École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
Established	1853, Opened 1869
Type	Public
Budget	753 millions CHF
President	Patrick Aebischer
Undergraduates	~ 5,000
Postgraduates	~ 1,800
Location	Ecublens (near Lausanne), Vaud, Switzerland 46°31′13″N 6°33′56″E
Campus	Urban
Nationalities	100+
Website	epfl.ch

EPFL

Location: Lausanne, Switzerland

The École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) is one of the two Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology and is located in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The school was founded by the Swiss Federal Government with the stated mission to:

• Educate engineers and scientists
• Be a national center of excellence in science and technology
• Provide a hub for interaction between the scientific community and industry

The sister institution in the German-speaking part of Switzerland is the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH Zürich or ETHZ). Associated with several specialised research institutes, the two sister institutes form the ETH Domain, which is directly dependent on the Federal Department of Home Affairs. EPFL is ranked among the top universities in the world.

History

Founded in 1853 as a private school under the name École Spéciale de Lausanne, it became the technical department of the public Académie de Lausanne in 1869. When the latter was reorganized and acquired the status of a university in 1890, the technical faculty changed its name to École d'Ingénieurs de l'Université de Lausanne. In 1946, it was renamed the École polytechnique de l'Université de Lausanne (EPUL).

In 1969, the EPUL was separated from the rest of the University of Lausanne and became a federal institute under its current name. EPFL, like ETHZ, is thus directly controlled by the Swiss federal government. In contrast, all other universities in Switzerland are controlled by their respective cantonal governments.

EPFL operates a nuclear reactor, CROCUS, a Tokamak fusion reactor, and P3 bio-hazard facilities. Following the nomination of Patrick Aebischer as president in 2000, EPFL has started to develop into the field of life sciences. It absorbed the ISREC (Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research) in 2008.

Campus

Aerial view of the EPFL, which forms a vast campus with the University of Lausanne (UNIL) at the shores of Lake Geneva

Originally, EPFL was in the center of Lausanne. In 1978, EPFL moved to its new campus in Ecublens, a suburb south-west of Lausanne on the shores of Lake Geneva. In 2002, the department of architecture also moved to the campus in Ecublens. This united all departments of EPFL on the same site.

Buildings

The campus consists of about 65 buildings on 136 acres. Built according to the growth of the school, the campus includes different types of architectures:

• Late 70s-80s: modularized building, used today by the Schools of Basic Sciences and Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering
• 90s: buildings with institutes from the Schools of Engineering Sciences and Techniques, Computer and Communication Sciences, and the Scientific Park (PSE)
• Modern: new buildings (2002-2004) with Microengineering, Communications and Architecture institutes, the School of Life Sciences and the College of Management.
• The Rolex Learning Center, a brand new library (2010)

Together with the University of Lausanne (UNIL) the EPFL forms a vast campus at the shores of Lake Geneva. EPFL and the University of Lausanne also share an active sports center five minutes away from EPFL on the shores of Lake Geneva.

Facilities

Facilities are available on the campus for the students and staff:

• Libraries:
  • Rolex Learning Center
• Restaurant:
  • Le Copernic
  • La Table de Vallotton
• Cafeterias:
  • La Coupole
  • Le Corbusier
  • Le Parmentier
  • Le Vinci
  • BMX (Bâtiment des Matériaux)
  • BC (Bâtiment des Communications)
  • L'Arcadie
  • Le Hodler
  • Le Klee
• Bar:
  • Satellite
• Travel agencies
  • Swiss Federal Railroad
  • STA Travel
• Banks:
  • Credit Suisse
  • PostFinance
• Radio:
  • Fréquence Banane Student radio

Organization

EPFL is organised into seven schools, themselves formed of institutes that group research units (laboratories or chairs) around common themes.

