Keynote speaker

Professor Serge Bourbigot is a leading expert in fire science and polymer materials. After earning his PhD in 1993, he joined Centrale Lille Institut, where he became Full Professor in 2003. His internationally recognized research focuses on the reaction and resistance to fire of polymeric materials, with applications ranging from batteries and hydrogen fires to microgravity environments. He is the recipient of two prestigious European Research Council grants — an ERC Advanced Grant (FireBar‑Concept, 2.5M€) and an ERC Synergy Grant (FireSpace, 14M€) — reflecting the scientific impact of his work. Elected Fellow of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) in 2020 and renewed in 2025, he continues to advance knowledge in fire behavior, materials processing (formulation, spectroscopy, nanocomposites, reactive extrusion), and modeling (scale reduction, kinetics, pyrolysis).

Future human space exploration will rely on spacecraft, lunar bases, and Martian habitats operating under unconventional atmospheric conditions, notably reduced pressure and oxygen-enriched environments that can substantially increase the flammability of polymeric materials and accelerate flame spread. At the same time, reduced gravity profoundly alters heat and mass transfer, flame structure, radiative feedback, and smoke production, making terrestrial fire-safety criteria insufficient for predicting fire behaviour in space-like environments.

This presentation addresses these challenges through the integrated vision of the ERC SyG FireSpace project, which aims to establish a predictive understanding of ignition, flame spread, extinction, smoke release, and material degradation under combined oxygen-rich, low-pressure, and reduced-gravity conditions. The approach brings together ground-based oxygen-controlled fire testing, reduced-gravity experiments, advanced diagnostics, and multiscale numerical simulations in order to connect fundamental fire science with the operational needs of future exploration missions.

Valérie Brunet is Sales Director for France and Benelux at Style3D, a leading technology company at the intersection of 3D digitalization, artificial intelligence, and automation.

With over 20 years of experience across technology, textile, retail, and digital transformation, she supports major European brands and organizations in adopting new ways of designing, developing products, and transforming their operations through advanced digital technologies.

In her role, Valérie is increasingly involved in the convergence of AI, robotics, and Physical AI — a field in which China is rapidly emerging as a global innovation leader. From intelligent automation and simulation to AI-powered robotic systems capable of interacting with the physical world, these technologies are opening a new chapter in industrial transformation.

Within this fast-moving ecosystem, Style3D is expanding beyond traditional fashion digitalization to become an increasingly significant Chinese technology player in 3D, generative AI, simulation, and Physical AI, operating in an innovation landscape shaped by global technology leaders such as Google and Meta.

Valérie works at the intersection between these emerging technologies and their practical applications in Europe, helping companies understand how 3D environments, artificial intelligence, automation, and robotics can translate into more agile, efficient, and scalable business models.

Passionate about innovation and organizational transformation, she regularly engages with brands, technology partners, schools, and industry stakeholders to share her perspective on the acceleration of Chinese innovation, the rise of Physical AI, and the new technologies and skills that will shape the next generation of European industries.

The textile and fashion industries are entering a new phase of digital transformation driven by the rapid convergence of 3D technologies, Generative AI, robotics, and Physical AI. These technologies are no longer limited to improving design and visualization: they are progressively transforming the entire value chain, from product creation and simulation to manufacturing and automated production.

This presentation will introduce Style3D’s technology ecosystem and illustrate how 3D and Generative AI are already changing the way textile and fashion products are designed, developed, and brought to market. It will then explore the latest developments in robotics and Physical AI, where artificial intelligence moves beyond digital content generation to perceive, understand, and interact with the physical world.

Through recent technological developments and concrete industry applications, the presentation will examine how the convergence of 3D simulation, AI, and intelligent robotics could reshape textile manufacturing, accelerate automation, and redefine the skills and industrial processes of the future.

