Every year in the fall AFAM's community manager (and previously A&M representative in the US) is packing her bag and taking a flight to France to visit the school and talk to students and administration about AFAM's projects. This year I went to France for one week in September to visit Paris, Lille and Metz campuses.

The Shasta internship program was at the very heart of the visit. Shasta has been around since 2010 and tremendous progress has been made since thanks to AFAM's team and its members Xavier Wartelle, Aurore Prévot, Marc Amblard, to mention a few.

2018 has marked a new beginning introducing Shasta mentorship. What students can expect from the program and what AFAM expects from them - was the main topic of Shasta conference on Paris, Lille and Metz campuses.

Photo below: students at Shasta conference on Lille campus.

Lille students were lucky as they had JB Commans, our East Coast Group president, talking about his experience in the US.

Photo below: student attending Shasta conference in Metz, some of them are soon-to-be Georgia Tech students.

The fall school visit became a great occasion to visit schools' labs and talk to Associate Professors and Researchers.

Photo below: Assistant Professor Laurent Gajny talks about EOS low dose imaging system at Institut of Human Biomechanics Georges Charpak.

Photo below: Sled Test at Institute of Human Biomechanics Georges Charpak

Photo below: Assistant Professor Laurent Gajny, Christopher Martellet, in charge of BREI (bureau des relations européennes et internationales) for the Paris campus, and Prof. Michael Deligant at Institute of Human Biomechanics Georges Charpak, Paris

Photo below: Khaled Benfriha, Associate Professor, Researcher, behind his pedagogical production platform 4.0. on the Paris campus. The platform has been financed by the Paris region (500K). The platform is equipped by 3 production machines, 2 Kuka robots, connected camera, accumulation table, augmented reality feature and several informatics systems. The goal is to teach A&M students new technologies applied in the manufacturing industry.

Photos below: premises of Dynfluid Laboratory in Paris  and Associate Professor, Researcher, and in charge of Parcours US program Michael Deligant talking about his projects at Dynfluid Lab

Photo below: Adel Olabi, Head of "Advanced Production Systems" Track of Master KIMP (Lille) and Estelle, engineer at the Factory of the Future (Usine du Future) at LSIS lab, Lille

Photos below: visiting L2EP lab in Lille. Thank you, Thomas Roillet and Daniel Marin, for the presentation of EPMLAB platform. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and Smart Grids are two main fields of intervention for EPMLAB platform.

My visit to Paris, Lille and Metz campuses was a terrific opportunity to get to know some members of Arts et Métiers teaching, administration and research staff. We all share one mission - to promote Arts et Métiers brand and we can find ways to successfully collaborate to contribute to this overall mission.

Photo below: Christophe Lescalier, Associate Professor, Researcher and Camillle Winter, in charge of BREI (bureau des relations européennes et internationales) for Metz campus (Metz)

I have also payed tribute to the school's heritage by visiting the beautiful premises of la SOCE (Société des Ingénieurs Arts et Métiers), one of the oldest and the biggest alumni association in Europe:

Looking into the Past:

Opening the Future: