Inventing tomorrow - Fête de la science 2025
Inventing tomorrow...
Laboratory tours, demonstrations, stands, prototype exhibitions, construction workshops... Through two dozen activities for all ages, the school's researchers take you on a journey of discovery of their latest innovations. Immerge yourself in research, come and test, observe and play with science!
Fabricating energy with plants, transmitting information through light, exploring the infinitely small, unraveling the mysteries of the cosmos, playing with math... So many fields and so much more to discover alongside our scientists and student engineers.
Prepare your visit
Centrale Lyon welcomes you to its Écully campus on Saturday, October 4, 2025
- Address and times: 36 av. Guy de Collongue, Écully | from 10am to 6pm
- Registrations : on site | free event, from 5 years old
Parking: visitor parking accessible via the Centrale Lyon reception lodge. Please note: space is limited, so car pooling and public transport are recommended
- Bus: lines C6, 03 and 55, stop Campus Lyon Ouest
- Pack your picnic! Green spaces and plenty of tables available
Programming
Laboratory tours
Registrations on site on the day of the event at the info point.
How does a plume of pollutants spread through the city? How can air resistance be controlled to improve sports performance?... The atmospheric wind tunnel at the Fluid Mechanics and Acoustics Laboratory is used to study urban ventilation and predict particle dispersion in the lower layers of the atmosphere. Thanks to a visit-demonstration, come and discover some of its applications to sport, the city and renewable energies.
Experience the transition from a highly reverberant sound environment to a deaf room that plunges you into deafening silence. But... what for? Accompanied by LMFA researchers, discover the scope of acoustics research carried out in these spaces.
Why do fans, wind turbines, drones and airplanes make noise? Come and visit the large deaf chamber at LMFA's acoustics center, with its two subsonic and supersonic wind tunnels, and find out how researchers manage to reduce everyday noise pollution.
Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics and Acoustics (LMFA) | From 10 years
Modifying the structure of matter at micro or nano-metric scales (finer than a hair) enables us to change its physical and chemical properties and confer new functions. The Institut des Nanotechnologies de Lyon opens the doors of its clean room to you. Guided by PhD students from the laboratory, you'll discover this platform where scientists shape the technologies of tomorrow.
Institut des Nanotechnologies de Lyon (INL) | Ages 12 and up
Description coming soon
Laboratoire Ampère | Age 8
For some cancer patients, traditional treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery can prove ineffective or unsuitable. At the Ampère laboratory, scientists are exploring a new approach: using electrical signals to render tumor cells temporarily porous, thereby facilitating the penetration of chemotherapy molecules into cancer cells and effectively destroying them. This technique, known as electrochemotherapy, is proving promising for the treatment of deep-seated tumors such as those in the pancreas.
Laboratoire Ampère | Age 8
What if the energy of tomorrow could be found in our wastewater treatment plants? At the crossroads of physical chemistry and environmental engineering, a team at Centrale Lyon is looking to exploit the bacteria naturally present in wastewater. By recovering the electrons they release during the degradation of organic matter, these bacteria could power a circular electrical circuit. When waste becomes a source of energy: come and discover this energy revolution that is both sustainable and economical.
Laboratoire Ampère | From 8 years old
Speed control, distance control: most modern vehicles are now equipped with driver assistance systems. But how do they work? Using a fleet of miniature cars made from Lego bricks and fitted with sensors, come and model, test and understand how these devices work. On the road to autonomous driving!
Laboratoire Ampère | From 8 years
Have you always dreamed of using a 3D printer? Wondering how a laser cutter works? Come and visit Centrale Lyon's FabLab! Discover the world of prototyping and make your own Fête de la science souvenir object.
Centrale Lyon's FabLab | From 6 years old
Workshops
Registration on site on the day of the event at the info point.
Did you know that in its nanoparticle state, i.e. 1000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, gold is not bright yellow but pink? It can even take on all the colors of the rainbow... Why is this? And what is it used for? Using a laser, salt and sugar, come test and discover the amazing properties of gold in its "nano" state!
Green, yellow, blue... you thought you knew everything about colors? But did you know that they can have different origins, be added or subtracted... Come and unravel their mysteries! Break down food coloring, mix light beams, change the colors of certain objects... and maybe they'll even reveal themselves to you like no one else!
Institut des Nanotechnologies de Lyon (INL) | Ages 5 and up
Students and scientists from Centrale Lyon invite you to build your own water and pressurized air rocket, all in less than an hour and using everyday materials! Which will go highest and farthest? Watch out for lift-off!
