocher des profondes évolutions des stratégies de conception des firmes contemporaines : il ne s’agit plus seulement de renouveler des gammes de produits stabilisées mais bien de concevoir des identités originales, des marques, des compétences, des valeurs. L’ouvrage de Monique Vervaeke écl...

International audience; Although there has been an increasing use of 'proof-of-concept' in practice, the literature is highly poor on the subject. We investigate a basic research question: what does proof-of-concept really do? We perform an historical study and a case study of PoC practices of a French design studio 'The Sismo'. Generativity and robustness allow us to compare PoC practices related to TRLs, medicine, security, start-up, and design. The study clarifies the polysemous practices to help stakeholders to know why and how PoC is a design tool to establish and sustain collaborative exploratory communities.; Bien qu'il y ait eu une utilisation croissante de la preuve de concept dans les pratiques, la littérature est très pauvre sur le sujet. Nous étudions une question de recherche fondamentale : que fait réellement la preuve de concept ? Nous réalisons une étude historique et une étude de cas des pratiques de preuve de concept d'un studio de design français «les Sismo». La générativité et la robustesse nous permettent de comparer les pratiques de preuve de concept liées aux TRL, à la médecine, à la sécurité, aux start-ups et à la conception. L'étude clarifie les pratiques polysémiques pour aider les parties prenantes à savoir pourquoi et comment la preuve de concept est un outil de conception pour établir et maintenir des communautés exploratoires collaboratives.

International audience; Although there has been an increasing use of 'proof-of-concept' in practice, the literature is highly poor on the subject. We investigate a basic research question: what does proof-of-concept really do? We perform an historical study and a case study of PoC practices of a French design studio 'The Sismo'. Generativity and robustness allow us to compare PoC practices related to TRLs, medicine, security, start-up, and design. The study clarifies the polysemous practices to help stakeholders to know why and how PoC is a design tool to establish and sustain collaborative exploratory communities.; Bien qu'il y ait eu une utilisation croissante de la preuve de concept dans les pratiques, la littérature est très pauvre sur le sujet. Nous étudions une question de recherche fondamentale : que fait réellement la preuve de concept ? Nous réalisons une étude historique et une étude de cas des pratiques de preuve de concept d'un studio de design français «les Sismo». La générativité et la robustesse nous permettent de comparer les pratiques de preuve de concept liées aux TRL, à la médecine, à la sécurité, aux start-ups et à la conception. L'étude clarifie les pratiques polysémiques pour aider les parties prenantes à savoir pourquoi et comment la preuve de concept est un outil de conception pour établir et maintenir des communautés exploratoires collaboratives.

International audience

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International audience

International audience; in scientific literature. Recent research covers its implications, practical applications, and its new developments. In this chapter the most recent formulations and the fundamental principles of the C-K design theory are provided without necessarily giving the details of the formalisms applied in this theory. 1.1.4.1. Origins and intuitive motivation The expectations to the C-K design theory are fivefold: • From the point of view of contemporary innovation challenges: A theory that is able to address design issues that can't be addressed with traditional problem solving and optimization methods, such as "the design of new usages for emerging technologies", "the design of products/services on very open briefs" (e.g. 'smart mobility'), "the design under very strong constraints" (e.g. 'zero energy', 'frugal innovation', etc.). • From the point of view of designing professions: Providing a "unified design theory", similarly useful for all kind of designing professions (e.g. industrial design, engineering design, architectural design,…) • From the point of view of formalisms: A formal model that accounts for "radical creativity", i.e. with strong generativity 1 • From the point of view of methods: A theory that creates and supports methods for the process of so-called 'inventing' or 'discovering' (and actually designing) new functional requirements and the extension of design parameters. • From the cognitive point of view: A theory and related methods for overcoming fixations 2 To give an intuitive motivation of the C-K design theory, one can keep in mind that the theory focuses on the issue of characterizing a design task, its initial point, usually called "brief" or "program" or "specifications": Contrary to "mapping based" design theories (such as programming, problem solving, optimizing, all derived from Simonian theory of design 3), that tend to clarify the initial task to design inside a given mapping, the C-K design theory seeks to preserve the ambiguity, equivocality, incompleteness or fuzziness of the initial brief, precisely because these features will enable to regenerate the mapping itself. The C-K design theory hence models the design of a desirable but partially unknown 'object', which is undecidable whilst applying initially available knowledge. This intuitive motivation raises critical formal issues: How to rigorously reason on a partially unknown object? How to account for the evolutions of the knowledge that needs to be generated and / or has to be extended through the design process? These issues are addressed in the C-K design theory, as it will be shown below. 1.1.4.2. Main definitions and properties The underlying principle of the C-K design theory is to model design as an interaction between two spaces, the space of concepts (C) and the space of knowledge (K), with the following definitions and implications (see also table 1.x): 1 Generativity is the capacity of a design theory to produce 'novel' solutions from a given knowledge background (see academic references in Le Masson et al. 2017). 2 Fixation (in design and creativity cognition) describes the fact that, in a design task, designers tend to explore only a limited set of alternatives. They are cognitively hindered to explore the whole set of imaginable alternatives (see academic references in Le Masson et al. 2017) 3 The Simonian Theory of Design, formulated by H. A. SIMON in the 1960ies, is based on search algorithms in complex combinatorial problem spaces (c.f. e.g [Simo-1997]).

International audience; The new logic of financing innovation: from uncertainty reduction to shaping the unknown Handbooks in finance, as well as literature reviews, recall that financing innovation and financing productivity investment differ in their level of uncertainty. 1 Students learn that financing production investment requires a positive net present value (NPV), whereas financing innovation requires taking into account multiple uncertainties by computing expected NPV. Models of decision-making in uncertainty helped to compute the value of reducing uncertainty. 2 This approach is considered the best way to value investment in research and development (R&D)-R&D being considered an activity to reduce uncertainty. 3 In this time of "disruptive innovation" in the context of multiple socioeconomic and technological changes-such as energy transition, aging, and digitalization-it is tempting to consider that innovation dynamics tend to be characterized by an increase in uncertainty. Investments would, therefore, become much riskier, and financing might seem almost impossible. Fortunately, this "wisdom" misses a critical feature of contemporary innovation: it is not mainly about uncertainty but much more about "the unknown". In contemporary innovation, one has to deal not only with uncertain events, such as unstable markets and technological advances, but also partially unknown chimeras, such as inclusive mobility, smart cities, and sustainable energy. Therefore, it is critical for innovation success to deal with these initially unknown situations and shape them in a beneficial direction. 4 This distinction between uncertain and unknown has major consequences on innovation investment: the financing approach must not only consist of reducing uncertainty but also of shaping the unknown, i.e., through a capacity to design new alternatives, worlds, opportunities, markets, and usages.