The VINCI Research Day meeting focused on the challenge of data

Data utilisation in VINCI projects

During the morning session, VINCI business lines presented several emblematic VINCI projects to illustrate the Group's ability to collect and utilise data to improve services and infrastructure.

Smartvia: the connected road (Eurovia)

Smartvia, presented by Ivan Drouadaine, is the 5th generation smart road developed by Eurovia. Smartvia is equipped with sensors to provide information on its condition in real time and over time. It is a valuable tool for checking assumptions in real time and selecting innovative materials.

The collaborative platform used in the construction of the Louis Vuitton Foundation building

Eric Taillardat explained how this tool made it possible to aggregate disparate structural data to enable engineers from the various entities to work together on the extremely complex project. The Structural Design and Engineering department (DCES) at VINCI Construction Grands Projets developed the platform, which won a Management prize in the VINCI 2013 Innovation Awards Competition. All structural data for the Foundation were aggregated in a language independent of any engineering and design software tool, in a process developed by the DCES to ensure that engineers unfamiliar with the project can use the engineering software tools available in future to easily and rapidly look at all or part of the global model. The aggregation process created no fewer than 76,000 files and 200 GB of data to describe all project structures, loads and results. A patent was filed for it with INPI in September 2014.

Imtech ICT (VINCI Energies) solutions

VINCI acquired the information and communication technologies division of Dutch group Imtech in 2014. Managing Director Mike Bauwens presented Big Data challenges and goals based on the "5 Vs":
- "Volume" (defining the scale of data);
- "Velocity" (analysing data flow);
- "Variety" (describing and expanding the types of data);
- "Veracity" (checking data authenticity);
- and "Value" (assessing the value of data utilisation based on concrete case studies).

The VINCI Autoroutes Hackathon

Simon Coutel, Innovation & Digital Services Manager at VINCI Autoroutes, presented the purpose of the VINCI Autoroutes Lab: to design and test new transport and mobility services. He presented a variety of initiatives implemented in 2014, including the Citégreen programme to encourage staggered travel times, and a 360-degree panorama of motorway rest and service areas. The VINCI Autoroute 2014 hackathon was also a focus of the discussions. Held in May 2014, the hackathon involved 50 participants, who innovated for 48 hours by thinking up new mobility services based on data from VINCI Autoroutes, the Bordeaux Urban Community and BlablaCar. At the conclusion of the hackathon, a sustainable mobility coach was made available to the inhabitants of Bordeaux. You can access "Hello ma ville" via your smartphone.

The afternoon discussion focused on collective intelligence.
Five start-ups working on issues relating to data and to VINCI's business activities presented their work. Workshops were organised to enable Group employees to work with SenseCube Incubator teams to solve the challenges of the future in such areas as mobility, worksite 2.0 and environmental performance.
The start-ups were:
- CitéGreen: the "first eco-rewards programme"
- Koolicar: car rental among individuals without exchanging keys
- Syrthea: external insulation solution for clean worksites
- Trinov: innovative software and services that optimise and track spending and revenue relating to waste
- Albedo (Coturnix): solution for managing building energy efficiency in real time.