EPFL launches a new Master of Science program in Digital Humanities

From September 2016, the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne will start a new Master of Science program that addresses a fast developing field: the acquisition, analysis and visualisation of (big) data, focusing on cultural, historical and social media corpora. This Master of Science in Digital Humanities, the first and only one in this field in Switzerland, joins the other 23 Masters proposed at EPFL. It is designed to address the lack of experts able to analyse and interact with rich cultural, historical, and social media data, which is one of the major challenges in the coming years.

This Master will cover topics such as the analysis of human behavioural patterns using social network data, the creation of a smartphone app to identify paintings or details in paintings using deep learning techniques, and the layout analysis over millions of digitized newspaper articles from the last two centuries. The need for experts able to use digital technologies and computer science on data linked to humanities and to the cultural, historical, and commercial interests is growing and is in strong demand in private and public institutions.

This two-year program offers 120 ECTS and an interdisciplinary study plan at the intersection between computer science, engineering, humanities and social sciences. The aim of the Master of Science program is to merge theoretical learning with practical and project-oriented training. EPFL graduates in Digital Humanities will therefore have the scientific rigor necessary to develop new algorithms and systems, and to understand their impact in a broader social and cultural context.

This new specialized Master of Science in Digital Humanities addresses students with basic polytechnic education including statistics, probability, and programming, as well as a demonstrable interest in the broader field of humanities and social sciences. Graduates will have the necessary skills to join Google, Facebook or Microsoft, Nespresso or Cisco, the media (radio and TV networks), international organizations, as well as cultural institutions like libraries and museums.