A new chair for trustworthy AI in critical industrial systems
On March 31, 2026, ALTEN, a world leader in IT engineering and services, and CentraleSupélec announced the creation of a research and teaching chair entitled " Trusted multi-agent systems for critical industries ».
The objective of this new chair is to design the scientific, technological and methodological foundations enabling the development of distributed, robust and explainable systems, based on multi-agent architectures capable of operating autonomously and in a coordinated manner in sectors where safety and reliability are essential: energy, transport, industrial production and defense.
Initially established for three years and supported by the CentraleSupélec Foundation, the chair will be headed by Wassila Ouerdane, professor of computer science at CentraleSupélec and member of the MICS laboratory. A first scientific launch conference is planned for autumn 2026.
Above: Frédéric Pascal, Professor at CentraleSupélec, Director of the DataIA Institute and Vice-President for AI at the University of Paris-Saclay, Jean-Edmond Coutris, Strategy & Transformation Officer, Yann Rougemont, Director of Innovation at ALTEN, Wassila Ouerdane, Professor of Computer Science at CentraleSupélec and member of the MICS laboratory and Paul-Henry Cournède, Director of Research at CentraleSupélec.
The rise of multi-agent systems in modern industry at the crossroads of scientific challenges
This collaboration strengthens an already solid partnership between ALTEN and CentraleSupélec, which for nearly five years has included collaborations in training within the engineering curriculum and research in the form of doctoral theses. It will create a continuum of training, research, and innovation, while contributing to the strategic challenges of technological sovereignty and the robustness of French critical systems.
According to Yann Rougemont, Director of Innovation at ALTEN: This chair makes it possible to offer manufacturers multi-agent systems capable of explaining their decisions, detecting their errors and collaborating safely in complex environments such as factories, energy networks or fleets of autonomous vehicles. »
For his part, Paul-Henry Cournède, Director of Research at CentraleSupélec, adds: The chair established with ALTEN is the school's eighth chair in artificial intelligence. It reinforces our status as a leading institution in France for AI training and research within the unique ecosystem of Université Paris-Saclay. Focusing on a particularly strategic topic—trustworthy AI—it demonstrates the quality and added value of our research teams in helping French companies and industries meet the challenges of reliability and robustness in deployed infrastructures and systems. Autonomous multi-agent systems raise new scientific questions that traditional explainability and verification approaches cannot answer. This chair provides us with the resources to work on these fundamental questions, drawing on real-world industrial data and constraints. This is precisely what the scientific community needs to generate impactful results. »
Scientific advances serving major industrial challenges
Aimed at developing artificial intelligence that is responsible, robust, and serves major industrial challenges, and contributing to the design of more reliable and controlled critical systems, this new chair actively participates in strengthening French and European technological sovereignty. Through this initiative, CentraleSupélec and ALTEN affirm their shared ambition: to train, innovate, and produce cutting-edge knowledge to sustainably support the transformation of strategic industries.
More: see the press release
