Eloïse Minder, winner of the 2023 Bourgogne-Franche-Comté National Pépite Grand Prize

A career marked by competitions

Eloïse Minder has always wanted to be an entrepreneur, ever since her first year of her MTI3D research-oriented master's degree. She has participated in several competitions, including Les Entrep' de Bourgogne and the Défi Chal'enge. The aim was to develop professional meetings in Virtual Reality, with avatars around a table for the first competition, and to create an Augmented Reality simulator for Framatome for the second.

She is also participating in the IEEE 3DUI Contest organized as part of the IEEE VR conference in April 2021. She and a fellow Master's student are being coached by Frédéric Mérienne and Jean-Remy Chardonnet to develop a rehabilitation aid tool for people affected by COVID. Their application, called "Rebirth-20," allows users equipped with immersive glasses to perform a series of exercises in a virtual world. These physical exercises (movements, breathing, and relaxation) are based on those used in fibrosis rehabilitation. Virtual Reality immerses the user in a bubble, a cocoon, where they can escape to the sounds of nature. The app is also a prevention tool, with a virtual guide helping users learn how to limit the spread of the virus. Invisible in the real world, it is modeled in the virtual world. 

Building on this momentum, she is now pursuing a second year of her master's degree at PEIT and PEPITE BFC.

During PEIT, I had many discussions with stakeholders and realized that I had focused my project on a very technical issue that didn't really suit me. I also understood that I needed to better understand how people can communicate naturally and fluidly in Virtual Reality. In fact, PEIT allowed me to refocus my project on a subject that really interests me.

Laval Virtual and the IVRC Award marked a turning point in his entrepreneurial project.

The turning point came when shepresented the "Rebirth-20" project at Laval Virtual. She won second prize in the "IVRC Award" student competition and then the honorary prize at the latest edition of the Interverse Virtual Reality Challenge (IVRC) in Japan. Interverse Virtual Reality Challenge (IVRC) in Japan. 

Following these two challenges and with her MTI3D Master's degree in hand, she is continuing her studies with a thesis at the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region, which offers the "Itinéraire Chercheur Entrepreneur" grant. She also participates in the PEPITE Bourgogne-Franche-Comté initiatives and launches the business creation project "OCTOPUS" business creation project. This project offers training and tools to support existing training programs through the use of Virtual and Augmented Reality, aimed at the healthcare sector and clean rooms.

At the same time, she wants to start a second business related to her thesis. She wants to use these three years of doctoral study to develop her project, which will be related to her thesis title at LISPEN: "Optimization of social interactions in Virtual Reality."

Watch the portrait of Eloïse Minder filmed in June 2023.