Guidelines for validating an “out of the lab” semester project related to a MAKE projects
The following guidelines allow students to propose and validate a semester project as part of a MAKE project.
Acceptance of a MAKE project outside of this procedure is possible provided that a Prof. agrees to supervise the student, and that part of the work takes place in his laboratory. If the referring Prof. is not affiliated to the SMT, MT section must validate the project. In this case, please refer to the semester project guidelines.
Students choose their MAKE project and describe the technical objectives and deliverables in the following form. The submission is made for the following semester by December 1st or May 1st by e-mail to smt@epfl.ch. No project will be accepted after this deadline.
A project based solely on programming cannot be considered. A programming task may be included as a secondary task (e.g. to demonstrate the functionality of a system)
The budget for the project must be entirely provided through the MAKE program and no support from the section is possible.
The work is individual and must have a clear and measurable objective.
Supervision within the MAKE project is provided by a permanent member within the MAKE project.
The academic supervision is assigned to one of the members of the SMT expert pool. It is also this person who judges the report and assigns the final grade.
The validation of a MAKE project as a semester project is only possible for 1 of the 2 semester projects for the Masters in Microtechnology and Robotics.
1. Calendar and deadlines
2. Presentation and validation of the MAKE project
Each student will present his or her project to the pool of experts in 10 minutes, following this format
- 2 min: MAKE project and context
- 4 min: Objectives, timing and deliverables of the project
- 2 min: Supervision and responsible persons within the project
- 2 min: Q&A by the pool
Students are informed of the acceptance and assignment of the academic supervisor 1 day after the session. In case of refusal, students have time to identify another topic for a semester project in a lab before the beginning of the next semester.
Following acceptance, students follow the standard registration procedure for a semester project on IS-A.
3. Project progress and reporting
The project will be carried out strictly during the semester, respecting the 14-week duration. The total time invested per week should not exceed 20 hours.
The student organizes an intermediate presentation mid-project with the academic supervisor. This session allows for a reorientation of the objectives if necessary. The supervisor’s participation in the MAKE project is optional.
The student writes a report according to the following template. Work done by the student before the beginning of the semester cannot be part of the report.
Due Date:
- Spring semester: by Friday of the first week after the end of classes
- Fall semester: by Friday of the second week after the end of classes.
4. Oral defense
Just before the exam session, the student presents his/her project in front of the SMT expert pool according to the following schedule:
20 min per project followed by 5 min of questions by the pool
- Initial objective and motivations
- Methodology
- Results and evaluation
- Conclusions and perspectives
The grade is assigned by the academic supervisor in consultation with the pool of experts.
5. Pool d’experts SMT
The expert pool of SMT for validating and evaluationg the MAKE projects is composed of the following members
- Mechanical engineering: Simon Henein / Florent Cosandier
- Electrical and electronic engineering: Drazen Dujic
- Optical engineering : Olivier Martin / Kirsten Moselund
- Sensing : Giovanni Boero / Stéphanie Lacour
- Actuation : Yves Perriard / Paolo Germano
- Robotics: Jamie Paik
- System engineering: Yves Bellouard / Gilles Feusier