A new Chief Technical and Innovation Officer for SYSTRA

Nicolas Massart, 40, previously held the position of Operations Director and then Regional Director of the Africa and Southern Europe Region. Since 2019, he has been director of the technical project management assistance for lines 15 West and 15 East of the Grand Paris Express on behalf of the Société du Grand Paris. He was also the project manager for the Group’s capital increase in 2019.
Nicolas joined SYSTRA in 2011, after working for Areva and then the French Ministry of Industry. He is a graduate of the leading French engineering schools the ‘Ecole Polytechnique’, ‘Corps des Ponts & Chaussées’ and ‘Collège des Ingénieurs’.

Innovation at SYSTRA: imagining and designing the mobility of tomorrow

The latest technological developments have revolutionised the world of mobility, with the emergence of new modes of transport, new uses, and new players.

To imagine mobility solutions adapted to tomorrow’s world, we place the human experience at the centre of our design methods and aim for the lowest possible ecological impact. We have defined four priorities: Improve the performance and safety of transport systems, Strengthen social and territorial cohesion, Design and promote sustainable solutions for climate change, Benefit from digital transformation.

SYSTRA’s teams analyse the interest and feasibility of deploying new technologies in both traditional and new disruptive modes of transport in the light of these priorities.

We therefore work on such innovative projects as:

• High Speed 2 in the UK, a highspeed network where we aim to reduce the carbon footprint by 50% compared to its preliminary design;
• The autonomous transport safety programme (TAS) with SNCF, Alstom, and the technology research institute SystemX on an autonomous train prototype;
• A data hypervisor project for Greater Lyon to facilitate the understanding and operation of its transport network;
• The analysis of the socioeconomic aspects of disruptive transport systems such as Hyperloop;
• The ASV research project on the autonomous vehicle in Singapore.

We are also developing new services, notably around:

• Digital Asset Management to optimise preventive and predictive maintenance solutions;
• Cybersecurity to strengthen the security of transport systems;
• Digital Twins to simulate, for example, CO2 emissions within metro infrastructures.

A dynamic and varied ecosystem

Because creativity is stimulated by exchange, SYSTRA is committed to an open innovation approach with universities, research centres and start-ups. We work with Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, SystemX, the University of Huddersfield in the UK and Virgin Hyperloop One.

Encouraging internal initiatives

SYSTRA has developed an intrapreneurship programme called SPARK which is open to all Group employees. Its aim is to identify and develop the most promising ideas, in line with the Group’s innovation strategy. The programme was launched in 2020 with the SPARK Challenge.