EPFL is constituted of the following Schools:

The Tokamak à configuration variable (TCV): inner view, with the graphite-clad torus. Courtesy of CRPP-EPFL, Association Suisse-Euratom

• Basic Sciences (SB, Thomas Rizzo) mathematics, physics and chemistry
  • Mathematics Institute of Computational Science and Engineering (MATHICSE, Alfio Quarteroni)
  • Mathematics institute of Analysis and Applications (MATHAA, Anthony Davison)
  • Mathematics Institute of Geometry and Applications, (MATHGEOM, Eva Bayer Fluckiger)
  • Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering (ISIC, Paul Dyson)
  • Institute of Physics of Energy and Particles (IPEP, Minh Quang Tran)
  • Institute of Condensed Matter Physics (IPMC, Wolf-Dieter Schneider)
  • Institute of Physics of Biological Systems (IPSB, Giovanni Dietler)
  • Institute of Physical Sciences (SPH-GE, Jean-Philippe Ansermet)
  • Institute of Quantum Electronics and Photonics (IPEQ, Benoît Deveaud-Plédran)
  • Institute of Theoretical Physics (ITP, Alfonso Baldereschi)
  • Institute of Computational Condensed Matter Physics (IRRMA, Alfonso Baldereschi)
  • Interdisciplinary Center for Electron Microscopy (CIME, Cécile Hébert)
  • Center for Research In Plasma Physics (CRPP, Minh Quang Tran)
  • PRN Quantum Photonics (PRN-QP, Benoît Deveaud-Plédran)
  • Bernoulli Center (CIB, Tudor Ratiu)
• School of Engineering (STI, Demetri Psaltis) Electrical Engineering, Mechanical engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Microengineering, Bioengineering
  • Institute of Electrical Engineering (IEL, Giovanni De Micheli)
  • Institute of Mechanical Engineering (IGM, Daniel Favrat)
  • Institute of Materials (IMX, Andreas Mortensen)
  • Institute of Microengineering(IMT, Nico de Rooij)
  • Institute of Bioengineering (IBI, Jeff Hubbell)
• School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC, Marc Parlange) Architecture, Civil engineering, Environmental Sciences and Engineering
  • Institute of Architecture (IA, Bruno Marchand)
  • Civil Engineering Institute (IIC, Eugen Brühwiler)
  • Institute of Urban and Regional Sciences (INTER, Philippe Thalmann)
  • Environmental Engineering Institute (IIE, David Andrew Barry)
• Computer and Communication Sciences (I&C, Willy Zwaenepoel) computer science and telecommunications
  • Laboratory for Computer Communications and Applications (LCA)
  • Laboratory of Nonlinear Systems (LANOS)
  • Institute of Core Computing Science (IIF)
  • Institute of Computing and Multimedia Systems (ISIM)
  • Institute of Communication Systems (ISC)
  • Center of Mobile Information and Communication Systems (MICS, Karl Aberer)
  • Center for Advanced Digital Systems (CSDA, Paolo Ienne)
  • Center for Neural Information Processing (CTIN, Wulfram Gerstner)
  • Center for Global Computing (CGC, Martin Rajman)
  • Security and Cryptography Laboratory (LASEC, Serge Vaudenay)
  • Laboratory for Cryptologic Algorithms (LACAL, Arjen Lenstra)
• Life Sciences (SV, Didier Trono) life sciences
  • Brain Mind Institute (BMI, Henry Markram and Pierre Magistretti)
  • Institute of Bioengineering (IBI, Alan Hubbell Jeffrey)(renamed as EDBB)
  • Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC, Michel Aguet)
  • Global Health Institute (GHI, Gisou van der Goot)
• College of Management of Technology (CDM, Martin Vetterli)
  • Swiss Finance Institute at EPFL (CDM-SFI, Erwan Morellec)
  • Program of Management of Technology and Entrepreneurship (CDM-PMTE, Christopher Tucci)
  • Chair of Entrepreneurship and Technology Commercialization (CDM-ENTC, Marc Gruber)
  • Institute of Logistics, Economy and Management of Technology (ILEMT, Dominique Foray)
  • Management of Technology EPFL - UNIL (CMT, Francis-Luc Perret)
• Sociology and humanities (CdH, Francesco Panese)
  • Human and social sciences teaching program (CDH-SHS, Eric Junod)

Students and traditions

Several music festivals are held yearly at EPFL. The most important one is the Balelec Festival, organized in May. It proposes about 30 concerts and welcomes 15,000 visitors.

