Sino-French Excellence Forum | Joseph ZARKA & David BASSIR - SJTU Paris Elite Institute of Technology（SPEIT）

Sino-French Excellence Forum | Joseph ZARKA & David BASSIR

05.02/2026 177

On April 29, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Paris Elite Institute of Technology successfully held the 8th session of the Sino-French Excellence Forum themed Advanced Intelligent Design of Complex Systems. The event invited two renowned French experts in the fields of mechanical engineering, material design and structural health monitoring: Professor Joseph ZARKA and Professor David BASSIR.

At the opening of the event, French Dean Zied MOUMNI delivered an opening speech. He extended a warm welcome to the two professors and pointed out that against the backdrop of digital transformation and intelligent manufacturing, understanding and integrating cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and digital twins is essential for cultivating future engineers.

Subsequently, centering on the collaborative innovation approach of "knowledge guidance + data-driven", the two professors delivered a cutting-edge and in-depth academic lecture to more than one hundred teachers and students of the institute. They elaborated on how to integrate frontier technologies including artificial intelligence, machine learning and digital twins to realize intelligent design and optimal control of complex engineering systems.

Joseph ZARKA: Knowledge plus Machine Learning to Break Uncertainties in Complex System Design

Addressing the bottlenecks of high cost and uncertainty of modern engineering in material constitutive relations, fatigue fracture and complex load prediction, Professor Joseph ZARKA pioneered a general methodology of Advanced Intelligent Design. The core of this method lies in the deep integration of expert domain knowledge and machine learning. By constructing intelligent descriptors and decision rules, it realizes multi-objective and full-parameter inverse design optimization with only a small number of samples under extremely complex working conditions such as woven composite materials, leading industrial design into a new era of cross-performance virtual design.

David BASSIR: Digital Twin plus AI Driving Intelligent Manufacturing and Structural Health Monitoring

Professor David BASSIR conducted an in-depth discussion on the design revolution driven by digital twins. As a dynamic virtual mapping of physical entities, digital twins provide strong support for prediction and decision-making by integrating real-time sensing, multi-scale models and historical data. Faced with the mathematical and technical challenges of traditional optimal design, he proposed the in-depth integration of artificial intelligence, data science and digital twins. By learning the inherent laws among "process–structure–performance", it achieves automatic diagnosis and extreme exploration of the design space. In the field of additive manufacturing (3D printing), this method accurately predicts key parameters such as printing orientation and temperature field, and successfully realizes cross-dimensional optimal design driven by material reliability.

Interactive Session

During the interactive session, students asked questions enthusiastically. One student consulted Professor Joseph ZARKA about the confusion in interdisciplinary research: Many of us are interested in interdisciplinary research, but we are afraid of being proficient in neither discipline. Do you have any advice?

Combining his experience across mechanics, medical treatment, finance and other fields, Professor Joseph ZARKA shared the secrets of interdisciplinary innovation with students. He emphasized that the core lies not in being proficient in everything, but in building a T-shaped knowledge structure: delving deeply into one major discipline while mastering the thinking "language" of related disciplines. He pointed out that real breakthroughs are often born from collisions at disciplinary boundaries, and collaboration capability is far more crucial than being omnipotent alone.

Afterwards, Professor Zied MOUMNI had an in-depth dialogue with the two professors on uncertainty quantification in complex system design. The atmosphere was lively, presenting teachers and students with a feast of interdisciplinary thinking.

Conclusion

At the end of the event, French Dean Zied MOUMNI presented customized portrait cartoons to the two professors, and the whole lecture concluded in a warm atmosphere.

This event is not only a technical seminar, but also an ideological collision of engineering science and educational innovation. Against the backdrop of rapid development in the global engineering field, such in-depth Sino-French academic exchanges not only provide valuable perspectives for technological evolution, but also offer profound inspiration for exploring the training model of future engineers.

About Sino-French Excellence Forum

The Sino-French Excellence Forum is a flagship event founded by Shanghai Jiao Tong University Paris Elite Institute of Technology. Adhering to the tenet of broadening horizons, enlightening thinking and cultivating interests, it invites academic masters with study experience in France, senior executives of top enterprises, technical experts and other industry elites to share their growth paths and industry prospects. It helps students broaden their international vision, plan future development and understand the beauty of cultural integration between China and foreign countries.