École Centrale Paris is a renowned French university-level institution (
Grande EcoleThe grandes écoles of France are higher education establishments outside the mainstream framework of the public universities system...
) in the field of
engineeringEngineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or inventions.The American Engineers' Council...
. It is also known by its original name
École centrale des arts et manufactures, or
ECP. Founded in 1829, it is one of the oldest and most prestigious engineering schools in France and has the special status of Grand établissement. École Centrale Paris offers graduate degree programs as well as
PhDPHD may refer to:* Parisada Hindu Dharma, an Indonesian reform organization* PHD, a track on The Crystal Method album Tweekend* PHD finger, a protein sequence* PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company...
opportunities. However, Ecole Centrale Paris is not ranked among the 500 best schools and universities in the ranking carried out by the Jiao Tong University of Shanghai (2008 Academic Ranking of World Universities).
École Centrale Paris is one of the Centrale Graduate Schools associated as the Intergroupe des écoles centrales network with its sister institutions (
LyonÉcole 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:...
,
LilleLocated in the campus of the University of Lille in France, the Ecole Centrale de Lille is a renowned Graduate Engineering school established in 1872 as the Institut industriel du Nord , with roots back to 1854....
,
NantesÉcole centrale de Nantes is one of the leading French Grandes écoles of engineering.As a Centrale Graduate School, it implements a similar Centralien programme of engineering education as in École centrale de Lille, École centrale de Lyon, École centrale de Marseille and École centrale Paris.It is...
,
MarseilleThe École centrale de Marseille is a Grande école of engineering in Marseille, France, that was created in 2006 by the merging of different previous institutions established in the late 19th century in Marseille, and that implements a Centralien educational Programme for engineers, similar to the...
, and
BeijingIn 2005, Centrale Graduate School, as a French University-grade Grandes écoles of engineering, helped to open at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in China a new educational partner of their network supporting the Centralien engineering curriculum.-External links:*...
).
It was the founder in 1988 of the TIME (
Top Industrial Managers for EuropeTop Industrial Managers for Europe is a network of more than fifty engineering schools and faculties and technical universities....
) network, which allows for student exchanges between leading European engineering schools. It also belongs to
CESAERThe Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research, or CESAER, is a nonprofit association of leading engineering universities in Europe. CESAER was set up on May 10, 1990, with headquarters in Leuven, Belgium...
, an association of European engineering schools.
Location
École Centrale Paris is located in
Châtenay-MalabryChâtenay-Malabry is a commune in the south-western suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 10.8 km from the center of Paris....
,
Hauts-de-SeineHauts-de-Seine is a département in France. It is part of the region of Île-de-France region, and covers the near western suburbs of Paris...
, a southern suburb of
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
,
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
(in a region called
Île-de-FranceÎle-de-France is one of the twenty-six administrative regions of France, composed mostly of the Paris metropolitan area. Its name literally means "Island of France", maybe from ancient Frankish Liddle Franke, "little France"....
), next to the Parc de
SceauxSceaux is a commune in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located 9.7 km from the center of Paris.-Wealth:Sceaux is famous for the Château of Sceaux, set in its large park , designed by André Le Nôtre, measuring...
and its
Château de SceauxThe Château de Sceaux in its formal park laid out by André Le Nôtre lies at the heart of Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, not far from Paris. It houses the Musée de l’Île-de-France, a museum of local history. The former château was built for Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis XIV's minister of finance, who...
.
History
The École was founded in 1829 on a private initiative by
Alphonse LavalléeAlphonse Lavallée is the founder of the École Centrale Paris, a French Grande École.He was born in 1791 in Savigné-l'Évêque . He became a businessman in the region of Nantes...
, who was its first president, and three associates:
Eugène PecletJean Claude Eugène Péclet was a French physicist.He was born in Besançon, France.Péclet became, in 1812, one of the first students of the École Normale in Paris with Gay-Lussac and Dulong being his professors. In 1816, he was elected professor at the Collège de Marseille and taught physical...
,
Jean-Baptiste DumasJean Baptiste André Dumas was a French chemist, best known for his works on organic analysis and synthesis, as well as the determination of atomic weights and molecular weights by measuring vapor densities...
