Integration and reliability of new materials for green vehicles – MATINNOV

The MATINNOV’s chair proposes to become an active actor in the automotive industrial evolution process that is requires for large diffusion of "green vehicles". In order to master the best technological breakthroughs that will appear in an accelerate way; Valeo wants to rely on UVSQ academic research to develop activities with high valorisation potential. Two themes have been jointly chosen as being strategic research areas:

Advanced materials with special attention attempt to the emerging nanostructured and artificial materials. These themes correspond to niches with high added value. In this context, two families of materials will be studied:
- The rare earth free magnetic materials for magnets returned to the forefront because of scientific environmental and economic challenges of new markets, controlling costs of raw materials;
- Lighting and display OLED and LED technology as a response to the challenges of new markets, development of recycling policies and eco design.
Reliability of materials and systems for mechatronics. The wide spread of the electric vehicle requires significant technological breakthroughs. The reliability of mechatronics systems is of extreme importance for the credibility of the industry. This becomes even more complicated as new materials are introduced to market quickly causing accelerated technological breakthroughs in the context of cost reduction and real technological needs like the high temperature operation of devices.

Failure will be analysed and accompanied through this chair, with a multi-disciplinary approach on both fundamental and technological aspects. One goal is to investigate the evolution of new materials and systems under stress. These studies will be completed by modelling to understand the complex phenomena of aging and failure and also, to establish the most appropriate technological choices. MATINNOV Chair aims to evaluate and test emerging technologies in terms of reliability. This goal is justified for economic reasons but also to meet societal requests in terms of dissemination of reliable mechatronic systems to other areas such as mobility disabilities.

The chair target is also to accelerate flow of information and knowledge sharing between universities and industry. One initial goal is to create an industrial engineer and a master in share-time on these topics. Seven PhD and five years of post-doc will be funded from the Chair’s budget. An Executive Doctorate program will be created to provide executives and experts of Valeo with this shared industrial/academic culture.
Valeo and UVSQ are founding partners of the Mov'eoTec partnership foundation which is the project leader for the Institute for Communicating Green Vehicles and Mobility, VEDECOM, involving the main French actors in the automotive sector such as PSA, Renault, Continental. The MATINNOV Chair starts from this institutional context and proposes to consolidate and increase the partnerships already existent in this framework between UVSQ and Valeo. In this context of trust, the purpose of the Chair is to accelerate innovation and diffusion on selected domains.