A WORD FROM THE DEAN — HIGHLIGHTS — EDUCATION — RESEARCH — INNOVATION — OUTREACH PROGRAMS — FACTS & FIGURES
A WORD FROM THE DEAN
As we begin 2020 with a fresh optimism, it is my great pleasure to share with you the 2019 Annual Report for the EPFL the School of Engineering.
Our school is one of the finest engineering institutions of higher education in Europe and the World, and 2019 has been a busy year, with many initiatives and a showcase of the depth of talent from our faculty and students.
Browsing through these pages, you will learn about a vibrant and dynamic environment, one that embraces students from their first steps in engineering and guides them through an engaging curriculum. You will also read about the many opportunities our students have to step out of the box and be involved in exciting projects and competitions, both at the national and international stages.
Our faculty and researchers are among the best in their fields, fearless in their pursuit of novelty and successful in their engagement with industry and research partners across Europe and beyond. We are leaders in innovation and technology transfer, accounting in 2019 for close to 40% of all start-ups created at EPFL and more than 60% of all the technology disclosures. During this same year, researchers at the School of Engineering received many recognitions and grants, showing the impact of their contribution to society.
2019 was also the stage for the second edition of our Engineering PhD Summit and the first edition of our EPFL Excellence in Engineering Program, both of which attracted some of the best undergraduate, MS, and Ph.D. students from around the world. Another initiative, the Engineering Industry Day, was also a big success in 2019 with over 450 attendees.
We are a vibrant engineering school with the right dose of ambition and drive to be players on the international field and to be leaders in engineering design and applied science. In 2019, the School of Engineering and the College of Management at EPFL successfully launched the first edition of a joint Masters course that exposes students to entrepreneurial challenges by challenging them to design a product to be marketed.
I look forward to sharing the ground-breaking moments of 2020 with you.
Ali H. Sayed, Dean of the School of Engineering
HIGHLIGHTS 2019
EDUCATION
“One of our main missions at EPFL and in the School of Engineering is to educate the next generation of engineers, and prepare them for the challenges they will face in their future life, after the Bachelor, Master or PhD studies. Beyond the acquisition of fundamental science and engineering concepts, including computational thinking, our students develop their ability to contribute to society and industry though exposure to a range of topics including ethics, data security and environmental issues, and are able to experience a multidisciplinary approach, in particular through hands-on or entrepreneurship projects”.
Véronique Michaud, Associate Dean for Education
Articles
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First successful edition of a joint Masters course between STI and CDM to expose students to entrepreneurial challenges by designing a product to be marketed.
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Two EPFL Master’s students have co-developed a technology for growing a small garden right in your home or office. They launched a startup to market their smart indoor greenhouses and installed prototypes at EPFL with the support of the Act for Change LAB platform (EPFL Sustainability).
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Summer series – Student projects. For her Master’s project, Emylou Jaquier decided to tackle the growing problem of plastic waste. She sifted through EPFL garbage bins to collect different types of plastics and test how they could be used in 3D printing.
Key Figures
Number of Students
RESEARCH
“At the School of Engineering more than 100 laboratories and research groups pursue the mission of understanding and improving the world we live in. They lead research in very different fields of science and engineering, with impactful outcomes that are made available to the society. The School of Engineering also promotes partnerships with other world-leading institutions and research laboratories to address the main challenges faced by humanity”.
Pascal Frossard, Associate Dean for Research
Articles
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Using the fossil and fossilized footprints of a 300-million-year-old animal, an interdisciplinary team that includes scientists from EPFL and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin have developed a method for identifying the most likely gaits of extinct animals and designed a robot that can recreate their walk. This innovative study of animal biomechanics using robots can help researchers better understand how vertebrate locomotion evolved over time.
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EPFL scientists are investigating new ways to provide visual signals to the blind by directly stimulating the optic nerve. Their preliminary study on animals uses a new type of neural electrode and provides distinct signals.
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Researchers at EPFL have developed a novel way of predicting lightning strikes to the nearest 10 to 30 minutes and within a radius of 30 kilometers. The system uses a combination of standard data from weather stations and artificial intelligence.
Key Figures
Number of laboratories and research groups
85
INNOVATION
“Technology transfer and innovation are key to EPFL, which is fundamental if we want to have a real impact with what we do. The School of Engineering has been a particularly strong contributor. We have put in place key initiatives to facilitate the collaboration between our researchers, students, and industry partners. A strong focus going forward will be innovation in response to the major societal challenges, including sustainability, the pervasive nature of data, and the role of artificial intelligence”.
Holger Frauenrath, Associate Dean for Industry and Innovation
Articles
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The solar panels developed by startup Insolight boast an impressive 29% yield – a record for the retail market. These systems, which have now been standardized for mass production, contain lenses that focus sunlight on tiny high-yield photovoltaic cells, employing what is a pioneering approach for the solar-power industry.
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EPFL startup Flybotix has developed a novel drone with just two propellers and an advanced stabilization system that allow it to fly for twice as long as conventional models. That fact, together with its small size, makes it perfect for inspecting hard-to-reach parts of industrial facilities such as ducts.
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Deepfakes – or fake videos produced to look real through the use of artificial intelligence – pose a growing challenge. That’s why an EPFL research group has been teaming up with the Swiss startup Quantum Integrity to develop a deepfake detection solution over the past two years. The team has been awarded an Innosuisse grant starting on 1 October, with deployment as early as next year.
Key Figures
OUTREACH PROGRAMS
Engineering PhD Summit
The PhD Summit is a workshop for final year PhD students interested in a career in academia. Each year, we invite to campus, on a competitive basis, a group of exceptional graduating PhD students from institutions worldwide. The 2nd edition of the PhD was held on October 2-4, 2019, and focused on the theme of «Intelligent systems». The Engineering PhD Summit Prize for the best presentation and research impact has been awarded to Saptadeep Pal from the University of California Los Angeles, USA. A selection of EPFL students have also presented their research work related to “intelligent systems” in a short plenary pitch, and a poster session.
Industry Day
The 3rd edition of the Industry Day took place on March 20, 2019. The concept gives the opportunity for companies, researchers, and master and PhD students to network, initiate collaboration opportunities, present researches and development in industry.
Number of attendees
457
EPFL Excellence in Engineering Program
The E3 EPFL Excellence in Engineering Program has been initiated in 2019 by the School of Engineering and offers an intensive research training opportunity to students from foreign universities interested in research careers in any field of engineering, science and technology.
Mandatory industry Internships for master students
Internships in a company are an integral part of the Master curriculum in every master program at EPFL. This represents an excellent opportunity for students to get a crucial insight into the day-to-day work-flow in industry and also provide the company a broad expertise and skills in engineering sciences.
Number of internships and locations per masters
FACTS & FIGURES
119 Professors
1420 Employees (FTE)
4 Campuses
