EPFL Students visit campus in April 2010

The EPFL campus in Ras Al Khaimah, called EPFL Middle East, is starting to take form. But a campus needs students, or at least prospective students. By inviting potential Masters students from a domain that is important for the future campus, the dean of EPFL Middle East, Franco Vigliotti, was both promoting his campus and possibly recruiting future students, but most importantly he tested the educational attractiveness of the project. It was a success, “the students who were the most skeptical about visiting were among the ones who came up to me at the end and said, ‘I’d like to do my master’s degree here!’” explains the dean.

Twenty-one bachelor students from the department of Electrical Engineering boarded a plane in Geneva in early April of this year—direction Ras Al Khaimah, one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula . Like many third-year bachelor students at EPFL, they had a vast choice of places to visit for their class trip, but they ultimately chose the arid desert over the luxuriant landscape of Asia. And it was neither the sky-piercing towers of Dubai nor the gold and silver markets of Abu Dhabi that drew them to the region, but a more modest building hosting an ambitious EPFL project in the Middle East. They were invited into the temporary quarters of EPFL Middle East, the future EPFL campus.
The students arrived on Friday, April 2nd, and spent a week in the Emirates. They started their trip with a safari in the desert but soon turned to more serious ventures. Over the next three days the group visited industries and universities—including the well-known Masdar Institute of Science and Technology—with some presenting their own bachelor projects and student life at EPFL. In the end, the students found a balance between the joys of travel and the obligations of the future—they saw the largest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and immersed their senses in the gold and spice souks for which the region is known.

Linea Ugnat – class representative and co-organizer of the trip
“Within the past five years, Ras Al Khaimah has experienced important industrial changes and the trend is expected to continue for years to come. The region will have to face the difficulty of providing unsalted water and electricity for the new companies and their employees. EPFL, with its plan to establish an offshore campus in the region, will surely contribute to the scientific development of RAK and thus help build its future. I’m glad that we, as students, took the opportunity to discover a region that will certainly be very influential for the future of engineers from various scientific backgrounds.”

Jean-Baptiste Haury – participating student
While Jean-Baptiste was skeptical about the trip, he quickly became one of its most enthusiastic participants. Perhaps it is because he got to present his bachelor’s project to several audiences. “MY presentation was well received and there were a lot of pertinent questions,” said the young researcher. His project—examining the mechanical power of the local train LEB in order to determine if the batteries could be dimensioned to recuperate energy from breaking or going downhill—is pertinent in a region looking for new ways to save energy. “One has the impression that, from an engineering point of view,” Jean-Baptiste explains, “everything is possible in the Emirates. Mr. Vigliotti told me that I’ve got a place at EPFL ME if I want, and I might very well take it.”