Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

The Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) is a Swiss federal institute of technology in Lausanne, on the south shore of Lake Geneva. It began in 1853 as a private technical school and became a federal institute in 1969, the French-speaking counterpart to ETH Zurich. The campus at Ecublens adjoins the University of Lausanne.

Teaching and research are grouped into schools of Basic Sciences; Engineering; Computer and Communication Sciences; Life Sciences; and Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, plus the College of Management of Technology and the College of Humanities. Graduate students work in the Rolex Learning Center, campus laboratories, the EPFL Innovation Park, and centers such as the Center for Neuroprosthetics. Chemistry laboratories associated with Michael Gratzel developed dye-sensitized solar cells.

About 13,000 students are enrolled, and more than half are international, from more than 110 countries. Doctoral candidates number about 2,200. Faculty are recruited worldwide. Figures associated with the institute include chemist Michael Gratzel and computer scientist Martin Odersky, who created the Scala language on the campus.

Master's degrees are taught largely in English as two-year M.Sc. programs; the doctorate is organized through a doctoral school with early coursework and laboratory research. The calendar follows the European semester system. Students live in campus housing or in Lausanne, Renens, and Ecublens, with metro and bus links along the lake.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) lists 43 graduate programs across 23 subjects: 25 master's programs and 17 doctoral programs, with the widest choice in electrical engineering, computer science and physics. Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) holds rank 57 in the GSN Overall University Ranking.