, and
Théodore Olivier. The founding vision was to educate multidisciplinary engineers for the emerging industrial sector. The institution was offered to the French
stateA sovereign state is a political association with effective internal and external sovereignty over a geographic area and population which is not dependent on, or subject to any other power or state...
in 1857 by its creator,
Alphonse LavalléeAlphonse Lavallée is the founder of the École Centrale Paris, a French Grande École.He was born in 1791 in Savigné-l'Évêque . He became a businessman in the region of Nantes...
.
Initially located in the Hôtel de Juigné (now Hôtel Salé and home to the
Musée PicassoThe Musée Picasso is an art gallery located in the Hôtel Salé in rue de Thorigny, in the Marais district of Paris. The hôtel particulier that houses the collection was built between 1656 and 1659 for Pierre Aubert, seigneur de Fontenay, a tax farmer who became rich collecting the gabelle or salt tax...
), it was transferred to rue Montgolfier in 1884, where it stayed until 1969. Its current location neighbours the Parc de Sceaux.
Former location of the École centrale, rue Montgolfier in Paris (3rd arrondissementThe City of Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements municipaux administrative districts, more simply referred to as arrondissements . These are not to be confused with departmental arrondissements, which subdivide the one hundred French départements...
)
The Centralien Programme
The
centralien Program is the original and main programme offered by the École. It is quite different from typical university or college studies; and specific to the French system of Grandes écoles. Studies go beyond the undergraduate level and the engineering degree of École centrale Paris (
Ingénieur centralien or “centralien engineer”) is equivalent to a
Master of ScienceA Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in a large number of countries...
. The curriculum is similar to those offered at other French
Grandes écolesThe grandes écoles of France are higher education establishments outside the mainstream framework of the public universities system...
, such as
École PolytechniqueThe École Polytechnique is the foremost French engineering school. Known for its extremely competitive entrance exam, it produces graduates that occupy outstanding positions in industry and research...
, École des Mines de Paris, École Supérieure d'Électricité (
Supélec), or École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées.
The class of 2008 is about 450 students.
Admission
Most of the students are admitted after two to three years of classes préparatoires, which correspond to two years of post high-school education with heavy emphasis on Maths and Physics (
freshmanA freshman is a first-year student in an educational institution. The term first year can also be used as a noun, to describe the students themselves A freshman (or sometimes fish, freshie, slang plural frosh) is a first-year student in an educational institution. The term first year can also be...
and sophomore years at US universities). At the end of the second year (“Mathématiques spéciales”) students can take a nation-wide competitive entrance examination for the
Grandes écolesThe grandes écoles of France are higher education establishments outside the mainstream framework of the public universities system...
, including École centrale Paris. The ECP recruits among the top 6% of the students in
classes préparatoires, who represent 4% of higher education students, which makes it a selective and prestigious institution.
A few students come from French universities after completing three years of post high-school education.
A significative contingent of students also comes from leading international universities which belong to the
TIME networkTop Industrial Managers for Europe is a network of more than fifty engineering schools and faculties and technical universities....
(Top Industrial Managers for Europe).
Curriculum
Education at the ECP is multidisciplinary and typically lasts three to four years. During the first year (
Tronc Commun, or “Common Trunk”), students are required to take classes in science (Mathematics, Physics, Biology); in engineering (Continuum Mechanics, Heat transfer, Digital image processing, Computer programming,…) and in social sciences (Economics, Management, foreign languages,…). After this year of “Tronc commun”, students choose all their course in a list respecting expectations from the administration. An excellent level in sciences in required. Then in the third year, students chose a major in a particular field which they study for one year and a half to two years. After completing these 3 years and a half to four years of education, they receive the degree of “
Ingénieur des arts et manufactures”, more commonly called “ingénieur centralien”.
National and international ties
The École centrale Paris belongs to the French intergroupe des écoles centrales, together with
École centrale de LyonÉcole 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:...
,
École centrale de LilleLocated in the campus of the University of Lille in France, the Ecole Centrale de Lille is a renowned Graduate Engineering school established in 1872 as the Institut industriel du Nord , with roots back to 1854....
,
École centrale de NantesÉcole centrale de Nantes is one of the leading French Grandes écoles of engineering.As a Centrale Graduate School, it implements a similar Centralien programme of engineering education as in École centrale de Lille, École centrale de Lyon, École centrale de Marseille and École centrale Paris.It is...
