Diginext (DXT)

DIGINEXT's Simulation and Virtual Reality Division, created in 1995 from CS’ Imagery and Geomatics Department and spun off in January 2010, regroups today 60 PhDs and engineers specialised in interactive 3D. It is among the world’s top ranking expertise centre in the field with internationally acknowledged experts, and project results published in the most prestigious journals and conferences. This division coordinates the CHESS project and will specify, design and, in collaboration with end-user partners, develop the CHESS Framework and the Authoring Tool. In addition, DIGINEXT will be in charge of the commercial exploitation of the project outcomes at the end of the project.

DIGINEXT People

Dr Olivier Balet is the CTO of DIGINEXT. His main areas of expertise include virtual reality, virtual prototyping and virtual storytelling, 3D interaction, multi-modal computer-human interfaces, cooperative working, and physical simulation.

Prior to his current position, he has conducted research on 3D interaction and visualisation at the Toulouse III University. He received his diploma (M.S.) and Ph.D. in computer science (VR specialisation) from the Toulouse III University, France. He has been the author of several European funded projects (CAVALCADE, VISIONS, V-Man, V-Planet, VISTA, INSCAPE, CRIMSON, V-City,etc.).

He has been an active expert to both the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche and the European Commission for activities under FP5 KA3 and KA4 (Virtual Reality, Simulation, Multimedia and Collaborative Working Action lines), FP6 & FP7 (FET, Cultural Heritage & Technology Enhanced Learning, Distributed Audiovisual Systems). He has been VR assistant professor at both the Toulouse III University and the ENSICA high school, program committee member or reviewer for international conferences (Eurographics, ICVS, VRIS, Minitrack, TIDSE, etc.), and the author of more than 30 papers published in international journals and conference proceedings.

Monique Geyres is Project Manager assistant in DIGINEXT. Mrs Geyres received a Degree of Trilingual Director's Assistant: English and Spanish. She has been working at CS for more than 20 years in different areas such as human resources, accounting, sales, marketing. She has been working during 5 years as a coordinator assistant on the European ESPRIT projects. From 1999 to 2004, she was the assistant of the Regional General Director. She was involved in the management of the INSCAPE FP6 Integrated Project.

Thibaut Prados' field of expertise covers physics-based rendering, real-time rendering, programming on graphics processors and simulation. He studied computer graphics at Joseph Fourier University (Grenoble, France) and obtains his Master degree at the Claude Bernard University (Lyon, France) in 2003.

After a first professional experience at INRIA Grenoble, he was then working at OPTIS (software editor for physics based rendering in the industry) for 7 years, building and leading the Real-Time and Virtual Reality team. During this period, he managed the MARVEST national project on maritime simulator enhancement and managed technically the VIRTU'ART national project concerning physics based real-time raytracing in Virtual Reality environments. Now, he's working at DIGINEXT as a project technical manager.

Vincent Loppin is a 3D engineer at DIGINEXT's Simulation & Virtual Reality Division. He received his Engineering Degree from the UTBM in 2011.
He works in the RTD Department on Virtual Reality applications, in several fields such as Homeland Security, Navigation and Edutainment.

Formerly involved

Martine Julien is a senior engineer and the Head of the RTD department in the Simulation & Virtual Reality Division (SRV) of the DIGINEXT company. Her main fields of technical expertise include information and communication technology, software engineering, and control centres. Ms Julien received her Master of Science from the INSA institute in Toulouse, France. She is also graduated in Business and Administration, and received her MBA from the IAE Nancy, France, then her DBA from the University of Wales (UK).

She is in charge of the RTD activities, managing research and innovative projects for institutions and industry, and she is responsible of the contractual and financial aspects for the EC FP7 projects BESST, ESS, INDIGO, CHESS, DIVA, eVACUATE and 4D-CH World.

She is also an accredited expert to the European Commission and participated in the selection of projects and/or project reviews in FP6 and FP7 programs.

Dr Jesse Himmelstein's main areas of expertise include 3D simulation, collision detection, and motion planning. Born in the United States, he did in undergraduate work at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore before moving to France. He did his Masters at INSA Toulouse, followed by a PhD at the LAAS in robotics and motion planning in the context of industrial design and manufacturing. Before his current position, he has been working for a software editor where he was in charge of the research and development of algorithms to calculate swept volumes, simulate deformable objects, and allow inter-penetration between malformed geometry during motion planning.

Jérôme Duchon is a senior engineer and project director in the Simulation & Virtual Reality Division of the DIGINEXT Company. His main fields of expertise include simulation techniques and methods, software engineering, formal specification for multimedia applications and 3D simulation. Mr. Duchon received his Master of Science and his DEA in computer science from the Université de Toulouse III, France. He is in charge of the department federating middleware such as the ones aiming at processing and visualising large geographic databases, training through operation centre or high performance 3D rendering. He was project manager on several industrial projects for the European and French Space Agencies, Airbus, Peugeot Citroën, the French Atomic Authority, the French Defence, etc.Within European FP4, FP5 and FP6 he conducted successively the CAVALCADE, V-MAN and INSCAPE IP consortia and he is in charge of contractual aspects for V-CITY, INDIGO and CHESS FP7 projects.

Éric Boumaour graduated in 2000 from the prestigious École Polytechnique in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science majors. He also owns a Computer Science Engineering Degree from the ENSEEIHT high school in Toulouse. He has previously worked in the US on OpenGL driver programming for ATI, a leading graphics hardware manufacturer. His fields of interests include 3D and interactive visualization engines.