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École Centrale Paris

École Centrale Paris (ECP; also known as École Centrale or Centrale) was a French grande école in engineering and science. It was also known by its official name École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures. In 2015, École Centrale Paris merged with Supélec to form CentraleSupélec, a constituent college of the University of Paris-Saclay.[2]

Motto

Leader, Entrepreneur, Innovateur

1829–2015

2,505
(1,789 engineer candidates)[1]

Founded in 1829, it was among the most prestigious and selective grandes écoles. Rooted in rich entrepreneurial tradition since the industrial revolution era, it served as the cradle for top-level engineers and executives who continue to constitute a major part of the industry leadership in France. Since the 19th century, its model of education for training generalist engineers inspired the establishment of several engineering institutes around the world, such as the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland, Faculté polytechnique de Mons in Belgium, as well as other member schools of the Ecole Centrales Group alliance in France, Morocco, China, and India.[3]

Partnerships[edit]

École Centrale Paris was one of the Centrale Graduate Schools associated as the Groupe Centrale network with its sister institutes (Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, Beijing, Hyderabad (with Mahindra Group) and Casablanca).


Since 1837, the school had established several international partnerships (double degrees, exchanges, research collaboration) with the world's leading universities, such as California Institute of Technology, University of Cambridge, ETH Zurich, Georgia Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Indian Institutes of Technology, KAIST, Princeton University, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Politecnico di Milano, National University of Singapore, Stanford University, University of Toronto, Tsinghua University, TU Delft and Technische Universität München. It was a founding member of the TIME (Top Industrial Managers for Europe) network among top engineering schools in Europe, and also a member of the UniverSud Paris and the CESAER association of European engineering schools.[5]

Initially located in the Hôtel de Juigné (now Hôtel Salé and home to the Musée Picasso), the main campus of the school 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 arrondissement):


The school is now located at Châtenay-Malabry, Hauts-de-Seine, a southern suburb of Paris (in the Île-de-France region), next to the Parc de Sceaux and its Château de Sceaux. Within the main campus at Châtenay Malabry, ECP hosts eight laboratories:


Most of the 2000 students at École Centrale Paris stay in dedicated on-campus student residences, which is located near the research labs and easily accessible via public transport.


Following the merger of the school with Supelec, now forming CentraleSupelec, the progressive move of the campus has started from Chatenay-Malabry to Gif-sur-Yvette.

Admission[edit]

Most French students who were admitted to École Centrale Paris had completed 2 to 3 years of post high school education in sciences through the classes préparatoires or prépas, which corresponds to freshman and sophomore years at US universities. The classes préparatoires is itself a selective and academically intensive program that admits less than top 10% of high school graduates in France each year.[14] The entrance examination to the grandes écoles including École Centrale Paris is taken by students only at the end of their second year in prépas (Mathématiques spéciales).


For its flagship degree program leading to the French engineer's degree (Diplôme d'ingénieur), in 2016 for instance, École Centrale Paris recruited among the top 4% candidates from prépas for a quota of about 400 students, in addition to some 50 international students from top foreign universities after an equivalently selective process.[15]


International students are first selected internally by their respective home universities on the basis of academic performance (within top 10% GPA) and receive additional training in various subjects including mathematics, sciences, computing, and French language for at least 1–2 years on top of their undergraduate degree program requirements. International students then apply and compete for admission to each grande école via written and oral examinations, and the application must include 2 referrals by professors, a record of extracurricular achievements, internship or research/project experiences, and a motivation letter.


Lastly, a small number of places for the engineer degree program is reserved for French university graduates who have excelled in a relevant 3-year bachelor's degree program.

Curriculum[edit]

The general engineering program at Centrale was multidisciplinary and typically lasted between 3 and 4 years. The curriculum was similar to those offered at other general engineering schools (écoles d'ingénieurs généralistes). All courses were taught in either French or English.


During the first year (Tronc Commun, or Common Core), students were required to study several subjects in science (mathematics, quantum physics, biology...), engineering (continuum mechanics, heat transfer, algorithms, programming...), as well as social sciences (economics, management, foreign languages...). In the second year, students were given the option to choose elective courses but with heavy emphasis in science nevertheless. The first two years were also used to train students in various research, startup and industry projects. In the third year, students could choose to major (specialize) in a particular field depending on their academic and professional interests. Upon graduation, students received the degree of Diplôme d'Ingénieur (equivalent to Master of Science) along with the title of Ingénieur diplômé, which was more commonly called Ingénieur centralien.

