Minors

A Minor is a group of compulsory and optional courses from one or more Master’s programs. Students may validate a Specialization or a Minor, but not both. Specializations or Minors will be listed in the Diploma Supplement. Validation of a Minor is optional and requires at least 30 ECTS from the corresponding minor study plan.
You can only do one Specialization or Minor (52 ECTS optional courses; Master cycle = 90 ECTS). You have until the end of the first semester (MA1) to choose a Specialization or a Minor and validate the Academic Registration Form (FRAC): http://is-academia.epfl.ch/page-6244-en.html.
You need to indicate your Specialization or Minor when you validate the academic registration form FRAC (before the start of the second semester).
Every course counts ONLY ONCE. You can take “Core courses” (group 1) to validate your “Options” (Group 2), but you cannot validate one course twice (e.g. Group 1 and Group 2). If you reach 16 credits in Group 1 “Core courses”, the additional credit won’t count in the Group 2 “Options”. You may exceed 52 credits in the “Options”. However, once you validated all Groups in the Master cycle (90 ECTS), you will be enrolled into the Master project (30 ECTS).
From the list of Minors offered, we recommend the following as being particularly relevant:
- Minor in Biocomputing (SIN – Section of Informatics)
Responsible: Prof. Marcel Salathé
- Minor in Biomedical Technologies (SMT – Section of Microengineering)
Responsible: Prof. Philippe Renaud
- Minor in Biotechnology (SCGC – Section of Chemical Engineering)
Responsible: Dr. Jean-Luc Marendaz
- Minor in Computational Neurosciences (SSV – Section of Life Sciences Engineering)
Responsible: Prof. Wulfram Gerstner
- Minor in Management de la technologie et entrepreneuriat (MTE – Section of Management, Technology, and Entrepreneurship)
Responsible: Prof. Gaétan de Rassenfosse
- Minor in Neuroprosthetics (SSV – Section of Life Sciences Engineering)
Inter-faculty Minor in Neuroprosthetics (Center of Neuroprosthetics)
Responsible: Prof. José Millán & Prof. Olaf Blanke
The Disciplinary Minor in SV is only available to students of other disciplines. For other Disciplinary Minors, please check the EPFL Minors and Specializations page.
Life Sciences Engineering
8 ECTS from group 1 (core courses)
22 ECTS from group 2 (options)
Students may take one 8-credit lab immersion within group 2 optional courses.