“The students particularly appreciated the interdisciplinary approach and the variety of topics covered.” Feedback on the PSL Week in November 2021
Whether for broadening your culture, discovering a new discipline or meeting other students, PSL Weeks are a highlight in student events at PSL. From November 22 to 26, around thirty courses were offered for the autumn edition. Each course brought together students with very different profiles and backgrounds (science, engineering, arts...) providing many opportunities to explore a subject in depth and from both a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary perspective. Interview with three of the organizers.
Joint interview with:
- postdoctoral researcher, , Mines Paris – PSL. Course co-organizer:
- , researcher at ENS – PSL, co-organizer of the
- , PhD student at Dauphine – PSL, co-organizer of the course on
PSL: Could you tell us about PSL Week?
Thomas Beaussier: For and I, this week was an opportunity to address a subject that is not often dealt with in the usual curricula of our schools (engineering schools): issues of living organisms. They are, however, crucial in view of the immense challenge of climate change and ecological transition.
Natural, agricultural and forest ecosystems provide vital products such as our food, but also raw materials for construction, chemistry and energy. We must place more importance on these uses given the pressure on fossil and mineral resources. Behind this, a whole economy of living organisms needs to develop. However, this production must be designed to incorporate the notions of circularity and sustainability, in order to preserve the ecosystems that supply these biomasses and the biodiversity that constitutes them.
Alice Schoonejans: PSL Week was also an opportunity for me to launch a project. Just before the pandemic, with my doctoral dissertation adviser Véronique Perret, we developed a course at Dauphine on ethics and responsibility in market organizations, based on my research work and a number of documents related to my dissertation. The five-day format of the PSL Week lent itself perfectly to putting this in place. I was able to introduce students to the ethical issues of setting global priorities, managing risks in relation to sustainability issues and organizational strategies to address these issues.
Christian Lorenzi: Daniel Pressnitzer and I were also attracted by the concept. In partnership with our colleague Brice Bathellier, a researcher at the newly created Institut de l'Audition (Institut Pasteur), we jumped at the opportunity to organize week-long course dedicated to modern issues in "auditory science". We wanted to offer a strongly interdisciplinary curriculum to provide an overview of current knowledge and issues in cochlear genetics and biophysics, auditory neuroscience, human auditory psychology and animal communication, experimental and clinical audiology, and engineering science. In 27 hours of classes, and with 27 speakers from PSL, but also from major research centers in France and abroad, the students were able to grasp the variety of objects, methods and levels of study within auditory science.
What are PSL Weeks? Coralie Chevallier, Vice-President for Education at ̳, explains the concept:
"One of the key objectives of PSL's educational project is to have students circulating between PSL disciplines and schools. PSL Weeks enable third-year and master’s students to take courses to customize their program: from sustainable development to entrepreneurship or data sciences, PSL Weeks offer a diverse range of options that represent the richness of PSL schools. These weeks of intensive courses allow each student to take an active part in their training and to give it a relevant nuance for a future academic or professional project. I am delighted that the success of this initiative is growing, both for our students and for our teaching staff, whom I thank for their many ideas and enthusiasm. The next PSL Week is in the week of 7 March 2022!”
PSL: Which students participated in your PSL Week? Was there a prerequisite level to participate?
“After the initial shyness of the first day, an interactive dynamic took hold and lasted throughout the week.”
Christian Lorenzi: In order to take this course, students had to have a basic knowledge of acoustics and signal processing and know, for example, how to characterize a simple or complex sound. 27 students enrolled. A large majority of them came from engineering courses at ESPCI Paris - PSL, Mines Paris - PSL or Chimie Paris - PSL. But we also had a student from Arts Décoratifs Paris (a PSL partner), a student from the CPES Undergraduate degree, a student from the ENS - PSL and doctoral students from the Institut de l’Audition and its school. The diverse range of profiles was a major asset.
Thomas Beaussier: For our part, no prerequisites were necessary, the course was available to all. We welcomed the 30 students of our specialized Master’s in Environmental Engineering and Management, who were joined by three students from Dauphine - PSL, three students from Mines Paris - PSL, as well as a Mexican student from ENSCP - PSL. All of them were motivated by their interest in the management of living organisms, which is not widely covered in their usual studies.
Alice Schoonejans: I was pleasantly surprised by the motivation and level of knowledge of the students. I had not set any prerequisites and the course brought together about ten students, mainly from PSL engineering schools and the Dauphine Master’s program. All were well informed and enlightened. After the initial shyness of the first day, an interactive dynamic took hold and lasted throughout the week.
PSL: The courses are aimed at students with very different backgrounds and profiles. How does this affect the way the course is prepared? What did you gain from the exchanges and discussions that took place?
The diversity of students was a real asset that was evident even in the lecture sessions, through questions and debates.
