Teaching
Teaching is a broad thing. Besides attending various classes and fulfilling administrative duties, I also supervise students' Master theses, and tutor them in their internships and apprenticeships.
I eagerly share my fondness for learning and the scientific method, to my students and the rest of the world.
I very much enjoy the teaching model entitled "the unknowing teacher" (Le Maître Ignorant).
Courses
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Societal & Environmental Issues – Master 2 – Univ Lille – since 2023-24.
- Class #3 : Energy (fr) (2nd Oct. 2024)
- Class #5 : Digital usage dynamics (fr) (16th Oct. 2024)
- Class #6 : Ecoconception (fr) (23rd Oct. 2024)
- Advanced distributed systems (SRA2) – Master 2 – Univ Lille – since 2021-22.
- Distributed systems (SR1 & SR2) – Master 1 – Univ Lille – since 2021-22.
- Introduction to Innovation & Research (IIR) – Master 1 – Univ Lille – since 2024-25.
- Computer networks (RSX1) – License 3 – Univ Lille – since 2022-23.
- School Programs & Live Questions (PSQV) – License 3 – Univ Lille – since 2024-25.
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Building a web server (UE PE web) – License 1 – Univ Lille – since 2023-24.
- Course's official website (fr) (contains the course material and exercises)
- Permalink to the course material (fr) (June 2024)
Past courses
- Software engineering (GL) – License 3 – Univ Lille – from 2022-23 to 2023-34.
- Programming – License 1 – Univ Lille – 2022-23.
- Computer networks – 2nd prep-school year – IMT Atlantique – 2021-22.
Research
I like to see everything through the lens of distributed systems: digital infrastructures & services, human societies (including legal, economic and social interactions), planet Earth and its ecology...
Since 2020, I am part of the Spirals team (Inria, CRIStAL, Lille) which studies the adaptability of distributed systems, and is led by Lionel Seinturier.
I spent my PhD (2016-19) in the WIDE team (Irisa, Rennes), which I consider top-notch on the research topic of distributed systems protocols.
I have a keen interest in studying the environmental footprint of the digital sector: this involves understanding its global production/usage/waste chain, its relation to other economic sectors (notably the energy transitions), and its human & ecological impacts (notably regarding its mineral requirements).
I finally keep a close eye on the state of the right to privacy in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), its abuses, and technical and regulatory counter-measures.
This implies scrutinizing platforms that are used by the public at large, e.g. the Android & iOS operating systems, and the web.
Currently studied topics
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Categorizing the environmental impacts (notably mineral) of the digital sector, and its interplay with the energy transitions.
I am notably accompanied by Thibault Simon, Sophie Cerf, Clément Quinton, Romain Rouvoy and Catherine Truffert on this front. Arthur Goarant also used to work with us.
NEW! Read our open-access paper from 2023, entitled: "Untangling the Critical Minerals Knot: when ICT hits the Energy Transitions". -
How do decisions regarding the software development of mobile apps influence the obsolescence of smartphones?
I notably work on this question with Lucas Deloison, Gaëlle Fret, Edlira Nano, Aurélien Tabard and Romain Rouvoy. -
Bridging the gap towards enabling decentralised and collaborative digital services, through environment sensing, information storage at the edge, and device-to-device communication.
My main colleagues on this quest are Rémy Raes, Daniel Romero Acero, Romain Rouvoy, and my former colleagues from the WIDE team: François Taïani and Davide Frey.
Activism
I am a co-founder of Deuxfleurs association, and a member of its administrative council.
It is a French digital hosting collective (we serve static websites, e-mails and the like), where we promote conviviality, and try to invent emancipatory usages of digital technologies.
We are part of the CHATONS collective, to which I also participate.
In Lille, I also partake in Chtinux, which is a constellation of Hauts-de-France collectives involved in the promotion of digital freedoms. The RAOULL members (another CHATONS association) are close pals.
You can physically discuss digital freedoms and other informatics-related topics with us, every last Tuesday of the month at Café Citoyen around 7:30PM. (Ping me first, for I cannot make it every month.)
Publications
Presentations
- 31/03/2025 – La sobriété : nouvelle priorité de la recherche informatique (in French) –Séminaire « Axe Énergie », laboratoire CRIStAL, Univ Lille.
- 26/03/2025 – La sobriété numérique d'après l'hébergeur militant Deuxfleurs (in French) – Green Days Conference (Rennes).
- 24/03/2025 – Matérialité du numérique (in French) – Semaine des transitions, Univ Lille.
- 08/02/2025 – Trajectoires environnementales du numérique (in French) – AI Action Summit (Lille).
- 21/11/2024 – "Les grandes questions d’un hébergeur numérique communautaire et convivial" (in French) – Séminaire Politiques Environnementales du Numérique – Centre Informatique et Société – CNRS.
- 08/10/2024 – "The material cost of the digital sector and how to constrain it" – 30min of Science – Centre Inria de l'Université de Lille.
Do check out Deuxfleurs' presentations repository where we host our past talks' slides.
"The digital sector in troubled waters" exhibition
For the 2024 edition of "La Fête de la Science", which theme was "Water in all of its states", Inria Lille proposed an exhibition entitled "Le numérique en eaux troubles", which was first displayed at the Forum des Sciences (Villeneuve-d'Ascq) in Oct-Nov 2024.
Aurélien Tabard and I were the lead scientists on the project, Sophie Blitman was our journalist editor, while the Communication team of Inria took care of the rest (props to Magda Guennadi, Julia Plaia, Antoine Cappelle & Anaïs Kolumban).
- Check out the teaser video!
- Download the exhibition panels (licensed CC-BY-something, to be updated once I get the info).