The Founding of the National Academy of Technologies of France.

This text was written for the symposium honouring Erol Gelenbe and to deliver a message from the French academy of engineering, NATF, the National Academy of Technologies of France, in the presence of six of our Fellows, including Erol as an active member. I will explain what our goals were when we created our engineering academy 15 years ago, and how our concept was and still is very different from that of an academy of sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]