Hugo Ajrouche

Dr Hugo Ajrouche is an R&D Project Technical Manager specialized in Rain, Light, Humidity, and Solar Sensors at Valeo (since March 2022). Based in the Paris region, he leads the full design and development lifecycle of automotive sensor products. His responsibilities include overseeing Mechanical, Hardware, Software, System/Requirements, and Validation deliverables, managing budgets and work plans, and steering both validation and reliability tests.

He maintains regular interactions with major customers including Stellantis/FCA, Maserati, and Ferrari, and supervises the production launch of sensors through PLM Target. With strong experience in multicultural environments, he coordinates and co-produces samples ahead of the pre-series phase, analyzes change requests, and acts as Configuration Manager across projects.

​

Hugo was a Project Manager at Capgemini Engineering (ex-Altran), Hugo led strategic R&D and innovation initiatives at the crossroads of next-generation powertrains, fuel-cell technologies, and advanced modeling. Over four years, he transformed complex technical challenges into actionable strategies, mobilizing multidisciplinary teams and aligning innovation with industrial objectives.

 

He directed a 23-member Hybrid Innovative Powertrain (HIP) team including 6 PhD researchers and 17 engineering interns designing and conducting research programs on hybrid architectures combining fuel cells, batteries, and advanced turbomachinery.

 

His leadership extended to building and managing project roadmaps aligned with Altran’s Prototype and Automotive Strategy and evolving European emission regulations.

​

In this role, Hugo:

• Led cross-functional project teams and drove all phases of innovation and research programs

• Served as project manager for advanced R&D engagements, ensuring scientific rigor and industrial relevance

• Designed optimal study architectures for hybrid powertrains (Fuel Cell / Battery), in close coordination with technical leads and direct reports

• Managed an international circle of experts and maintained strong relationships with engineering teams and industrial partners

• Provided technical support to PSA and its partners, anticipating technological complexity and integrating customer innovation strategies

• Built WBS, PBS and managed productivity and capability roadmaps for his perimeter

• Oversaw resources, milestones, risks, and project delivery quality

 

Hugo contributed to the development of advanced models, specifications, and operating strategies for PEM fuel cell stacks, including:

• Development of stack concepts and performance specifications for powertrain applications

• Freeze-start modeling to identify mechanisms behind freeze-start failure modes

• Dynamic system modeling and analysis

• Investigation of water flooding, membrane dehydration, and CO poisoning effects in PEMFC systems

 

To increase productivity and standardize know-how, Hugo developed an HMI-driven methodology inspired by Taylorism and turbo-compressor control strategies. His work covered:

• Turbocharger modeling

• Combustion efficiency diagnostics

• Post-treatment analysis

• Strategic planning for turbo-compressor integration through 2025

 

This experience solidified Hugo’s reputation as a manager capable of creating synergy between deep scientific expertise, industrial constraints, and strategic innovation, bridging the gap between research and market-ready technologies.

​

Dr Ajrouche is also an experienced Ph.D. researcher and engineer with a multidisciplinary background spanning nanotechnology, energetics, mechanical engineering, and optical diagnostics. Over the past years, he has increasingly focused on hybrid vehicle powertrain systems, fuels, and combustion engines, combining experimental expertise with advanced modeling capabilities.

 

He thrives as a Scientific Project Manager or R&D Manager in fields such as process engineering, optical diagnostics, energy systems, environmental technologies, and the automotive industry. Equally comfortable in global corporations and agile startup environments, he has demonstrated a strong ability to lead multicultural teams in complex and demanding contexts.

​

Hugo has developed, implemented, and applied numerical models across both in-house tools and commercial software, covering combustion regimes in spark-ignition (SI) and compression-ignition (CI) engines. His expertise encompasses nearly all phenomena occurring inside a combustion chamber from liquid fuel injection dynamics to ignition and flame development across premixed, diffusion, partially premixed, and auto-ignition regimes. He has contributed to the understanding and optimization of advanced combustion modes and next-generation downsized, direct-injection SI engines.

​

With a triple scientific competence in energetics, chemistry, and nanophysics, Hugo brings extensive experience in experimental design, project management, simulation and modeling, teaching, and optical diagnostics for thermal processes.

 

He holds an engineering degree from Bordeaux ENSCBP, where he collaborated with the NEEL Institute and ICMCB to develop an innovative instrument for studying polarized-light spectroscopy using a novel laser source. He also initiated the implementation of Pump–Probe Time-Domain Thermoreflectance at the LOMA Laboratory (CNRS, UMR 5798) to investigate acoustic and thermal properties of nanomaterials.

​

Hugo completed his Ph.D. in energetics at INSA Rouen, within the CORIA laboratory (UMR 6614), where he specialized in thermography and multi-species concentration measurements via laser diagnostics in turbulent combustion. During his postdoctoral research at Polytech Orléans (GREMI), he contributed to the development of X-ray diagnostics of dodecane sprays under Engine Combustion Network (ECN) Spray A conditions.

​

Throughout his career, Dr. Ajrouche has built a solid track record of delivering high-quality engineering support and R&D innovation particularly in the design and implementation of optical diagnostic systems and experimental facilities for combustion research. He has hands-on experience with a wide range of advanced techniques, including:

Spontaneous Raman Scattering, Rayleigh Scattering, Schlieren imaging, Mie scattering, Diffuse Back-Illumination (DBI), Laser Extinction (LE), Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), Two-Tracer LIF (2T-LIF), OH-PLIF, OH* chemiluminescence, Laser-Induced Incandescence (LII), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).

Currently working at PRISME Laboratory, Hugo is involved in projects centered around:

• Identifying modeling needs and conducting optical diagnostics on sprays using Raman scattering, PIV, LIF, DBI, and Schlieren

• Reducing pollutant emissions (NOx, CO, soot) in combustion systems (ICEs, furnaces, turbines, automotive engines)

• Investigating and characterizing new fuels

• Designing experimental setups and defining integration constraints

• Writing publications, project proposals, and technical specification documents

• Exploring technical solutions for industrial and scientific challenges

• Collaborating extensively with academic and industrial partners