🚨 All administrative details (dates, topic, requirements, supervision) must be approved by your supervisor before registration, and all parties must be familiar with the evaluation criteria.

• To begin your PDM, you must have found:
  • A professor affiliated with the IGM to supervise you, whom you must find on your own,
    • Special cases:
    • Internal lecturers may serve as supervisors with prior approval from the section director.
    • An IGM co-supervisor is mandatory even if your primary supervisor is affiliated with another STI section (MX, EL, or MT) or if you are conducting your PDM in a laboratory outside of SGM.

• If applicable, a host company or university,
• A topic defined with your supervisor

PDM in a company (PDMe)

Important:

• The contract signed with the company is private and independent of the section,
• The section does not sign any external contracts,
• Neither the section nor the faculty members may sign an NDA.

• Have successfully completed the 90 ECTS credits required for the Master’s cycle or have been admitted to the PDM on a conditional basis after completing at least 82 ECTS credits (the remaining credits must be earned during your PDM and are required to obtain your Master’s degree).
• Have completed the mandatory internship (except in the case of a PDM in a company, where the PDMe may count as the internship).

⚠️ The PDM program cannot begin until you have officially been certified as having successfully completed the Master’s program (or received conditional admission), i.e., as soon as your results have been entered into IS-Academia.

• Once you have earned 90 ECTS credits (or received conditional admission), you have:
  • 1 year to begin the PDM program: see the page “Interruption of Studies During the Master’s Program”
  • a maximum of 2 semesters to complete it successfully.
  • Please note that if you fail on the first attempt, the second attempt must take place in a laboratory affiliated with the IGM.

PDM Abroad ⚠️: Be sure to factor in visa processing times when determining the start date of your PDM!

Registration deadline: From the start of registration until the second Friday of the semester.

Late registration: Starting in the third week of the semester; must be requested at the student services desk and is subject to a fee of 50.- CHF

Registration procedure:

• In IS-Academia:
  • Go to the “Master’s Project” tab
  • Enter all details of the Master’s Project, including the name of your supervisor
  • Update your FRAC according to the table provided here
  • Enter all details of the Master’s Project, including the name of your supervisor
  • Generate the registration PDF
  • Have your academic supervisor sign the form
• Send it to the section (sgm@epfl.ch)

❗️Send the signed documents to the section

• Mandatory for all PDM (EPFL, other university, or PDMe)
  • Registration form signed by your IGM supervisor (example here)
• For PDMe students, also include
  • Signed PDMe Agreement (required) — restricted access for faculty via their faculty portal, requires VPN
  • Signed PDM Agreement (optional) — restricted access for faculty via their faculty portal, requires VPN

If the title has not yet been determined, write “To be determined.” Any change to the title must be reported no later than the day of the exam.

⚠️ Once the PDM has begun, neither the dates nor the PDM supervisor can be changed in IS-Academia; please contact the department (sgm@epfl.ch).

• The details are to be determined with your advisor:
  • language and format of the final submission,
  • date and time of the defense.
• To complete the PDM, you must submit
  • Your report/thesis: by the official deadline listed on IS-Academia, by noon on Friday,
  • The poster: no later than the day of the oral defense,
  • Give an oral defense: no later than 4 weeks after the submission date of your written report.

Report/thesis:

• Submission of the written report – to be done:
  • Upload the PDF to IS-Academia
    • ⚠️ Confidential reports must NOT be uploaded to IS-Academia.
  • Send a PDF copy (including confidential reports) to:
    • the section (sgm@epfl.ch),
    • your supervisor,
    • the expert

If the file is too large, you can use SwissTransfer.

Please note: You cannot continue your studies once the report has been submitted.

Poster

• The poster should be sent:
  • to the section (sgm@epfl.ch),
  • to the supervisor,
  • to the expert.

⚠️ The poster is mandatory even if the topic is confidential.

• Non-confidential poster: → displayed in the ME building
• Confidential poster: → not published

More information on PDM posters can be found here.

Due no later than the day of the defense, starting on the day the report is submitted and no later than 4 weeks after the written report is submitted.

Oral Defense

The defense must take place between 2 and no later than 4 weeks after the written report is submitted. The details of the defense are to be determined between the student and the supervisor.

⚠️ To participate in the graduation ceremony (“Magistrale”), the grade must be entered into IS-Academia before the official deadline (September 30).

• Regardless of its duration, the PDM is worth 30 ECTS credits.
• Duration:
  • In an EPFL laboratory:
    • 17 weeks (+1 week of vacation)
  • At a host company or university:
    • 25 weeks (+1 week of vacation)

Confidentiality

After discussing this with your company and with your supervisor’s approval, you may mark the report and/or the post as confidential. To do so, check the “confidential” box in IS-Academia; this must then be approved by your supervisor.

After the registration period, confidentiality settings can only be changed by the academic office.

If the PDM is confidential, nothing will be published, but the documents must still be sent to the department (sgm@epfl.ch).

⚠️ A confidential report must not be submitted via IS-Academia.

Plagiarism Check

Any report uploaded to IS-Academia is automatically checked by EPFL’s plagiarism detection software.

If the first attempt fails, the second topic must be significantly different, and the second attempt must take place at the EPFL laboratory.

• Conditions:
  • The supervisor may remain the same.
  • The second attempt must still fall within the regulatory time limits (the second attempt must end no later than one year after the start of the first attempt);
  • it must take place in an EPFL laboratory.

Further information and links to legal texts are available here.

Useful links:

• STI school – Master’s Projects in Industry
• EPFL – Master’s Thesis in a Company
• EPFL – Master’s Thesis at another University
• IGM Laboratories
• Topic Ideas