Education Office Newsletter - October 2012

Start of the 2012-13 Academic Year
Contrary to the situation observed at the end of August, where registrations seemed to point at a soaring number of first-year students, this growth has been more or less linear since 2006, with a 14% increase at 5 October 2012 in relation to the same period in 2011 (final figures will only be available in November). In addition to the growth in EPFL student numbers, we are witnessing a significant increase in the number of students from Lausanne University who follow courses at EPFL.
This increase in new students has made huge demands on the organisation of courses and classrooms. In cooperation with the Registrar’s Office several Sections had to find emergency solutions to ensure that all courses take place in favourable conditions. A few lectures have had to be split or broadcast with a duplex link-up. Educational Affairs will cooperate proactively with the DII and the Sections to anticipate a likely further increase in student numbers at the start of next academic year.
The second Student Services Desk temporarily set up from September to mid October successfully dealt with the 8736 applications received in September.
The extremely tense housing situation in the Lake Geneva area also affected the workload of our Housing Office. However, we were able to secure 515 offers by individual landlords from 27 August to 1 October further to a campaign initiated together with Lausanne University and a communications company.

For further information: http://ogif.epfl.ch/stat_vend

OGIF
As usual IS-Academia was in particular demand at the start of the new term. Although traffic has increased by almost 20% compared to last year, our database continued to provide effective response times. Over a million connections to the server were recorded for Tuesday 18 September alone!
A number of new features have been added, in particular to the student and teaching portals. For example, course timetables can now be exported to the user’s personal agenda – be it on Microsoft Outlook or any other usual software. Additionally, the timetables can be consulted on Camipro terminals. Moreover, the eagerly awaited project for the management of assistants has been delivered and is currently being deployed among the Sections.
Finally, the weekly statistics on Fridays have enabled many interested parties to follow the growth in student numbers for 2012-13. In particular, the availability of provisional figures regarding new students has served to anticipate certain measures to be taken so as to absorb this growth.

For further information: [email protected]

New Deputy in the Registrar’s Office
Further to continuing growth in the number of PhD students at EPFL and to the reorganising of the Doctoral School, the Registrar’s Office is in charge of monitoring the 21 doctoral programme assistants and coordinating academic management activities. A new Deputy has been hired in the Registrar’s Office to support Jean-Paul Festeau in optimising processes in cooperation with the Doctoral School. Mr Marcus Kunath, originally from Germany and the holder of a Master in Administrative Science, joined us in early September. He will be able to count on help from Fabienne Allaire, formerly part of the Doctoral School, who also joined the Registrar’s Office in July.

For further information: [email protected]

Academic Calendar Revised
In the wake of a reflection on how the EPFL website is used, and further to the update in the EPFL Memento announced by KIS, the Registrar’s Office took this opportunity to rethink the Academic Calendar in order to make it more user-friendly – putting the information you look for within two clicks. A new version is now available on the Registrar’s Office website as well as via the EPFL Memento.
http://memento.epfl.ch/calendrier%20acad%C3%A9mique/?period=14

For further information: [email protected]

Four Projects Awarded the UNIL – EPFL Durabilis Prize
Since 2007 UNIL and EPFL have rewarded student projects linked to sustainable development with the Durabilis (formerly OUI-DD) Award. This prize is supported by VPAA, the management of the University of Lausanne and the city of St-Sulpice.
The 2012 prize was awarded by Prof. Philippe Thalmann, the President of the Jury, on 3 October last as part of the Swiss Sustainable Education Forum (SSE), in the framework of the 10th anniversary celebration of UNIPoly.
Among the 20 projects submitted, the jury selected four which integrate sustainable development concerns particularly well in their analysis:
• “Conception holistique d'un éco-quartier à Lausanne, simulation et optimisation de son approvisionnement énergétique” (holistic design of an eco-district) by Caroline Naef and Héloïse Sierro (EPFL, ENAC School)
• “Si on marchait à Morgarten ? Etude de la marchabilité et des facteurs incitant à la marche dans un quartier chaux-de-fonnier” (study on walkability and walk-inciting factors) by Lucile Develey (UNIL, Faculty of Geosciences and Environment [GSE])
• “Du camp à la ville: consolidation et développement d'un habitat éphémère” (development of a temporary habitat in the city) by Clio Gachoud and Minh-Luc Pham (EPFL, ENAC School)
• “Densification et requalification de friche ferroviaire de Clarens” (densification and requalification of railway wasteland) by Julie Hennemann and Julien Emery (EPFL, ENAC School).