Laboratoire de Mécanique des Fluides et d'Acoustique (LMFA) et Centrale Lyon Cosmos | Age 7
Stand village
Continuous and free access from 10am to 6pm
Messages decoded, music brought to light, bright colors tarnished, the invisible finally revealed.... light reveals its many unsuspected facets!
Imagine shaping matter on the scale of a speck of dust, assembling it like Lego bricks. You could then control its physical and chemical behavior: transparent, conductive, reflective or even luminous... all you have to do is choose! Alongside doctoral students from Lyon's Nanotechnology Institute, discover how current research at the micro or nanometer scale can give new properties to matter.
By doctoral students at the Institut des Nanotechnologies de Lyon (INL)
Get in on the math fun! The Institut Camille Jordan is offering five semi-autonomous math challenges. Come and experiment, ask questions, formulate conjectures, "test" them, prove them.
For young and old alike, immerse yourself in an interactive journey, accompanied by the mascot Nano, to discover the research being carried out in chemistry and nanobiotechnology at Lyon's Institute of Nanotechnology. You'll try to save lives by detecting infection markers in the blood, sorting cancer cells and trying to protect a dental implant from bacterial invasion!
By engineering students and the Institut des Nanotechnologies de Lyon (INL)
What's happening on the surface of the Sun and in the space between the planets? This is what the Solar Orbiter mission, led by the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with NASA and a team from Centrale Lyon, is seeking to understand. Orbiting the Sun, the Solar Orbiter probe is studying the phenomena that develop in the outermost layers of our star and in interplanetary space. In February 2025, the mission even made it possible to observe the Sun's poles: a first in history! Join LMFA researchers on a journey as close as possible to the Sun.
By Laboratoire de Mécanique des Fluides et d'Acoustique (LMFA
Plants, animals, micro-organisms... the living world is an infinite source of inspiration. By observing and mimicking nature, the LTDS teams have succeeded in developing anti-icing and anti-bacterial surfaces, without any chemical treatment. Get ready to experience super-hydrophobia!
By Laboratoire de Tribologie et Dynamique des Systèmes (LTDS)
France, the rising star of table tennis? What if science had something to do with it? In the run-up to the Paris 2024 Olympics, for months researchers at Centrale Lyon accompanied the French team in their quest for performance. The result: a tool that combines video and AI to improve tactical analysis of matches. Racket in hand, come and test the device and analyze your own game!
By the Laboratoire d'InfoRmatique en Image et Systèmes d'Informations (LIRIS)
Come and discover, alongside our students passionate about astronomy and aerospace, the secrets of rocket construction and the mysteries of the Cosmos. Weather permitting, you'll even be able to observe the surface of the Sun thanks to specially adapted and secure instrumentation.
By Centrale Lyon Cosmos
A smart garbage can that makes sorting waste easier? That's the promise of FreyIA, a project by three Centrale Lyon engineering students. Their idea: an eco-friendly garbage can that automates selective sorting thanks to artificial intelligence. An innovative solution for effortlessly reducing carbon emissions. Come and get a sneak preview of their technological advances!
By student engineers
Design, build and fly a fixed-wing drone? Centrale Lyon's Master of Aeronautics students have taken up the challenge! In just a few months, this group of students developed, from A to Z, this small aircraft with a wingspan of 2m, capable of reaching peak speeds of 100 km/h. Come and discover their prototype, which they were lucky enough to present at the XtraChallenge: a university competition in aeronautical engineering.
By students of the master in aeronautics
Exhibition
Continuous and free access from 10am to 6pm
Engineering through practice
Our engineering students showcase their study projects!
A DIY mechanical mount to practice astrophotography like a pro? A seed library to exchange seeds and promote horticultural heritage? A Gallic 2.0 harvester to understand ancient techniques? Come and discover some of the promising and sometimes astonishing prototypes imagined and developed by our first-year engineering students.
These projects, carried out in teams and supervised by teachers, illustrate their first steps in modeling, design and project management. Through these prototypes, models and technical studies, discover the curiosity and ingenuity of our students: tomorrow's engineers.
Exhibition contents:
- PE #5: Safety cards
- PE #10AB: The grain library
- PE #22: Mount for wide-field astrophotography
- PE #25: Modular model of a lumbar spine fitted with disc prostheses
- PE #57: Gallic harvester 2.0
- PE n°1002: MINERVA engine program