,
École centrale de MarseilleThe École centrale de Marseille is a Grande école of engineering in Marseille, France, that was created in 2006 by the merging of different previous institutions established in the late 19th century in Marseille, and that implements a Centralien educational Programme for engineers, similar to the...
and
École centrale de PékinIn 2005, Centrale Graduate School, as a French University-grade Grandes écoles of engineering, helped to open at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics in China a new educational partner of their network supporting the Centralien engineering curriculum.-External links:*...
(
BeijingBeijing is a metropolis in northern China and the capital of the People's Republic of China...
).
Since 1837, the school has built important international ties with several
world-renowned universities.
Students come from around the world to study for several years on the school campus. École Centrale students may also obtain a “double degree” at one of the partner schools, depending on the school, field of study, and degree type.
Furthermore, the École is one of the founding members of the
TIMETop Industrial Managers for Europe is a network of more than fifty engineering schools and faculties and technical universities....
(Top Industrial Managers for Europe) network.
Research
The ECP hosts eight laboratories:
The graduate school
In addition to the
centralien training, the
École centrale Paris offers a broad range of master's programs in science and engineering (1 year- or 2 year-programs). These programmes are open to applicants having completed their undergraduate studies at other institutions.
The ECP also has a
Ph.D.Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated PhD , for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", or alternatively, DPhil, for the equivalent , is an advanced academic degree awarded by universities...
programme for students with a master's level. More than 200 doctoral candidates work in one of the 8 laboratories of the school.
Alumni
They include:
- Gustave Eiffel
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel , was a French structural engineer and entrepreneur and a specialist of metallic structures...
(1855), engineer and architect, famous for the Eiffel towerThe Eiffel Tower is a 19th century iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris that has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The Eiffel Tower, which is the tallest building in Paris, is the single most visited paid monument in...
in ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
- William Le Baron Jenney
William Le Baron Jenney was an American architect and engineer who became known as the Father of the American skyscraper .- Biography :...
(1856), architect of the first ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
building
- Georges Leclanché
Georges Leclanché was a French electrical engineer chiefly remembered for his invention of the Leclanché cell, one of the first modern electrical batteries and the forerunner of the modern dry cell battery.-Biography:...
(1860), created the Leclanché cellGeorges Leclanché invented and patented in 1866 his battery, the Leclanché cell. It contained a conducting solution of ammonium chloride, a cathode of carbon, a depolarizer of manganese dioxide, and an anode of zinc. The Leclanche battery was essentially a self-contained version of an earth...
- Émile Levassor and René Panhard (1864), founders of the first automobile manufacturing company, Panhard et Levassor
Panhard is now a French manufacturer of light tactical and military vehicles. Its current incarnation was formed by the acquisition of Panhard by Auverland in 2005. Panhard had been under Citroën ownership, then PSA , for 40 years. The combined company now uses the Panhard name...
- André Michelin
André Michelin was aFrench industrialist who, with his brother Édouard , founded the Michelin Tyre Company in 1888 in the French city of Clermont-Ferrand.In 1900, André Michelin published the first Michelin Guide, the purpose of which was to promote tourism by car, thereby...
(1877), founder of MichelinMichelin based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France, is primarily a tyre manufacturer, currently either the world's second-largest or the largest...
- Louis Blériot
Louis Blériot was a French aviator, inventor and engineer. In 1909 he completed the first flight across a large body of water in a heavier-than-air craft, when he crossed the English Channel. For this achievement, he received a prize of GB£. He also is credited as the first person to make a...
(1895), aviation pioneer, first pilot to cross the Channel
- Armand Peugeot
Armand Peugeot was an industrialist, pioneer of the automobile industry and the founder of the French firm Peugeot.-Family:...
(1895), founder of automobile maker Peugeot (Peugeot PSAPeugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest European carmaker.Peugeot's roots go back to 19th-century coffee mill and bicycle manufacturing. The Peugeot company and family is originally from Sochaux, France. Peugeot retains a large manufacturing plant and...
)
- Solomon Lefschetz
Solomon Lefschetz was an American mathematician who did fundamental work on algebraic topology, its applications to algebraic geometry, and the theory of non-linear ordinary differential equations.-Life:...
, American mathematician (1905)
- Pierre-Georges Latécoère
Pierre-Georges Latécoère was a pioneer of aeronautics. Born in Bagnères-de-Bigorre, he studied in the École Centrale Paris and, after the First World War, started a business in aeronautics. He directed plants that made planes and opened the first airlines that operated from France to Africa and...
