News

I Joined by Chance, but Won’t Be Leaving

  • Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT)
    13 septembre 2019
  • Catégorie
    Recherche

Tegawendé Bissyande took an unorthodox path to SnT before joining in 2013 to work on mobile security and automated program repair.

We sat down with the researcher from Burkina Faso to find out what brought him to Luxembourg and how he meets the challenge of working in both fundamental and applied research.

Why did you join SnT?

I actually joined SnT by chance! Just a month after my PhD defence I went to a conference in Germany where the Hotel had really bad Wi-Fi. I think I found the one place on my floor where I could connect to the internet, and someone sat down next to me to do the same thing. It turned out to be SnT’s Dr. Jacques Klein, who knew my work and asked if I would be interested in joining SnT. My wife was working in the North-East of France, and up until then the only opportunities in my specialist area that I found interesting were in the USA, so it was somewhat of a miracle to end up at SnT doing what I loved.

What was your most memorable moment at SnT?

My most memorable moment was when I got promoted to a permanent position in 2016. Tenure wasn’t even on the horizon for me when I joined SnT, so it was twice as memorable.

What is special about working here?

At SnT there is always creative tension between your research career and your applied work. Often, when you work with industry partners, you realise that the solutions developed in an academic context haven’t actually been implemented in reality, so you spend a lot of time doing that. But as a researcher you also need to be conducting original work for publication in journals. What’s special is when these two things – what industry needs and what you need as a researcher – feed into one another.

Do you have any advice for someone who would like to develop a career in research or work at a research centre like SnT?

My advice would be to make sure you are passionate about conducting research with an emphasis on societal impact. SnT was founded to play a role in the Luxembourgish ecosystem, so here you are perhaps less autonomous than you would be in “classic” research centres in France or in the US. You need to shape your research to contribute to particular priority areas, such as fintech or autonomous driving, which evolve over time. If you are not passionate about this kind of work, you will struggle to integrate.

What are the biggest changes that happened while you were here?

SnT’s growth has been extraordinary. When I arrived we were spread across two floors in one building. Today there are over 300 of us, working across several buildings. With this expansion, we are also becoming more interdisciplinary. Most recently, we have gained a chair in digital finance and we now have a master’s course in space resources. These new things always make it more interesting, because you’re in regular contact with different perspectives.

SnT is turning 10! We’ve come a long way since launching our activities in 2009. Stay tuned for a year full of celebrations, cutting-edge research, and new milestones.

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