For further information: [email protected]
Article in Flash (French only),
http://developpement-durable.epfl.ch/durabilis

EPFL Library Teaching Collection
Over 2000 books systematically bought in several copies are offered through the EPFL Library’s Teaching collection (Collection d’enseignement).

Continuously enriched through cooperation between lecturers and librarians, this collection is extremely useful as teaching support materials. With their course notes listing bibliographical references, the lecturers enable the library to follow a purchasing policy closely related to the needs of students and their courses. The library makes students’ job easier by providing a direct link between each title in the collection and the NEBIS catalogue.
The collection is widely used: from September 2011 to June 2012, 15,265 loans and 8,100 consultations on the spot were recorded. With the constant growth in student numbers, however, the library finds it hard to keep up with the demand, as space for collections is limited.

For further information (French only)
Enquiries: [email protected]

2nd International Day at EPFL
In the framework of the EPFL Forum, International Relations and the Student Exchange Office organised an International Day on 10 October 2012. In addition to company displays, the Forum hosted some twenty stands from selected partner universities whose representatives were there to answer questions from the students.
http://ri.epfl.ch/internationalday

Information: International Relations, [email protected]

CLUSTER Meeting at EPFL
EPFL hosted the latest meeting of the Steering Committee for the CLUSTER network, organised by the International Relations department. The delegates came to our campus on 8 and 9 October 2012.
http://www.cluster.org
Information: International Relations, [email protected]

Inauguration of the EuroTech Universities Network in Brussels
The EuroTech Universities network is rapidly expanding. The Brussels office is operational and a permanent coordinator recently took up his position there. The official launch of the network and inauguration of the premises took place in Brussels on 11 and 12 October, in the presence of major high-level delegations from all four partner universities in the network (EPFL, DTU, TUM, TU/e). Aside from meetings between the Presidents and Vice Presidents, research workshops brought together the scientists involved in joint projects between the four universities.
Information: International Relations, [email protected]

New Agreement with Russian University
EPFL has concluded an Agreement of Academic and Scientific Cooperation with M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University in May 2012 – the number one Russian university in all rankings and renowned for its strengths in Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
Information: International Relations, [email protected]

2012 Swiss-Korea Science Day (SNU-KAIST-ETHZ-EPFL Symposium)
The 2012 Swiss-Korea Science Day was held from April 16th-18th in Seoul. This event was kicked-off with a welcome dinner by the Swiss Embassy; the Symposium was initiated by EPFL and SNU, and the Lift event introduced by Présence Swiss. A total of five outstanding professors in the field of biomedical engineering from each University were invited and presented their work. The Symposium was designed by ETHZ and EPFL and organized by all four of the below institutions:
• SNU - Seoul National University
• KAIST - Korea Academy Institute of Science and Technology
• ETHZ - Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zurich
• EPFL - Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Participants from EPFL were, Prof. José del Millàn, Prof. Pascal Fua, Prof. Jeffrey Hubbell and Prof. Hubert Van den Bergh. During the Lift event, Prof. del Millàn and his colleague, Dr. Leeb, demonstrated their «mind-controlled robot» which was the most popular demonstration. Their work was disclosed in the Korea Herald on April 25th, 2012.

Dr. JongEun Imh & Mr. Marius Burgat – International Relations (article by)