The minor in Engineering for Sustainability offers EPFL Master students a unique opportunity to develop the skills and knowledge necessary to make a meaningful contribution to a more sustainable world.
The program offers an interdisciplinary set of courses and a hands-on projects that draw on themes from engineering, natural sciences, innovation and technology, and social sciences.
The minor has 3 main objectives:
- Increase students’ awareness of the complex and interconnected nature of sustainability issues
- Equip students with the necessary tools and competences to address these issues
- Foster a holistic and interdisciplinary perspective on sustainability
You should choose this minor if you want to:
- Contribute to sustainability in your future profession and help drive positive change in your field
- Nurture your passion and interest for sustainability and expand your knowledge and skills beyond your main area of study
- Put your learning into practice an exciting 10 ECTS project of your choice
The minor (30 ECTS) is composed of 20 ECTS of courses + 10 ECTS of project work.
In order to guide students in their course selection, the courses in the minor are grouped into four groups:
- Interdisciplinary project in sustainability: a 10 ECTS mandatory project specifically designed for this minor
- Foundations, Tools & Methodologies: foundational courses in environmental, economic and social sciences, complemented with fundamental tools in engineering
- Materials, Processes & Infrastructures: life cycle of different industrial segments, like energy, materials and chemical components
- Environmental & Human Systems: environmental quality assessment, integrated resource management and impact of urbanization
All students are encouraged to take courses from the “foundations, tools and methodologies” group and, depending on what is relevant to their degree, to also choose courses from the “materials, processes and infrastructures” or “environmental and human systems” group. All student have to do an interdisciplinary project in sustainability to validate the minor.
The interdisciplinary project in sustainability will gather students and teachers across different sections within the context of interdisciplinary initiatives such as MAKE, SKIL, Act for Change lab, EPFL Changemakers as well as EPFL interdisciplinary research centers such as as the joint UNIL-EPFL Center for Climate Impact and Action (CLIMACT) or the UNIL-EPFL-IMD Center Entreprise4Society.
The minor includes a mandatory interdisciplinary project in sustainability of 10 ECTS. Students are encouraged to do their project toward the end of their Master cycle as the aim of the project is to apply knowledge and skills learned during the minor. They can either join a project proposed by an EPFL unit, or propose themselves a project and find one or two supervisors.
For more details, you can consult the project guide.
To enroll for the minor, the student needs to
- Fill in the registration form and send it to email to [email protected] and in cc to the secretariat of his/her section
- Once the registration form has been validated, register on IS-Academia for the minor and corresponding classes.
Coordinator: Melanie Studer
Heads of field of study : Pierre-Yves Gilliéron & Yves Leterrier
Consultative committee:
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Prof. François Golay (ENAC)
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Prof. Holger Frauenrath (STI)
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Prof. Jean-Yves Le Boudec (IC)
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Dr. Igor Allaman (SV)
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Prof. Jeremy Luterbacher (SB)
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Dr. Marc Laperrouzza (CDH)
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Prof. Negar Kiyavash (CDM)
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Dr. Nicola Banwell (VPT)
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Charmilie Nault (CLIMACT)
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Mael Mouhoub (AGEPOLY)
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Marie Rérolle (AGEPOLY)