École Polytechnique teams up with Pronote to steer talented students toward science using AI

École Polytechnique and Index Éducation, a subsidiary of Docaposte and publisher of PRONOTE, have decided to join forces in a research project called OrienteXpress to identify the source of career guidance biases and test concrete solutions to improve career guidance for young people, particularly in scientific fields.

PRONOTE, a software program for managing teachers' grades and assessments, is used in more than 10,000 middle and high schools.

"Choosing a career in science should no longer be a question of social background or gender. With OrienteXpress, Index Éducation and École Polytechnique are opening up a new field of research and experimentation to enable everyone to build their future in science. This mission is fully in line with École Polytechnique's commitment to excellence and the public interest," said Laura Chaubard, Executive Director of École Polytechnique. 

In France, girls represent 56% of high school graduates in the general stream, but only 30% of those who choose the “advanced math” option. Students in rural areas and scholarship recipients also encounter difficulties in accessing these programs.

The project, supported by the École Polytechnique Foundation, will use artificial intelligence to analyze anonymized school data from PRONOTE, such as grades, absences, and the options chosen by students. This analysis will take place in a secure and sovereign environment and will be supplemented by questionnaires completed by volunteer students. PRONOTE data will only be used with the consent of school principals and in full compliance with student privacy. 

The goal is to develop a tool capable of providing personalized guidance to students, based on the analysis of anonymized school data by artificial intelligence, within an ethical and secure framework.

Data protection is a top priority for this project. All protection rules will be complied with, in accordance with the GDPR, the AI Act, and the recommendations of the CNIL. The information will be stored on a highly secure platform developed specifically for the project and installed on Index Education's secure infrastructure, which is SecNumCloud certified. 

This research partnership, signed for an initial period of three years, plans to conduct its first experiments on an academic scale by 2027. The research will be led by Professor Guillaume Hollard, a member of the Centre de Recherche en Économie Statistique (CREST), a joint X-ENSAE-CNRS laboratory, and his team.

“This joint project reflects our desire to put technology and research at the service of equal opportunities and the public interest. By harnessing the power of digital technology to support each student in building their own path, we are helping to build a more inclusive and forward-looking school system,” said Fabien Ferrazza, CEO of Index Education, a subsidiary of Docaposte.

The project is part of ongoing efforts to promote diversity and inclusion led by École Polytechnique's Diversity and Success Division, which also receives support from the École Polytechnique Foundation.