Welcome!
Welcome in Paris! After the success of the first OLSR Interop last year in the beautiful city of San Diego, we are happy to invite you to the second Interop which will take place in Paris on July 28, 29 in conjunction with the 63rd IETF. After one year many new OLSR implementations have emerged, new applications, new trends, new exciting topics in wireless networking. Come with us and share this moment altogether. Let the wireless Force be with us.
This year, the Interop will take place in the most prestigious school of France, the Ecole Polytechnique. In France a grand school (grande ecole) is equivalent to a university. Why Polytechnique is the most prestigious school in France, you ask? The first reason is that I was student in this school, and in France there is a tradition that students think that their school is the most prestigious one. The second reason, is that the school, founded in 1794, has produced many reknown French scientists and engineers: the mathematician Poincare (1854-1912), famous inventor of chaos theory, he is also not less known for the papers he wrote that initiated the formulation of the restricted relativity by Albert Einstein in 1905; the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot (1924), the inventor of the theory of fractal objects. The physicist Ampere (1775-1836), initiator of electromagnetism, his name is now the unit of electric current - MANETs could have not even existed without his contribution! Becquerel (1852-1908), co-discoveror of radio-activity. The mathematician Poisson (1781-1840) has formulated a law which is now used intensively in all stochastic models - but this law was in the very beginning engineered specifically for the analysis of the frequency of horse accident in the Napoleonic armies.
Gee, I realize that all these people did not live long, and that starts to stress me! But, sure, you can be a polytechnician (name of the student of Polytechnique) and live longer, you can also be a polytechnician and be less famous. And of course you can live longer and be more famous without being a polytechnician.
The surname of Ecole Polytechnique is the letter X because it reminds the blazon of the school made of two crossed guns. Indeed at its very beginning the shool was a military school (what else can you be when you are founded by Napoleon) and was dedicated to the formation of army engineers. The marshal Joffre, who won the Marne battle in 1914 (the WW1 battle that changed the path of time of the century) and the marshal Foch, who commanded in chief the allied force in 1918 until the final surrender of Germany, were both from Ecole Polytechnique. Now the school is more pacifistic, and is dedicated to the education of the top-level scientists and engineers and ranks among the top list of the prestigious universities in the world.
From its military past, the school has kept some old tradition among which a fancy uniform, with a sword and a bicorn, lots of cupper buttons, not much changed from its XIXth design, and an anniversary figuration in the military parade of July 14 on Champs Elysee.
We look forward to welcoming you for the 2nd OLSR Interop & Workshop.
Philippe Jacquet
