École Polytechnique and Docaposte join forces to better guide young people Toward Science

At the Educatech trade show, École Polytechnique and Docaposte, through its subsidiary Index Education, publisher of PRONOTE, announce the launch of "OrienteXpress," a research project aimed at improving the guidance of young people toward scientific fields. The goal is to develop a tool capable of providing personalized career advice to students, based on the analysis of anonymized school data using artificial intelligence, within an ethical and secure framework. The first results from this three-year partnership are expected by 2027.
 

In France, girls make up 56% of general baccalaureate graduates, but only 30% of those who choose the "expert mathematics" option. Students in rural areas and scholarship recipients also face difficulties accessing these fields. In response to this situation, École Polytechnique and Index Éducation, a Docaposte subsidiary and publisher of PRONOTE, have decided to collaborate on a research project to identify the sources of these orientation biases and test concrete solutions to improve youth guidance.

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

Data protection is an absolute priority for this project. All protection rules will be strictly followed, in accordance with GDPR, the AI Act, and CNIL recommendations. Information will be stored on an ultra-secure platform specifically developed for the project and hosted on Index Éducation's secure infrastructure, certified SecNumCloud.

This three-year research partnership, supported by École Polytechnique Foundation, plans to conduct its first experiments within an academy by 2027. The research will be led by Professor Guillaume Hollard, a member of the Center for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST), a joint laboratory of École Polytechnique, ENSAE, and CNRS, along with his team.

"This joint project reflects our commitment to leveraging technology and research for equal opportunity and the public good. By harnessing the power of digital tools to support each student in building their academic path, we are helping to create a more inclusive and future-oriented school." — Fabien Ferrazza, CEO of Index Education, a Docaposte subsidiary.

"Orientation toward scientific fields should no longer be a matter of social background or gender. With OrienteXpress, Index Education and École Polytechnique are opening a new field of research and experimentation to enable everyone to build their future in science. This mission aligns fully with École Polytechnique's commitment to excellence and the public good." — Laura Chaubard, Director General of École Polytechnique.