Valérie Issarny – © Inria / Picture S. Tetu – La Company
Valérie Issarny, Research Director at Inria’s Paris-Rocquencourt research centre and scientific coordinator of the Inria@SiliconValley program starting 2014, was presented with her award at the French launch of the Horizon 2020 programme, which took place on Monday 16 December 2013.
The Étoile de l’Europe accolade rewards French teams that coordinate European projects as part of the research and innovation framework programme. Valérie Issarny received the award for the ICT-FET Connect (Emergent Connectors for Eternal Software-intensive Networked Systems) project, which examines issues facing the Internet in the future.
Eternal networked software systems
A variety of equipment such as computers, mobile phones and wireless sensors may be interconnected via network for domestic or business purposes. Until now, the disparate nature of these systems was handled by the middleware software layer, where data is interchanged between various applications. This solution, however, is not really suited to the massive deployment of such networks.
The Connect project, which began in February 2009, developed a revolutionary approach: a software solution which would allow the appropriate interchange protocol to be generated on demand for systems that need to communicate. Valérie Issarny’s team approached the challenge by bringing “emergent middleware” into play, which deals with dynamically generating the necessary mediators between different protocols. Their work ranges from the study of basic theory to the development of prototype software, which is then validated in actual applications. Connect thus allows us to learn, understand and translate the software of things connected to the Internet of the Future, and allow them to interact.
International dimension
The Connect project brings together 10 European partners (universities, research bodies, and businesses).”I’ve always thought that research was conceived at an international level. ” explained Valérie Issarny.”Encounters between different educational backgrounds and cultures can be a source of enrichment. ”
On presenting of the Étoiles de l’Europe prizes, French Minister for Higher Eduction and Research Geneviève Fioraso, congratulated the winners: “These projects bear witness to the excellence of French research: both fundamental and applied research that addresses the challenges facing society and the competitiveness of our country. Research that flies the French colours high, both within Europe and internationally .”
Inria was congratulated on winning this Étoile in recognition of its many European successes, with some forty ERC research grants to date. The Institute is proud to have among its researchers individuals whose skills are recognised across Europe.
Quick bio
Valérie Issarny is a graduate of the University of Rennes, with a PHD in computing. She joined Inria to lead the Arles (Software architectures and distributed systems) team, which collaborates on international projects. One notable fruit of her labours is the creation in 2011 of start-up company Ambientik, of which Ms. Issarny is a co-founder. Her company is specialized in cooperative mobile application services.
Source: http://www.inria.fr/en/news/news-from-inria/valerie-issarny-winner-of-the-etoile-de-l-europe-prize