Other smaller festivals include Sysmic organized in April by the students of the Department of Microengineering, hosting two stages for local and national bands, and Artiphys, organized by the students of the Physics Department.

EPFL maintains several long-standing student exchange programs, such as the junior year engineering and science program with Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, as well as a graduate Aeronautics and Aerospace program with the ISAE in France.

Statistics

CROCUS, the only nuclear reactor of the French-speaking part of Switzerland

In 1946, there were 360 students at EPFL. In 1969, EPFL numbered 1,400 students and 55 professors. The university continued to grow rapidly, and in 2002, there were 5,872 students enrolled.

In 2004 there were more than 9000 people at EPFL. About 6000 of these were students, with the remainder consisting of professors, assistants and even entrepreneurs located in the Parc Scientifique of EPFL. There were over 100 nationalities at EPFL, with over 50% of the teaching staff coming from outside Switzerland.

In the year 2009-2010, there were over 7000 students on the campus.

The EPFL advised on the Alinghi project, leading to success in the America's Cup in New Zealand in 2003 and in Valencia in 2007. EPFL is also developing a sun-powered plane, Solar Impulse, designed to be completely autonomous (capable of circumnavigation). Bertrand Piccard is one of the two pilots flying the plane. There is also a sensor network installed in the I&C building called SensorScope which reports live temperature and light measurements.

For teaching purposes the EPFL hosts the only nuclear reactor in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, CROCUS.

Rankings

EPFL is ranked Nr. 32 in the US News and World Report ranking of the World's Best Universities. QS World University Rankings has placed EPFL 35th in their 2011 rankings. It reaches the 101 - 150 rank range of the 2011 Academic Ranking of World Universities (Shanghai Jiao Tong University). According to a study conducted by Times Higher Education (THE) based on the publication and citation data provided by Thomson Reuters, EPFL is ranked Nr.1 in Europe in the field of Engineering (November, 2010). Leiden Rankings also rank EPFL Nr.1 in Europe (2010-2011).

EPFL is evaluated as continental Europe's #1 and world's #20 university in the field of Engineering, Technology and Computer Sciences in the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2011 (Europe's #1 and world's #15 in 2009). EPFL is in the heart of Europe and is one of Europe's leading institutions of science and technology and is a member of Top Industrial Managers for Europe network.

Notable alumni

• Aart de Geus (Chairman, founder and CEO of Synopsys Inc)
• André Gorz (Austrian-French, Philosopher and Economist)
• Martin Vetterli (Professor, information and communication sciences)
• Daniel Borel (Co-founder of Logitech)
• Franck Riboud (CEO of Danone)
• André Kudelski (CEO of Kudelski)

Doctores honoris causa

EPFL has awarded a Dr. h.c. degree to several people:

• John M. Ball
• 1986 Stefan Kudelski
• April 1, 2006: Manuel Castells (avant-garde researcher dedicated to urban dynamics)
• April 15, 2008: Al Gore (Former Vice-President of the U.S.A.)
• October 3, 2009: Joseph Sifakis (Turing Award Laureate)
• October 9, 2010: Jerry Yang (co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo! Inc)
• October 9, 2010: Pierre-Louis Lions (Fields medallist)

