Claude Núñez has been appointed Director of the Powertrains and Sustainable Mobility Center at IFP School and will take up his post on 1 June, replacing Pascal Longuemare, who took over as Dean of the School in September 2023.
Claude Núñez, 51, holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering and Fluid Mechanics from Simón Bolivar University in Caracas (Venezuela). He is also a graduate of the Internal Combustion Engines program (class of 1998), the forerunner of IFP School's Energy and Powertrains program.
1. Could you tell us about your career?
I started my career as a Development Engineer with Peugeot Citroën (PSA) at the La Garenne-Colombes R&D center in 1999, working on diesel engines. For ten years, I held technical positions in the expertise department (combustion modelling and simulation, control command, post-processing, supercharging, etc.). I then became Systems Design Manager, managing a team of around thirty engineers and technicians with the aim of developing thermal and hybrid powertrains to meet specific specifications in different parts of the world.
In 2007, I moved to Argentina to take up the position of Head of Diesel Engines South America at PSA. My job was to develop the first "low-cost" engine project outside Europe for PSA to meet the needs of emerging countries. It was a very rewarding experience, because I had to recruit, train and manage around forty young engineers and technicians who weren't powertrain specialists, and get them up and running in less than six months. From this experience grew my passion for training.
Back in France in 2012, I decided to try my hand at entrepreneurship. I created my first start-up, Startup BLVD, in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): a due diligence platform. The scope of activities covered all the technical, legal and financial checks for an investor or acquirer prior to a transaction (acquisition, investment, participation in a fund-raising, etc.) in order to assess the level of risk and aim to bring about lasting partnerships.
Then I set up a second start-up, Autonect, which designed automotive diagnostics software for service companies with vehicle fleets.
In 2013, I joined IFP Training as a trainer. Three years later, I was appointed Director of the Powertrains & Sustainable Mobility Business Line. After 10 years with IFP Training, when the opportunity arose to return to my alma mater, I didn't hesitate for long before joining the School!
2. What are your ambitions for the Powertrains and Sustainable Mobility Center?
The ambitions that I have for the center are based around four areas and will require major efforts:
- Firstly, adapting our programs to meet the new needs of industry and the societal challenges of tomorrow;
- Secondly, making our business sector and our School in particular more attractive to young talent; and increasing the employability of our students;
- Thirdly, training innovation as a means of enhancing the attractiveness and, above all, the effectiveness of our teaching;
- and strong internationalization of our programs.
Here are some of my main aspirations in more detail:
- Adapting our programs to enhance the employability of our students: our role is to support the transformation of our industry and train the next generation of leaders and experts in the field of mobility.
This statement may seem obvious at first glance, but it's not really. The world of transport, and the automotive sector in particular, has been undergoing unprecedented technological and organizational change since 2018. The major issues and challenges facing the automotive sector are of different kinds:
- The first objective is environmental, societal and extremely ambitious to be deployed on a large scale; it aims for carbon neutrality (Carbon Net Zero)
- The implementation of services around the connected and autonomous electric vehicle (Autonomous Connectivity Electrification Services, ACES)
- Affordability for users in a context of declining purchasing power
- The criticality of raw materials (especially batteries and electronic components)
- Increased competition, particularly from Asia
- The transformation of technologies and therefore of skills.
This environmental and societal situation accelerated the decisions of governments, which imposed highly restrictive regulations associated with technological solutions to be adopted within a very short timeframe! Manufacturers had to be nimble, because their survival depended on it. Only the best will make it through this revolution, thanks to financial support from governments, joint ventures and takeovers, and the hard work of their workforce.... A metamorphosis in the world of transport that requires us to react quickly and adapt to change. This revolution is already here, and industry players need talent with versatile skills capable of adapting to a fast-changing international environment. We need to support them in this transition through high-quality training programs that give our students a systems and global vision of GMP, as well as the ability to understand complex systems and innovate. This must be reflected in the strong directions and developments in our programs, the integration of emerging technologies and the areas of expertise that Europe needs to develop to become competitive again (design and industrialization of power electronics, design and industrialization of cells, modules and battery packs, functional safety (FuSa) and cybersecurity applied to power electronics, machine and electronic control).
