Yves Ubelmann

Yves Ubelmann, President & Co-Founder, Iconem, France. Trained as an architect, Yves Ubelmann is President and Co-Founder of Iconem, a start-up founded in 2013, which specialises in the digitization of endangered archeological and heritage sites.

It endeavours to produce ultra-realistic digital doubles of archeological and heritage sites around the world. Combining several 3D scanning techniques with the use of drones, Iconem has already digitized many iconic heritage sites (The Saint Jacques Tower in Paris, Pompeii in Italy, Delos in Greece, Mes Aynak in Afghanistan, Palmyra in Syria, Angkor in Cambodia, etc.). These missions are carried out on behalf of major museums (the Louvre, Rmn-Grand Palais, National Museum of Singapore, etc.), international institutions (UNESCO, World Bank, UNOSAT, etc.), archaeologists (French School of Athens, Casa de Velazquez, SFDAS, etc.) or governments and local authorities (Mairie de Paris, French Institute of Burma, Oman Ministry of Heritage and Culture, etc). Previously, From 2010 to 2011, he was employed as a specialist engineer at the Microsoft Research – INRIA joint center, with the computer science department of the École Normale Supérieure. He then developed the different 3D scanning methods based on recent photogrammetric reconstruction algorithms. After he graduated from the Versailles School of Architecture in 2006, Yves Ubelmann worked as an independent architect in Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. He carried out surveys and studies on various archeological sites until 2010. It gave him the opportunity to develop in 2009 a new approach to photogrammetry for the survey of these sites. His work promotes the conservation of cultural heritage threatened by urbanisation, mass tourism, armed conflicts, plunder and climate change. Iconem works with various governments, museums, or international institutions such as UNESCO.