(1906), aeronautics pioneer, founder of Latécoère and L'AéropostaleAéropostale was a pioneering French aviation company. It was founded in 1918 in Toulouse by Pierre-Georges Latécoère as Société des lignes Latécoère, known as Lignes Aeriennes Latécoère or simply the "Line". Latécoère envisioned an air route connecting France to the French colonies in Africa and...
(one of the founding companies of Air FranceAir France is a French airline headquartered in Tremblay-en-France, France , and is one of the world's largest airlines. It is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance...
)
- Marcel Schlumberger
Conrad Schlumberger and Marcel Schlumberger were brothers from Alsace...
(1907), co-founder of Schlumberger Limited
- Etienne Oehmichen
Étienne Oehmichen was a French engineer and helicopter designer.-Life:He studied at École Centrale Paris...
, pioneer of helicopters (1908)
- Boris Vian
Boris Vian was a French polymath: writer, poet, musician, singer, translator, critic, actor, inventor and engineer. He is best remembered today for his novels. Those published under the pseudonym Vernon Sullivan were bizarre parodies of criminal fiction, highly controversial at the time of their...
(1942), writer
- Mehdi Bazargan
Mehdi Bazargan was a prominent Iranian scholar, academic, long-time pro-democracy activist and head of Iran's interim government, making him Iran's first prime minister after the Iranian Revolution of 1979. He was the head of the first engineering department of Tehran University...
, former IranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
ian Prime MinisterA prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. The position is usually held by, but need not always be held by, a politician. In many systems, the prime minister selects and can dismiss other members of the cabinet, and...
- Francis Bouygues (1947), founder of Bouygues
Bouygues is a French industrial group listed on Euronext Paris exchange and is a blue chip in the CAC 40 stock market index. The company was founded in 1952 by Francis Bouygues and since 1989 has been led by his son Martin Bouygues. In 2008 it had over 145,150 employees in 80 countries...
- Gérard Pélisson (1955), founder of the Accor
Accor is a large French multinational corporation, part of the CAC 40 index, operating in nearly 100 countries. Headquartered in Courcouronnes, Essonne, France, near Évry, Accor is the European leader in hotels and a global leader in corporate services .Accor Hospitality, the Accor hotels branch,...
group (Novotel, Sofitel, Mercure, and All Seasons hotels)
- Guy Lebègue
Guy Lebègue, is a French engineer in the space domain, graduated from École centrale Paris, alumni 1962.He is the inventor of the name Spacebus, the largest series of European communications satellite saled all over the world, with a total business revenue over 8 G€ .- Short Biography :During his...
(1962), inventor of the SpacebusSpacebus is a satellite bus produced at the Cannes Mandelieu Space Center in France by Thales Alenia Space. Typically used for geostationary communications satellites, fifty two have been launched since development started in the 1980s. Spacebus was originally produced by Aérospatiale, and later...
name
- Robert Peugeot
Peugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest European carmaker.Peugeot's roots go back to 19th-century coffee mill and bicycle manufacturing. The Peugeot company and family is originally from Sochaux, France. Peugeot retains a large manufacturing plant and...
, PeugeotPeugeot is a major French car brand, part of PSA Peugeot Citroën, the second largest European carmaker.Peugeot's roots go back to 19th-century coffee mill and bicycle manufacturing. The Peugeot company and family is originally from Sochaux, France. Peugeot retains a large manufacturing plant and...
holding president
- Antoine (1966), singer
- Henri Gouraud
Henri Gouraud may refer to:*Henri Gouraud *Henri Gouraud...
(1967), computer scientist
- Benoît Potier
Benoît Potier, a graduate of the École Centrale Paris, a prominent engineering school, has been CEO of the French multinational industrial gas company Air Liquide since 2001. Potier also holds an MBA from INSEAD-External links: Category:French businesspeople...
(1979), CEO of Air LiquideL'Air Liquide S.A., or Air Liquide , is a major French company supplying industrial gases and services to various industries including medical, chemical and electronic manufacturers. Founded in 1902 it is second on the world market in its field, operating in over 70 countries. It is headquartered...
