École centrale de Lyon

Infobox University
name = Ecole Centrale de Lyon


motto = "A Grande école without boundaries"
president = Patrick Bourgin
type = Public, Grand établissement
established = 1857
city = Ecully
country = France
students = 1400
affiliations=Centrale Graduate School
website = http://www.ec-lyon.fr

École Centrale de Lyon is one of the most prestigious French Grandes écoles of engineering. It is also referred to as ECL or EC-Lyon. It is one of the Centrale Graduate Schools.

Location

The school is located in Écully, a western suburb of Lyon, France (in a region called Rhônes Alpes).

History

It was founded in 1857 on a private initiative by Désiré Girardon, who was its first President. The founding vision was to educate multidisciplinary engineers for the emerging industry (“doctors for fabs and plants”). The institution was given to the French State Ministry of Education in 1947. Initially located downtown Lyon, it was transferred to Écully, its current location.

Academics

The "centralien" program is the main academic program offered by the École Centrale de Lyon, as a Centrale Graduate School. It is quite different from typical university or college studies; and specific to the French system of Grandes écoles. The engineering degree of école centrale de Lyon ("Ingénieur centralien" or “centralien engineer”) is a Master of Science degree.

The defining characteristic of the curriculum is that it is multidisciplinary, with studies focusing on all math and physics derived engineering specialties: mechanics, aeronautics, electrical engineering, physics, materials, fluid mechanics, applied mathematics, civil engineering, telecommunications and computer science.

Admission

The large majority of the students are admitted after two to three years of classes préparatoires, known as "mathematics superior" and "mathematics special", which are an undergraduate cursus with almost exclusive emphasis on Math and Physics. These undergraduate students must then take a nation-wide competitive entrance examination (Concours Centrale-Supélec) to enter a Centrale Graduate School, including Ecole Centrale de Lyon. Ecole Centrale de Lyon recruits among the top 6% of the students in "classes preparatoires", which makes it a selective and prestigious institution.A few seats are available each year to select students from French universities after completion of three or four years of post high-school education.A significant contingent of students also comes from leading international universities which belong to the TIME network (Top Industrial Managers for Europe).

Curriculum

Education at the ECL is multidisciplinary and typically lasts three to four years. During the first two years ("Tronc commun", or “Common Trunk”), students take mandatory classes in science (Mathematics, Physics); in engineering (Solids Mechanics, Heat transfer, Digital image processing, Computer programming,…) and in social sciences (Economics, Management, foreign languages,…). Students are then offered to sign up for different engineering specialties during their last year at the school. After completing these 3 years of education, they receive the degree of “ingénieur de l'École centrale de Lyon”, more commonly called “ingénieur centralien”.

National and international ties

The "École centrale de Lyon" belongs to the French intergroupe des écoles centrales, together with École centrale Paris, École centrale de Lille, École centrale de Nantes, École centrale de Marseille and École centrale de Pékin .

Since 1857, the school has built important international ties. Students come from around the world to study for several years on the school campus. "École centrale" students may also obtain a “double diploma” at one of several partner schools. Furthermore, the École is one of the founding members of the TIME network (Top Industrial Managers for Europe). ( [http://www.ecp.fr/en/D_international/D5_universites_partenaires/D5a_liste.htm Member List] )

Research

The École centrale de Lyon is highly involved in research, and has the highest rate of PhD lecturers amidst the French Grandes écoles.

ECL hosts 7 laboratories related to the University of Lyon:
* CEGELY : Electrical Engineering [http://cegely.ec-lyon.fr/]
* ICTT : Teleformation, Teleinteractivity [http://www.insa-lyon.fr/ictt]
* INL : Lyon Institute of Nanotechnology [http://inl.cnrs.fr/]
* LMFA : Fluid Mechanics and Acoustics [http://www.lmfa.ec-lyon.fr/]
* LTDS : Tribology and Systems dynamics [http://ltds.ec-lyon.fr/]
* LIRIS : Computer Science, Signal and Image Processing [http://liris.cnrs.fr/]
* MAPLY : Applied Mathematics [http://maply.univ-lyon1.fr]

Some famous alumni

* Paul-Émile Victor (1928), explorator,
* Antoine Bethenot (1945), member of the Academy of Sciences
* Marc Riboud (1947), Photograph
* Auguste Moiroux (1949), Industrial
* Georges Penz (1949), CEO of Chantiers de l'Atlantique,
* Pierre Beuzit (1966), Research Director of Renault/Nissan,
* Pascal Henault (1970), research director of Peugeot/Citroën,
* Christian Mari (1974), Research Director of Snecma Moteurs,
* Olivier Piou (1980), CEO of Gemalto, world leader of chip card Roland Moreno,
* Didier Lamouche (1981), CEO of Bull .

The Graduate School

In addition to the "centralien" engineering programme, the "École centrale de Lyon" offers a broad range of master's programs in science and engineering (1 year- or 2 year-programmes). These programmes are opened to applicants having completed their undergraduate studies at other institutions.

The ECL also has a Ph.D. program for students with a master's level. More than 100 doctoral candidates work in 5 different laboratories in the school.

ee also

Intergroupe des écoles centrales

External links

* [http://www.ec-lyon.fr/ Official website]