EPF Ecole d'ingénieurs

Research at the heart of an EPF education

More and more engineers’ work is dominated by research, studies and design. New competitions in innovation have paved the way for new activities, often in the field of competition monitoring. 6 in 10 recent engineering graduates work in this field. In 2008, one in two engineers took part in an innovative project, and one in three contributed to their company's technological strategy. In the past 5 years, 9% of active engineers registered patents, a number that is up 7% since 2004.

Trained researcher-engineers

EPF recently included the objective of training researcher-engineers in its strategy, part of a generalist engineering school's basic responsibilities, adding skills to the market to meet the global economy's needs. One of EPF's strengths lies in its engineering students' potential and their capacity to go on to doctoral studies. It aims to encourage students to pursue research as part of their engineering studies.

The process consists in promoting a specific culture and getting engineering students interested in it, through research activities at the establishment in coordination with the industrial sector, to show them new professional alternatives that are increasingly gaining speed. It also aims to replicate the relational model between the Material and Structural Mechanics (MMS) major and the ERMESS research laboratory which, over the past 10 years, has shown the impact of close cooperation between education and research:  on average, 10% of students from the major go on to doctoral studies after graduating from EPF. Since 1986, 40 MMS graduates have gone on to doctoral studies, with around half of them obtaining their doctorate.

As part of this organisational framework, and in line with the generalist engineering school's original posture, EPF's research policy is defined to reinforce the link between engineering students and research activities, teaching them specific actions that cultivate one of the 7 macro-skills of the EPF reference system, how to do research. This is the cornerstone of an EPF researcher-engineer's skills base, one that sets them apart and backs up EPF's reputation in the research field.

Research as part of teaching

EPF's project-based learning system puts research at the heart of its student engineers' education and their study dynamic.
The second-year Individual Research Project (IRP) modules have been a great success. Students are aware of the importance of R&D, and approximately 30 enrol each year. The students are supervised by EPF's research faculty and, since 2010, by UTT supervisors.

This project dynamic is bearing fruit; approximately half of third-year students' projects involve research.

On the whole, around one quarter of student-engineers' internships are in the field of research, and students are increasingly interested in this type of experience. The interest in this major shows that students are looking more and more to the field of research for their first jobs. The number of EPF students choosing research for their thesis has increased constantly.