- Bernard Liautaud (1984), founder of Business Objects
- Édouard Michelin
Édouard Michelin was a French industrialist. He was born in Clermont-Ferrand, France. Édouard was co-director of the Michelin company, along with his brother André. In 1889, he improved greatly on the design of the pneumatic tyre for bicycles, making them easier to repair. His company began...
(1987), former CEO of MichelinMichelin based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne région of France, is primarily a tyre manufacturer, currently either the world's second-largest or the largest...
- Driss Ben-Brahim
Driss Ben-Brahim is employed by London-based GLG Partners. He was a former partner and head of Goldman Sachs trading, based in London, England. He was the "toast of the City of London" in 2003 when he received what was then the largest bonus in the City's history — £30M.On the 13 December 2006...
(1987), trader in London[]London is the capital of England and the United Kingdom. It has been a major settlement for two millennia, and the history of London goes back to its founding by the Romans, when it was named Londinium. London's core, the ancient City of London, the 'square mile', retains its medieval boundaries...
expected to have received the largest bonus in the City's history
- Charles Beigbeder (1988), CEO of Poweo
- François Goulard
François Goulard is a member of the National Assembly of France. He represents the Morbihan department, and is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement....
(1976), French delegate minister for research (2005-2007)
Notable faculty
They include:
- Eugène Péclet, physicist, gave his name to the Péclet number
In fluid dynamics, the Péclet number is a dimensionless number relating the rate of advection of a flow to its rate of diffusion, often thermal diffusion. It is equivalent to the product of the Reynolds number with the Prandtl number in the case of thermal diffusion, and the product of the Reynolds...
- Jean Baptiste Dumas, chemist
- Gustave-Gaspard Coriolis, gave his name to the Coriolis effect
In physics, the Coriolis effect is an apparent deflection of moving objects when they are viewed from a rotating reference frame.Newton's laws of motion govern the motion of an object in an inertial frame of reference. When transforming Newton's laws to a rotating frame of reference, the Coriolis...
- Jean-Daniel Colladon
Jean-Daniel Colladon was a Swiss physicist. He studied law but then worked in the labs of Ampère and Fourier. He received an Académie des Sciences award with his friend Charles Sturm for their measurement of the speed of sound in water in Lake Geneva in 1826. He then became professor of mechanics...
, Swiss engineer and physicist
- Anselme Payen
Anselme Payen was a French chemist known for discovering the enzyme diastase, and the carbohydrate cellulose.Payen was born in Paris...
, chemist, discovered the first enzymeEnzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called substrates, and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, called the products. Almost all processes in a biological cell need enzymes to occur at...
- Mathematicians Joseph Liouville
Joseph Liouville was a French mathematician.- Life and work :Liouville graduated from the École Polytechnique in 1827. After some years as an assistant at various institutions including the Ecole Centrale Paris, he was appointed as professor at the École Polytechnique in 1838...
, Émile Picard, Paul Appell and Jacques HadamardJacques Salomon Hadamard was a French mathematician who made major contributions in number theory, complex function theory, differential geometry and partial differential equations.-Biography:...
- Raymond Barre
Raymond Octave Joseph Barre was a French centre-right politician and economist. He served as Prime Minister under Valéry Giscard d'Estaing from 1976 until 1981. As a candidate for the presidency in 1988, he came in third and was eliminated in the first round...
(Vice-president of the European CommissionThe European Commission acts as an executive of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union.The Commission operates in the method of cabinet government, with 27...
in the 1960s and French prime minister in the 1970s) was professor of economics in the 1960s
- Sébastien Candel, foreign member of the american National Academy of Engineering
The United States National Academy of Engineering , a private, non-profit institution that was founded in 1964 under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the National Academy of Sciences...
and American Institute of Aeronautics and AstronauticsThe American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics is the professional society for the field of aerospace engineering. The AIAA was founded in 1963 from the merger of two earlier societies: the American Rocket Society , founded in 1930 as the American Interplanetary Society , and the Institute...
fellow
External links
See also
- Grands établissements
The grands établissements are French public institutions under ministerial charter under the administrative category referred to as Établissements publics à caractère scientifique, culturel et professionnel...
- Education in France
The French educational system is highly centralized, organized, and ramified. It is divided into three different stages:* primary education ;* secondary education ;...
- Grandes écoles
The grandes écoles of France are higher education establishments outside the mainstream framework of the public universities system...