Notable Professors

• Álvaro Siza Vieira, Portuguese architect, (Guest Professor, Architecture), Pritzker Prize 1992
• Amin Shokrollahi (Professor, Computer Science and Communication Systems and Mathematics. Best known for the invention of Raptor Codes)
• Arjen Lenstra (Professor, cryptographic algorithms)
• Claude Nicollier (Professor, spatial technology and astronaut)
• Dario Floreano (Professor, intelligent systems)
• David Chipperfield, British architect, (Guest Professor, Architecture)
• Eduardo Souto de Moura, Portuguese architect, (Guest Professor, Architecture), Pritzker Prize 2011
• Emre Telatar (Leading Information theorist and Professor,Information Theory)
• Francisco Mangado, Spanish architect, (Guest Professor, Architecture)
• Giovanni De Micheli (Professor, integrated systems)
• Henry Markram (Professor, neurology)
• Herbert Shea (Professor, Microsystems for Space Technologies Laboratory)
• Jean-Daniel Nicoud (Professor, computer science, inventor of the modern ball mouse)
• Jean-Yves Le Boudec (Professor, networking systems and performance evaluation)
• Jeffrey Alan Hubbell (Professor, biotechnology and bioengineering)
• János Pach (Professor, Mathematics, One of the few living Mathematicians with Erdos Number 1)
• Lyesse Laloui (Professor and director of Laboratory of Soil Mechanics, et directeur du programme doctoral en Mécanique )
• Martin Hasler (Professor, Computer and Communication Sciences, Laboratory of Nonlinear Systems)
• Martin Odersky (Professor, programming methods)
• Martin Vetterli (Professor, computer and information sciences)
• Michael Grätzel (Professor, Photonics and Interfaces Sciences, Inventor of the dye-sensitized solar cells)
• Mikhail Shaposhnikov (Professor, Theoretical Physics)
• Minh Quang Tran (Professor, physics of energy and particles)
• Pierre-André Farine (Professor, Electronics and Signal Processing Laboratory)
• Reymond Clavel (Professor, robotics and micro engineering, inventor of the Delta robot)
• Riccardo Rattazzi (Professor, Theoretical Physics)
• Rüdiger Urbanke (Professor, Coding, Communications and Information Theory)
• Serge Vaudenay (Professor, security and cryptography)
• Stefan Behnisch, German architect, (Guest Professor, Architecture)

Photographs

• 

  A view of the Piccard Avenue.

• 

  Inner corridors in the East Center

• 

  SG Place

• 

  SG Place

• 

  the "Biowall"

• 

  BC Building

• 

  BC Building Inside

• 

  The Esplanade

Partner universities

EPFL has 179 partner universities around the globe.

Europe

Vienna University of Technology, Austria University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), Austria University of Vienna, Austria University of Freiburg, Germany University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Germany University of Magdeburg, Germany University of Marburg, Germany Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen, Germany Technical University of Berlin, Germany Braunschweig University of Technology, Germany Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany Dresden University of Technology, Germany Technical University of Munich, Germany University of Ulm, Germany University of Bonn, Germany University of Karlsruhe (TH), Germany University of Stuttgart, Germany Faculté polytechnique de Mons, Belgium Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium University of Liège, Belgium Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium Ghent University, Belgium Sofia University, Bulgaria Brno University of Technology, Czech Republic Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic Aalborg University, Denmark Technical University of Denmark, Lingby, Denmark Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Denmark Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland University of Helsinki, Finland École Centrale Paris, France École d'Architecture de la Ville et des Territoires, Marne-la-Vallée, France École des Mines d'Alès, France École des Mines d'Albi-Carmaux, France École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, Paris, France École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Lyon, Lyon, France École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Marseille-Luminy, Marseille, France École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Paris-Belleville, France École Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Strasbourg, France École Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers (ENSAM), Paris, France École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris, France École Normale Supérieure de Cachan, France Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris, France École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, France École polytechnique (« X », Palaiseau), France École Supérieure d'Electricité (Supélec), Gif sur Yvette, France École supérieure d'ingénieurs en électronique et électrotechnique, ESIEE, Noisy, France École supérieure de chimie physique électronique de Lyon, France Fondation EPF, Sceaux, France Institut National des Sciences Appliquées, Lyon, France Institut National des Sciences Appliquées, Rouen, France Institut National des Sciences Appliquées, Strasbourg, France Institut National polytechnique de Grenoble, France Institut National polytechnique de Toulouse, France Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace (ISAE), Toulouse, France École polytechnique universitaire de Montpellier (Polytech'Montpellier), Montpellier, France Claude Bernard University Lyon 1, France Université de Haute Alsace (ENSISA), France Université de la Méditerranée, Aix-Marseille II, France Université de Poitiers, France Université Louis Pasteur Strasbourg 1, France Université Paris 13 (Paris-Nord), France Université Paris Dauphine, France National Technical University of Athens, Greece University of Patras, Greece Technological Educational Institute of Piraeus, Greece Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece Technical University of Crete, Greece Technical University of Budapest, Hungary University College Dublin, Ireland Dublin City University, Ireland

