# Sylvain Girard's scientific page I lead the “Reliability & Robustness” team at [Phimeca Engineering Paris](http://phimeca.com/). We use applied mathematics and physical modelling to help designing, operating and maintaining industrial system safely and efficiently. My topics of interest include * **From data and simulation to decision** -- Modelling *creates* uncertainty. This is a bad product: people mostly want to get rid of it. We help our partners to shift from the illusion of complete control to robust risk management and efficient decision processes. * **Embracing complexity** -- *Complexity* also bears negative connotation. Yet, complex systems have emergent behaviours that go far beyond those of their parts: otherwise we would stick to hammer an nails kind of technologies (sometimes we should). We tackle this by dimension reduction, deep learning, and system scale (0D/1D multi-physics) modelling. * **From R&D to something else** -- Modelling is a tribal activity: a small group share tacit (=hard to transcribe) knowledge of great potential. Good ideas often lead to good R&D. Often, good R&D leads to… good ideas at best. We help partners to widen the innovation spiral and produce concrete outcomes. * **AI, Animal Intelligence** -- I am always ready to discuss opportunities for new cooperation of any kind *if it does not entail chatbots*. *“A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.”* -- Saul Bellow cited by Shaun Tan in *Tales from outer suburbia (The amnesia machine)*. --- ## News * November 2026 -- The 8th Researcher--Engineer Gathering, “[Mathématiques à flots](https://seminaire.phimeca.com/)”, will take place on the 23th of November 2026 at [IHP](http://ihp.fr/). Register online or propose to give a talk at: . * October 2026 -- The ModSys System Modelling Day will take place on the 9th of October 2026. Registration closed. * [Francesco Cancelliere](https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesco-cancelliere/) defended his thesis with brio. The manuscript is [online](https://theses.hal.science/tel-05395072). ### Recent and upcoming talks * 2026/11/17 -- [NAFEMS France 2026](https://www.nafems.org/events/nafems/2026/nafems-france-conference/). I will give a talk entitled “System scale digital twins with Modelica and Python” (« Jumeaux numériques à l'échelle système avec Modelica et Python ») during the afternoon session. * 2026/2/3 -- The [IMPACT project](https://www.afd.fr/fr/projets/projet-impact-un-partenariat-academique-pour-accompagner-le-developpement-de-lecole) team kindly invited me to talk during a mathematical dissemination conference. I told anecdotes about the pitfalls of modelling from research and design to effective use. Why many engineering problems are still open since decades? [`[🗎 get slides]`](https://sylvaingirard.net/pdf/talk/girard26-anecdotes_modeles_pragmatiques.pdf) * 2024/10/14→17/ -- [λμ24](https://www.imdr-lambdamu.eu/) hosted by [Institut de Maîtrise des Risques (IMdR)](https://www.imdr.eu/). I presented the first results of the [POLIVAL](research/polival) project: “'Uncertainty': the elephant in the living rooom of soil pollution management?.” [`[🗎 get slides]`](https://sylvaingirard.net/pdf/talk/LM24_cloudspotting_eode_phimeca.pdf) * 2024/10/11 -- [TSP day](https://thermosyspro.com/journeeTSP/) organised by EDF and Phimeca. I presented “HeatXSysPro: From Excel to robust tool for Air Fan Coolers performance assessment” [`[🗎 get slides]`](https://thermosyspro.com/journeeTSP/assets/presentations/06_Phimeca_EDVANCE_HeatXSysPro.pdf) --- ## Content ```{toctree} publication research/index joboffer ```