- The attractiveness of technical and technological fields around transport, and of our School in particular, for young people:
It has to be said that young people's interest in technology is waning, for a variety of reasons.
The transition to the electric vehicle has encouraged the creation or development of a very large number of manufacturers, as well as training courses in this sector. In this new ecosystem, the visibility and therefore the attractiveness of our programs are key factors on which we must continue to work relentlessly.
But this technological, societal and environmental metamorphosis of the transport sector is an opportunity for a school like ours. It is an opportunity for us to continue to develop the content of our programs so that they continue to be perceived by our young talent and by the industry as an essential asset for starting a career in these new professions. This attractiveness does not depend solely on the academic world, but we can contribute to it:
- By offering highly operational programs discussed and validated with the 'master experts' in industry, enabling us to significantly increase the employability of our students.
- Through academic excellence, to ensure that IFP School degrees remain an invaluable asset for recruitment.
- Educational innovation as a vector for attractiveness but above all for the effectiveness of our teaching
In this area, we are fortunate to be able to rely on the skills of the Lab e·nov™ teams and the passion and curiosity of our internal and external lecturers. Our "learning by doing" teaching approach through our modelling and simulation tutorials, our practical work in our electrical engineering laboratory or in the virtual reality space, and our common "overarching projects" throughout the course, enable us to offer innovative and exciting courses. Digital technology is part of the way our young people communicate, work and learn, and we must continue to develop these practices. The use of artificial intelligence in teaching is still in its infancy, and we have the internal resources to use this powerful tool to make our training more effective and attractive.
- The internationalization of our programs:
Our long-standing customers have become multinationals, with head offices and decision-makers often located outside France or even Europe. The distribution of design and industrialization activities, and of the workforce, is changing as a result. To give a concrete example, a sector such as batteries is a European and global ecosystem, where all the players suffer from a lack of skills. We therefore need to be able to train young engineers remotely, in English, if we want to respond to this need.
Our programs will have to evolve to become more digitized, so that geographical constraints are no longer perceived as an obstacle.
We also need to work on creating partnerships with major international academic and industrial players, to give our programs greater international visibility.
3. What are the major projects for 2024 (or the future) for the center?
In 2024/2025, I would like the team to focus on two projects that will shape the future of our center:
- Firstly, the development of our Powertrain Engineering program, which could be refocused on the design of 100% electric GMPs. This will enable us to respond to the restructuring of the two ecosystems we currently have on the market:
- The car industry in Europe will be 100% electric by 2035, and this means in concrete terms that resources and projects in France and Europe today are already fully geared towards this goal. The Powertrain Engineering program will therefore meet this industrial need for skills development.
- However, there are, and will continue to be for many years to come, markets and products that will use thermal or hybrid powertrains (F1-Formula 1, the military, the maritime sector, off-road vehicles, agricultural machinery, etc.). The Energy and Powertrains program will therefore continue to meet this need. In addition, the internal combustion vehicle still has many years to live outside Europe, and our long-standing customers have, and will continue to have for a long time to come, a need for skills in internal combustion engines to develop these markets on a global scale. The Energy and Powertrains program is therefore also the program of excellence to support them in this geographical transformation.
- The car industry in Europe will be 100% electric by 2035, and this means in concrete terms that resources and projects in France and Europe today are already fully geared towards this goal. The Powertrain Engineering program will therefore meet this industrial need for skills development.
- The development of a new program, an Advanced-Master program (Mastère spécialisé®) on Expert Batteries. The battery sector is already an industrial reality and is set to grow exponentially over the next 5 to 10 years. Production capacity in Europe is set to rise from 70 to 1400 gigawatts between 2021 and 2030! There is going to be a huge need for talent in this sector, and it is one of the major concerns of industry. IFP School has the capacity, skills and credibility to position itself as a leading player in this sector, with a program that has an international vocation. But the industry is already in the process of positioning itself with existing European academic players, and our major challenge will once again be not only our ability to move fast while offering a unique program at a very high academic level, but also our ability to create partnerships with new players (gigafactories such as ACC, Verkor, Envision or Prologium).
The ball is in our court!
Interview conducted by Meyling Siu