University Iuav of Venice (Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia), Italy Politecnico di Bari, Italy Politecnico di Milano, Italy Politecnico di Torino, Italy Università di Bologna, Italy Università degli Studi di Brescia, Italy Università degli Studi di Cassino, Italy Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Italy Università degli Studi di Siena, Italy Università degli Studi di Trieste, Italy Università degli Studi di Udine, Italy Università degli Studi di Verona, Italy Kauno Technologijos Universitetas, Lithuania Technische Universiteit Delft, Netherlands Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Netherlands Universiteit Twente, Netherlands Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway Jagiellonian University Krakow, Poland AGH University of Science and Technology (University of Mining and Metallurgy) Krakow, Poland Warsaw University of Technology, Poland Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa, Portugal Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal Universidade do Porto, Portugal Polytechnic University of Timisoara, Romania Technical University of Cluj, Romania Universitatea Politehnica Din Bucuresti, Romania University of Iasi, Romania Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Russia Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia Tomsk Polytechnic University, Russia Mondragon University, Spain Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain Universidad de Burgos, Spain Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Spain Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain Universidad de Malaga, Spain Universidad de Oviedo, Spain Universidad de Salamanca, Spain Universidad de Sevilla, Spain Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain Universidad Politecnica de Cartagena, Spain Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain Universidad Pontifica Comillas, Madrid, Spain Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain Universitat de Barcelona, Spain Universitat de Girona, Spain Universidad de Alicante, Spain Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden Lund Institute of Technology, Sweden Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden University of Uppsala, Sweden ETH Zurich, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Switzerland Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey Istanbul Technical University, Turkey Sabancı University, Istanbul, Turkey Koç University Istanbul, Turkey Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom Imperial College London, United Kingdom University of Bristol, United Kingdom University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), United Kingdom University of Nottingham, United Kingdom University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom

The Americas

• École Polytechnique de Montréal, Canada
• Université de Montréal, Canada
• Université Laval, Canada
• McGill University, Canada
• University of Waterloo, Canada
• Cornell University, United States
• Michigan Technological University, United States
• Iowa State University, United States
• University of California, Berkeley, United States
• Carnegie Mellon University, United States
• Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education, Mexico
• Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, Chile

Asia

• Fudan University, China
• Peking University, China
• Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China
• Tsinghua University, China
• Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Hong Kong
• The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
• Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India
• Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India
• Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India
• Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, India
• Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India
• Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India
• Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India
• Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India
• Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad, India
• Nara Institute of Science and Technology, Japan
• Osaka University, Japan
• The University of Tokyo, Japan
• Tohoku University, Japan
• Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan
• KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), South Korea
• Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
• National University of Singapore, Singapore

See also

Swiss federal institutes of technology and research (ETH domain)
Budget 2008 (CHF mil.)
ETH Domain	1'939,0
Institutes of technology
ETH Zurich EPF Lausanne	994,0 488,0
Federal Laboratories
PSI Empa EAWAG WSL	238,0 86,3 49,9 49,1

• List of largest universities by enrollment in Switzerland
• myScience.ch - The Swiss Portal for Research and Innovation
• Science and technology in Switzerland
• GNUWin
• Logitech
• Alinghi
• Solar Impulse
• TCV
• Top Industrial Managers for Europe
• serec (Swiss Electromagnetics Research & Engineering Centre)
• International Academy of Sport Science and Technology (AISTS)

External links

• EPFL online
• Associations at EPFL
• Solar Impulse
• Balelec
• Sysmic
• Satellite
• Challenge EPFL - ETHZ
• ARCHIZOOM - exhibitions and lectures on architecture
• Information about the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne
• Presentation movie
• EPFL virtual tour
• International Academy of Sports Science and Technology (AISTS)