Julien Payen holds an engineering degree from ENSAIT (2005) and a PhD in polymer materials for filtration applications from the Université Polytechnique des Hauts-de-France (2009). He began his career in technical textiles and respiratory protective devices, including FFP2 and surgical masks, before serving as Project Director at the UP-tex competitiveness cluster, where he supported more than 70 innovative technical textile projects representing over €100 million in funding. In 2017, he co-founded Lattice Medical, a medtech company specializing in resorbable biopolymer materials and 3D printing for implantable medical devices for breast reconstruction, which has since raised over €50 millions. As CEO of Lattice Medical, Julien leads the company's strategy, business development, and its ongoing expansion into the US hospital and academic medical center market. He’s been awarded by EIC Accelerator in 2022, Galien Foundation in 2023 or MedtechInnovator in 2024.

Afflicting 1 woman in 8 in the world, breast cancer is the most common cancer for women. Cancer Treatment such as Mastectomy (650 000 per year in EU & US), Radiotherapy (70% of Breast Cancer patient) or Chemotherapy induce psychological impact like anxiety, depression and physical disorder like pain, fatigue, stress. Only 30% of these patients will benefit from breast reconstruction. For their reconstruction Women have the choice of silicone implant with high risk of collapse after 8 years and need of replacement every ten years or they have the choice of autologous surgeries with 4 to 8 hours of complex surgical procedure leading to back pain & loss of strength.

Lattice Medical has developed the MATTISSE implant, a bioabsorbable tissue engineered chamber, allowing :

• A natural reconstruction by regenerating autologous tissue harvested around the breast area
• A resorption after 12 months avoiding implant replacement
• A single surgery of one hour and half simpler and less invasive than standard autologous surgeries.

Once implanted, MATTISSE regenerates a small flap harvested locally in the breast area, during six months. Once regenerated, the implant disappear slowly in several months.

Afterall, patient recover a full breast with its own tissue, without long term implant without additional scars and sequelae on donor site.

One on hand, MATTISSE brings several benefits for patient such as quality of life with less impact on donor site scar reduction and less pain. Best aesthetics results thanks to autologous tissue regeneration without the need of changing implant instead of silicon devices. Finally, the overall cost per patient should be decreased thanks to surgeries savings.

On the other hand, MATTISSE brings benefits to surgeon, such as the simplification of flap surgery, decreasing time surgery by two hours. Full resorption of implant avoids long term risks and less complications. Finally thanks to less counter-indications by using MATTISSE, more patient will be eligible to breast reconstruction.

Diplomas

PhD in Biomechanical Engineering (Université de Haute Alsace, Mulhouse, FRANCE)

Master of Science (MS) in Material Science (Universite de Metz, FRANCE)

Master of Science (MS) in Mechanical Engineering (ENSAM ParisTech, Paris, FRANCE)

Positions

Full Professor at Université de Haute Alsace (Mulhouse/FRANCE)

(Head of the Textile Mechanics and Physics Research Laboratory)

Guest Professor: NCState University (US) / Université Laval (QUEBEC) / Donghua University (CHINA)

Scientific Council President & Senior Scientific Expert at GEPROMED (Strasbourg/FRANCE)

Research Fields

Textile Implants: Grafts, Stents, Stentgrafts, Heart valves, Hernia Meshes….

Over the last decades, polymers have been largely used to produce fibers for various applications, where both strength and flexibility are needed. These unique properties make polymeric fibrous materials outstanding candidates for the development of medical implants used to repair or replace soft tissues. Vascular and endovascular grafts obtained from knitted or woven textile are able to withstand the cardiac cyclic pressure loading applied to arteries. Moreover, recent research has considered textile as potential valve leaflet material. However, the interaction of these permanent bulky textiles with biological tissues can generate exaggerated fibrotic tissue encapsulation or calcification. The lack of deformability of these materials leads also to compliance mismatch and doesn’t allow the implant to grow with the patient in pediatric surgery. Latest advances in the field of tissue engineering have shown that textile bioresorbable scaffolds, obtained from melt-blown or electro-spun non-woven fibers, promote adequate tissue ingrowth in these highly porous constructions. The behavior of the finally regenerated implants is close to the one of native organs. The strength of non-woven scaffolds is however limited and doesn’t always allow to fulfill long term durability requirements. In that context, research strategies can be conducted towards the design of novel hybrid textiles, combining the advantages of permanent and bioresorbable materials, while mixing the use non woven and knitted or woven fabrics.