To mark Research Week from 26 to 30 September 2022, we would like to highlight the inspiring profiles who work at Bliss Ecospray on a daily basis. Here is a portrait of Vincent DE RUDNICKI, co-founder and Scientific Director.
I started out as a mechanical electronics designer. I then went on to study electronics at a university institute of technology, graduating as a DPE engineer. When I joined Cemagref, a research centre for agricultural equipment, in 1982, I immediately came into contact with a team of multi-disciplinary engineers: mechanics, hydraulic engineers, electronics engineers, computer scientists, agronomists, etc. We came up with a number of breakthrough solutions to meet the challenges of agriculture. We came up with a number of ground-breaking solutions to meet the challenges of automating agricultural tasks.
We were lucky enough to be pioneers in digital electronics, imaging, automation, robotics, mechatronics, etc. in the 80s and 2000s, a period when technological development was on an exponential curve. So I immediately started working with industrial partners to design innovative systems: electronic pruning shears. However, I was also confronted with the uses of users in the field (what is known today as UX-Design) and with industrial constraints as well as those inherent in the structuring of research and funding.
After a period developing solutions for robotics and work assistance tools for winegrowers, I worked on the application of phytosanitary treatments and mainly on quantifying the environmental impact. It was in this context that I developed NTIC tools (new information and communication technologies) to measure the conditions of application of the machines as well as the measurement of residues close to the plots and those further away.
This led to the creation of the PICORE traceability and assistance system for winegrowing, a tool to help winegrowers who didn’t have the means to do any better because the impact was so significant. For 5 years, as a scientific adviser to the UMT ECOTECHVITI (IFV-INRAE), I contributed to the development of measurement systems and the evaluation of treatment and measurement equipment by initiating LIDAR studies.
Je me suis également consacré à ma conviction que mesurer n’était pas suffisant : mon engagement de chercheur m’imposait de trouver une solution qui, non pas atténuait les impacts, mais les supprimait à la source, la conception même du système de pulvérisation ! Ainsi, dès 2014 je proposais une collaboration au VINITECH pour développer un robot de traitement confinant totalement la pulvérisation. Face à une demande pressante des viticulteurs, j’ai étudié le développement d'une solution qui réponde aux enjeux sociétaux de réduction des impacts environnementaux et des quantités de produits.
Ever since I was a kid, I’ve been building models and then tinkering with my motorbikes and cars, and designing lots of things for my hobbies and for friends.
In those pioneering days, mechanical and electronic design opened up the realms of possibility and utopia to me. The passion to imagine is in my genes, night and day.
This week is an opportunity to showcase the work of researchers. The solutions we discover, even the most abstract ones, can lead to concrete results in areas we never thought of before. Hence the usefulness of publications and bibliographic monitoring!
« There’s no point in knowing if you don’t let people know. »
My role today within Bliss Ecospray is to pass on my experience, my knowledge and all the ideas that I wasn’t able to implement. Finally, I hope to have many more years ahead of me to take Bliss Ecospray to its peak and make it a benchmark.
I experienced this inter-age collaboration throughout the rest of my career with PhD students, but also as a teacher at the faculty and at the CNAM. What a satisfaction it was to be approached by former students who remembered your unusual lectures: the message had got through…
What motivates me today is being challenged in my certainties by the impertinence of young people, an impertinence that is usually respectful. It’s important, I’ve always respected my peers and fathers, I owe them everything. Today, I’m continuing with the young, successful Bliss Ecospray team, which is shaking me up and vice versa.
Ce que je refoule toujours à l’énonciation d’une idée, c’est le « oui, mais ! » toujours porteur de négativisme. Voici une liste des “must-do” si vous souhaitez devenir ingénieur :
