VaST virtual platforms

The manufacturing industry as a whole uses virtual models to design and optimize its products. The best known example is very probably the simulation of car crashes, with their «dummy» passengers. Electronics uses virtual prototyping too. VaST, of Grenoble, develops virtual platforms that provide a very faithful representation of system-on-chips, the key components in embedded systems. VaST tools enable the joint development and verification of hard and software, the priority being to reduce time to market. With a head office in Silicon Valley, Australian technology, subsidiaries in Japan and Germany, VaST decided in May to locate its European headquarters in Grenoble, a suitable bridgehead from which to promote its software emulator technology.

ISIS is developing its European distribution network

The top priority for surgeons and operating theatre staff is to optimize surgical interventions while maintaining the highest possible level of safety. In 2002 Isis (Intelligent Surgical Instruments & Systems) started designing and marketing smart systems that enhance surgical precision, drawing on its expertise in robotics applied to brain surgery and tele-medicine. These systems limit the area affected by surgery and reduce its invasive impact. In May 2006 Isis launched SurgiMedia, a new tool that allows surgeons working in a large range of specialities, to view all of a patient’s digital data without leaving the operating theatre. The product, which emerged from the convergence of various locally developed skills, complies with European medical standards and can consequently be easily exported.

Kayentis takes a new approach to forms automation

Hewlett-Packard has entrusted direct sales of its forms automation business to a start-up launched in 2004. Kayentis is adapting an existing technique, which involves the electronic capture of handwritten data on paper media, to suit the needs of business in France and abroad. Various organizations, in particular the French post office and several leading players in aviation and pharmaceuticals, have already shown an interest in the Kayentis system, which holds the promise of productivity gains thanks to a secure interface and pre-printed forms. It was when he started trying to adapt the technology used for conventional paper-printing to accommodate input from an electronic pen that Philippe Berna, the CEO of Kayentis, thought of Grenoble, one of the fi rst places to explore such techniques. The launch of an R&D centre at Montbonnot near Grenoble is an essential step in the firm’s development as a software publisher.

Grenoble-Isère’s nano-biotechnology boosting Lyonbiopôle

Lyonbiopôle brings together organizations fi ghting infectious diseases, still the prime cause of mortality worldwide. Micro and nanotechnology, which operates at the same size as the molecules and proteins that form the building bricks of disease, holds the promise of new ways of identifying and treating pathologies.

Between Grenoble-Isère’s nanobiotechnology and Lyon’s medical know-how, Jean Chabbal (head of the microtechnology for biology and healthcare department at CEA-Leti) sees «mutual gains refl ected in a scientifi c and industrial organization of global standing». From a technical point of view microsystems are just the right size for work in biological research, enabling direct intervention at the scale of molecules, antibodies and DNA.  

For Christian Seux, CEO of Becton Dickinson France, «epidemiology is the most direct link between medicine and technology».

Complementary know-how
For the last 10 years interaction has been growing between biologists at CEA and Joseph Fourier university and Leti physicists in a drive to dynamize

innovation for the development of miniaturized biotechnology systems. The main objective of the Nanobio programme is to achieve technological breakthroughs in molecular biology, in particular to streamline diagnostics. This priority, essential in the treatment of infectious diseases, encouraged the installation of bioMerieux on Grenoble’s science park. The arrival of the Lyon-based firm among the research laboratories is a new step towards fostering complementary ties between applications, in medical diagnostics and the delivery of vaccines. Appropriately, vaccines are a key concern for Becton Dickinson, a world-class firm operating in the Grenoble area.

Lyon-Grenoble axis
The Lyonbiopôle world-class competitivity centre is stepping up collaboration between private industry and public research, confirming the determination of local authorities to develop partnerships between Rhône-Alpes’s two largest cities. Tristan Rousselle is the CEO of Protein’eXpert, a start-up with 30 employees specializing in recombinant proteins, an essential component in next-generation drugs.

He is sure small companies have an important part to play in Lyonbiopôle: «Our added value is our innovative approach, but it is of no use if it is not integrated in an industrial process.» Christian Seux, at the head of Becton Dickinson France’s 1,200-strong workforce, entirely agrees: «We turn to start-ups to validate emerging ideas, but the technical response must then be translated into a manufacturing process.» The competitivity centre enables research to be finalized by integrating it, from the moment it becomes a project, in a process culminating in international distribution. Projects can only emerge if they have access to new markets. In the near future Lyonbiopôle may indeed should serve as an example to others. As Jean Chabbal puts it: «The Lyon-Grenoble axis is valuable as an example, that can be reproduced elsewhere, in particular for cancer research.»

Stendhal of Grenoble

All through his life Stendhal kept an accurate record in his diary of his literary career and personal life. His journal, which ranges from brief notes to more carefully crafted prose provides a remarkable insight into the author and the origins of his work. In 2006 the City of Grenoble acquired six notebooks covering the period from 1805 to 1814. Containing 570 handwritten pages, the notebooks have joined the part of Stendhal’s diary that already belonged to the Grenoble city library. For the first time his entire diary has been reconstituted, the result of joint efforts by the French authorities, at a national and local level, assisted by the enthusiastic support of various clubs. The acquisition will enable researchers to work on hitherto inaccessible notebooks. The city library’s fine collection, which includes more than three-quarters of Stendhal’s manuscripts, is an enduring tribute to the novelist in itself.
The 35,000 pages held here novels, essays, short stories, accounts of journeys, letters and notebooks constitute a unique opportunity to learn more about the life of the writer. An exhibition entitled «Stendhal, revolt and dreams» is currently on show at the city library. It highlights some of the most remarkable items in the library’s collection devoted to Grenoble’s most famous child paintings, engravings, correspondence, first editions and manuscripts testimony to his impressive work and the period in which he lived. The exhibition will be the first step towards a new museum specifically devoted to Stendhal.

The «Stendhal, revolt and dreams» exhibition will run till 31 March 2007.
Free admission, Tuesday to Saturday, 13.00 to 18.00. Bibliothèque municipale de Grenoble.
http://www.bm-grenoble.fr

Grenoble’s multilingual library

Grenoble’s international library (BMI) loans books and media in seven languages to readers of all ages, with publications in German, English, Arabic, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese. For French-speakers it is an opportunity to improve their knowledge of a foreign language and for residents from further afield it is a valuable source of reading matter in their own tongue. As well as offering novels, essays and cartoons, the BMI stocks a range of magazines, CD-Roms for learning languages, records and talking books.