Florian Allard, partner and technical director of Sélection-EnR

“University opened up a fascinating path for me in research.”

The tables turn. In 2020, the former 32-year-old PhD student of the UPPA, created a start-up in the renewable energy sector. It’s his turn now to recruit students on internships and professional contracts. 

What made you join the UPPA’s Electrical and Industrial engineering course? 

After a Baccalaureate (A-levels) in science, specialised in engineering sciences, at the Jean Dupuy college in Tarbes, the only thing I was sure of was that I was more a scientist than a literary person. From there, I looked into the university degrees nearby and my first instinct was to join the Electrical engineering and industrial computing DUT in Tarbes. A few months before the end of this course, a professor from the UPPA came to tell us about the Bachelor’s degree and Master’s 1 and 2 in Electrical and Industrial engineering. Again, without really knowing what profession I would turn to later on, I made the choice to study what I liked: programming, high power, automation, etc. At the start of the school year 2010, I was on the UPPA campus in Pau! 

Is your career linked to your university training? 

Yes, it is! After my Bachelor’s degree, I did an M1 and was lucky enough get a six-month internship with ABB France (Bagnères-de-Bigorre) where I discovered the realm of the electrical testing lab. The following year, the same company asked me whether I wanted to do an M2 as part of a professional contract, in the same laboratory but this time with an R&D focus, which determined the rest of my curriculum. I continued with a thesis supervised by the SIAME, the laboratory of applied sciences in mechanics and electrical engineering of the UPPA and the French Directorate General of Armaments. My work focused on high pulsed power and its applications (industrial, medical, etc.). At the end of my thesis, I started thinking about creating my own company, but I didn't have much experience. A consulting firm recruited me as a business manager for the Cahors group and its subsidiary Pommier, again in Bagnères-de-Bigorre. Six months later, the company offered me a job as study engineer for complex cases. I worked on medium voltage networks (20,000 volts) and alongside that, I developed surveillance systems for remote sites producing renewable energies (wind and solar). In 2021, the company was bought out; the Cahors group got rid of its automation for renewables activity. Two former colleagues and I benefited from a technological spin-off and a licence to use and perfect software that had been developed under my supervision for three years. From there, we created Sélection-EnR, a company that works on interconnecting automation to supervise renewable energy production (wind, solar, bioenergies, hydraulic). 

What did those years in the lecture halls at the UPPA bring you? 

A full profile: electrical knowledge at the start of my course, project management in M1 and M2 and research in PhD. 

A couple of words that you spontaneously associate with the UPPA? 

Knowledge, encounters, human relations

Some advice for new arrivals at the UPPA? 

Choose a subject you love, really explore one sector. The main thing is to find your place! 

→www.selection-enr.com

Photo legend 

From left to right 

• Stéphane Lefebvre (Automation engineer)
• Fabien Escolano (Deputy Director Service & Operation)
• Christophe Aubigny (President & CEO - Director Trade & Marketing)
• Florian Allard (Partner - Technical Director)
• Clément Metois (Student in Network Computing and Cybersecurity at the ESTIAM)
• Romain Laffargue (Student in automation at the ESTIA)
• Yassine Dirhoussi (Student in electrical engineering and industrial computing at the UPPA)
• Hana Chougrani (Student in electrical engineering and industrial computing at the UPPA).