The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress (WCC) is currently taking place in Marseille, France. IUCN is the world’s largest environmental decision-making forum, bringing together a diverse set of thousands of leaders from across the world representing government, science, indigenous peoples, business, academia and more. Its goal is to find new approaches to conserving the environment and harnessing solutions found in nature.
La Fondation Dassault Systèmes is participating at IUCN, sharing some of the actions it is undertaking to spread awareness and guide the development of new goals and measures for a sustainable and healthy future to benefit people and nature. The primary focus is on Mission Océan, a program focused on furthering understanding of protecting natural areas through enlightenment of young generations. Along with its partners from the French Ministry of Education and the Ifremer research center, La Fondation Dassault Systèmes is presenting three pieces of pedagogical content developed for the program.
Designed to deepen students’ knowledge in different subjects (mathematics, natural sciences, physics and chemistry, history and geography), each program not only helps students learn, but also opens their mind to potential career paths. These demonstrations, which can be found in the Nature Generation area (hall 2, booth D2), link interests in science and technology with the desire to encourage a strong commitment to sustainable development through collaborative, innovative and fun learning.
- Like a fish in water provides insight into research inspired by the tropical pufferfish’s nest to protect coastal areas from erosion and rising water levels. The modeling and simulation of the nest illustrates how biomimetic thinking transforms an intuition into an innovative and functional process.
- The archeology of the abyss is based on the 3D wreck of La Lune, a ship of Louis XIV’s fleet sunk off Toulon. Participants can pilot an underwater robot to explore the submerged and inaccessible wreck. The interactive animation gives students the opportunity to learn notions of mathematics (for spatial orientation and localization) as well as geometry and history together within a same experiment.
- Underwater robotics involves the manipulation of a robot arm to collect marine samples. Attendees can observe this demonstration through a videoconference platform. The activity is directly linked to Ifremer’s HROV (hybrid remotely operated vehicle) work during its oceanographic campaigns.
Beyond Mission Océan, La Fondation Dassault Systèmes supports and develops numerous educational projects throughout the world related to the understanding and preservation of our environment. You can read more about those on our website, such as our support for self-sufficient smart villages in India and games that help children in the US learn about on Ocean Conservation.
Alyssa Ross Alyssa is a Communications Director on the Dassault Systèmes Corporate Publishing team. She’s been part of DS for over 20 years, in roles ranging from public relations to marketing programs. Twitter: @DS_Alyssa