Thomas Beaussier: I fully agree with Christian Lorenzi. The diversity of students was a real asset that was evident even in the lecture sessions, through questions and debates demonstrating their interest, sometimes in technical processes, sometimes in macroeconomic issues, to give the most obvious examples. They also brought their personal perspectives on the critical issue of the pressures that humanity exerts on the rest of the living world. The second part of the week, with situational case studies, enabled them to express themselves in small groups, where students interacted and gave contributions from their own experience. I was pleasantly surprised to note that the students sometimes escaped the profile suggested by their school of origin: the students of the Mines civil engineering course were not the last to defend the preservation of natural forests!
Alice Schoonejans: Indeed, the format of the PSL Week favors reciprocal exchanges. Issues related to sustainable development are interdisciplinary by nature and this week made it possible to insist on the general culture necessary for students to deal with them. It was essential, in my opinion, that the course should enable the Strategy Master’s students to acquire a better understanding of ecological issues and, in return, that future engineers should have a more detailed knowledge of strategic issues. Based on my knowledge of World Bank issues, I used different tools to elicit reactions and put students in the position of stakeholders. In addition to the lectures, we worked together on opinion questionnaires, real case studies, role-playing on fictitious problems and projects, and more. One of the highlights of the week was a debate on a general question using a for and against stances. For example, one of the topics covered was: “Can advertising be held responsible?” Each student had to make a presentation to defend a view on their topic, regardless of their deepest beliefs, while focusing on both the references used and the arguments of the other side. Showing the film “Dark Waters” also enabled me to introduce them to the issues of power asymmetry between the people affected and organizations, to highlight the ethical dilemmas, risk analyses and various organizational pressures that contribute to stakeholders' decisions on environmental and social issues. The discussions were rich!
Christian Lorenzi: The five intense days of PSL Week are perfect for a broad exploration of the issues. Auditory science is a dynamic and promising field from both a scientific and an industrial point of view. From the prevalence of hearing loss in the population to the discovery of genetic factors or automatic speech recognition, the applications are extremely varied. It was important for us to include time to discover the business applications. We organized a discussion (by videoconference) with two ENT departments at the Salpêtrière clinic and the Robert Debré hospital (pediatric department). The students were immersed in the techniques of screening for hearing disorders, implant surgery, etc. and those who wished were even formally invited to the operating room to witness a real implant. On another note, a researcher from the IRD introduced them to new fields of research on natural soundscapes. For a long time, research on hearing has been dominated by speech, and work on environmental sounds is fairly recent. Those seeking to determine how we humans perceive these natural landscapes from an auditory point of view are even more recent. The week provided an overview of the research centers likely to host future researchers, depending on the applications chosen. During the debriefing, the students gave us very positive feedback and particularly appreciated the interdisciplinary approach and the variety of the topics covered.
Why did you decide to participate/organize a course for PSL Week? Do you plan to repeat the experience? How would you encourage a student at your school to take part?
Some of the students will contact us again for a research internship, others will certainly take up the invitation from the Robert Debré Hospital. The experience has been beneficial for both sides.
Thomas Beaussier: This is the sixth year that our department, ISIGE, has offered a week of courses within the framework of PSL, with a progression of themes proposed: three years on the value of water (resource management, technology transfer and the contribution of monetization tools), two years on water care (issues around the resource, variety of stakeholders, models and tools for water management), and this year on bioeconomics. Indeed, for several years now, the students of our specialized Master’s programs have expressed their appetite for living organisms (agriculture, forestry, biodiversity, etc.) and their desire to study them in greater depth. We developed this module for the first time this year in response to this interest, which seems to be shared by other PSL students.
Christian Lorenzi: The Ecole Normale Supérieure - PSL participated for the first time this year in PSL Week, and the concept is very interesting. Without a school week specially set aside, it remains difficult for students and teachers alike to free up time and interrupt research activities for a whole week. However, this is an opening and an opportunity. Some of the students will contact us again for a research internship, others will certainly take up the invitation from the Robert Debré Hospital. The experience has been beneficial for both sides and we are seriously interested in renewing it. We are going to work on improving the program, to include visits to laboratories, shared work time during lunch breaks, etc. We hope to attract more students from the CPES undergraduate degree, ENS - PSL or EPHE- PSL for the next events.
Alice Schoonejans: It was a great teaching experience and I would definitely do it again. For the students, I was struck by the richness of what was on offer. It’s a sort of "educational buffet" and a rare opportunity, I believe. It is also a moment of great freedom and discussion. As a teacher, the format enables us to design the course from scratch, and thus structure it around the questions that really interest us. Interacting with the students during the week on material specific to my research was inspiring and I look forward to building on this experience in the coming months.
Une semaine de cours en biogeochimie encadrée par pour une vingtaine d'étudiants . Des manipulations effectuées sur place et des TPs utilisant nos laboratoires et instruments pour former la nouvelle génération d'écologues
— CEREEP-Ecotron IleDeFrance (@CEREEP_Ecotron)