Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Site d'essais en mer de Centrale Nantes
on November 12, 2020
After studying science at high school, I did a degree in Marine Geosciences. The first semester in Biology is a common core curriculum with Animal / Plant Biology, Physics-Chemistry, Computer Science and Geology. In the second semester, I decided to specialise in Geology. Despite my passion for marine geosciences, I felt the need to follow a more concrete course that would allow me to focus on a profession. So I applied for the third year in Hydrography - Geoscience. It's a fairly recent course so not very well known. In the final year of the Geoscience degree, I therefore had training at the SHOM (Service Hydrographique et Océanographique de la Marine) school in partnership with the University of Western Brittany in Brest. This course confers both a category B certificate of Hydrographic Technician recognised by the IHO (International Hydrographic Organization) and a Bachelor's degree in Geosciences. I loved this course because it was very applied and allowed me to meet very interesting people, both in the civilian and military world. After my degree, I joined ENSTA Bretagne where I studied engineering specialising in hydrography and oceanography.
No, I didn't know anything about SEM-REV before applying. As my internship was supposed to be carried out abroad, I initially focused my search on the international market.
I found out about the vacancy via the ALUMNI network, which proved to be invaluable during the coronavirus pandemic.
My main task was to process the bathymetric data acquired along the submarine cable and at the SEM-REV site. The second objective was to determine the hydro-morpho-sedimentary dynamics around the cable in order to understand the processes that can cause the depth at which the cable settles to vary. Finally, I was available to provide support to the oceanographic technicians if an offshore mission came up.
This internship allowed me to discover the dynamics of working in a research centre. Then it gave me a real introduction to the world of MRE, a field that I thought was rather closed or difficult to access. I was able to understand the different issues related to the implementation and maintenance of MRE technologies in real conditions.
The second year internship at ENSTA Bretagne is supposed to take place abroad. As for many students, mine was cancelled during lockdown. It was quite difficult to find another internship, especially in hydrography, a field that is supervised by the French Navy. Thanks to the ALUMNI network I found out about the internship vacancy at SEM-REV. The first part of the internship took place remotely, which meant that I got to fully immerse myself in the topic on my own, however, I was quickly caught out by the lack of computer resources. As the data processing software requires a lot of capacity, I stalled quite quickly. Once I got on site, it was much simpler.
I really liked the atmosphere in the team, I think it's an important aspect when you work in an open space on related issues. Having a weekly team meeting with the other part of the team based in Nantes was very rewarding. Each member of the team had a particular area of expertise and it allowed me to see SEM-REV from different perspectives. I think that internships are also intended for that. The topic of the internship also appealed to me a lot, being on the study site allows you to make a direct link between what you are studying and the reality in the field. The problem was concrete.
I missed the "field" side a bit, I realise that the engineer's role was not to acquire the measurements but, above all to process and develop them. I missed this aspect of carrying out the complete chain from the acquisition to the development of data.
Thanks to this internship I now want to combine the fields of geology and hydrography in my future projects. I would like to carry out my final year internship on hydro-sedimentary modelling.
