École Polytechnique Fédérale de
Lausanne
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Established:
1853, Opened 1869
Type:
Public
President:
Patrick Aebischer
Undergraduates: ~ 5,000
Postgraduates:
~ 1,400
Location:
Lausanne, Vaud,
Switzerland
46°31′13″N 6°33′56″E /
46.52028°N 6.56556°E /
46.52028;
6.56556Coordinates:
46°31′13″N 6°33′56″E /
46.52028°N 6.56556°E /
46.52028; 6.56556
Campus:
Urban
Nationalities:
100+
Website:
www.epfl.ch
EPFL
Location: Lausanne, Switzerland
The École Polytechnique Fédérale de
Lausanne (EPFL) is one of the two Swiss
Federal Institutes of Technology and is
located in Lausanne, Switzerland. The EPFL
is ranked the world’s 18th university in the
field of "Engineering/Technology and Com-
puter Sciences"
in
the 2008 academic
ranking of world universities by Shanghai
Jiao Tong University [1]. The EPFL is in the
heart of Europe and is one of Europe’s lead-
ing institutions of science and technology.
EPFL is often cited as Europe’s MIT due to
its scientific and technological research ad-
vances.[2][3]
The school was founded by the Swiss
Federal Government with the stated mission
to:
• Educate engineers and scientists
• Be a national center of excellence in
science and technology
• Provide a hub for interaction between the
scientific community and industry
The sister institution in the German-speaking
part of Switzerland is the Eidgenössische
Technische Hochschule Zürich (ETH Zürich
or ETHZ). Associated with several specialised
research institutes, the two sister institutes
form the ETH Domain, which is directly de-
pendent on the Federal Department of Home
Affairs.
History
Founded in 1853 as a private school under
the name École Spéciale de Lausanne, it be-
came the technical department of the public
Académie de Lausanne in 1869. When the
latter was reorganized and acquired the
status of a university in 1890, the technical
faculty
changed
its
name
to École
d’Ingénieurs de l’Université de Lausanne. In
1946, it was renamed the École Polytech-
nique de l’Université de Lausanne (EPUL).
In 1969, the E