The Graduate School[edit]

The school offered a broad range of specialized master's programmes in science and engineering (one-year or two-year programs).[16]


It also offered various PhD programmes for holders of a master's degree. More than 200 doctoral candidates currently work in one of the eight laboratories of the school.

(1830), inventor of the multiple-effect evaporator[17]

Norbert Rillieux

(1855), designer of the Eiffel Tower and the internal structure of the Statue of Liberty

Gustave Eiffel

(1834–1916), businessman, engineer, and politician

Édouard von Jaunez

(1856), architect of the first steel framed building in Chicago

William Le Baron Jenney

(1860), inventor of Leclanché cell

Georges Leclanché

and René Panhard (1864), founders of the first car manufacturing company, Panhard et Levassor

Émile Levassor

(1877), founder of Michelin

André Michelin

(1879) a pioneer of reinforced concrete

Edmond Coignet

(1882), president of the Compagnie française des métaux

Georges Vésier

(1895), aviation pioneer, first pilot to cross the Channel

Louis Blériot

French aeronautical engineer, inventor of the Darrieus wind turbine

Georges Darrieus

(1895), founder of automobile maker Peugeot (Peugeot PSA)

Armand Peugeot

(1901), French aeronautical engineer, patented the first ramjet engine

René Lorin

(1905), American mathematician

Solomon Lefschetz

(1906), aeronautics pioneer, founder of Latécoère and Aéropostale (later Air France)

Pierre-Georges Latécoère

(1907), co-founder of Schlumberger Limited

Marcel Schlumberger

(1908), pioneer of helicopters

Etienne Oehmichen

(1942), writer

Boris Vian

former Iranian Prime Minister

Mehdi Bazargan

(1947), founder of Bouygues

Francis Bouygues

(1948), Corporate Executive at IBM

Jacques Maisonrouge

(1955), founder of the Accor group (Novotel, Sofitel, Mercure, All Seasons hotels)

Gérard Pélisson

Peugeot holding president as of 2005

Robert Peugeot

(1966), singer-songwriter, navigator

Antoine

(1967), computer scientist

Henri Gouraud

(1968), physicist, Vice President of the French Academy of Sciences

Sébastien Candel

Justin Ndioro (1972), former Cameroonian Minister of Finances (1993–1996)

physicist and professor, Research Director of the CEA

Étienne Klein

(1976), French delegate minister for research (2005–2007)[18]

François Goulard

(1979), CEO of Air Liquide

Benoît Potier

Pierre Chappaz (1982), founder of

Kelkoo

(1982), President and CEO of Thales Alenia Space

Jean-Loïc Galle

(1983), Vivian Church Hoff Professor of Aircraft Structures in the School of Engineering and inaugural James and Anna Marie Spilker Chair of the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, at Stanford University; Member of the National Academy of Engineering (US); Member of the Royal Academy of Engineering (UK); and Member of the Lebanese Academy of Sciences

Charbel Farhat

(1984), founder of Business Objects

Bernard Liautaud

(1987), former CEO of Michelin

Édouard Michelin (born 1963)

(1987), investor and highest paid trader in London

Driss Ben-Brahim

(1988), CEO of Poweo[19]

Charles Beigbeder

(1991), professor of chemistry at Bar-Ilan University

Gilbert Daniel Nessim

(1991), JPMorgan Chief Investments Trader, a.k.a. the 'London Whale'[20]

Bruno Iksil

(1993, 1996), climate scientist[21]

Valerie Masson-Delmotte

(1994), Rio Tinto CEO

Jean-Sebastien Jacques

(2000), the 'Fabulous Fab'

Fabrice Tourre

(1995), CEO of Moderna

Stephane Bancel

Olivier Pomel (1999), Founder and CEO of

Datadog

Alexis Lê-Quôc (1999), Founder and CTO of Datadog

Bernard Liataud (1984), Founder and CEO of and Balderton Capital

BusinessObjects

Jean-Baptiste Kempf (2006), Creator of and VideoLAN

VLC media player

Soulaymane Kachani, Columbia University's Senior Vice Provost

The following is a non-exhaustive list of notable alumni of Ecole Centrale Paris, also commonly known as Centraliens or Pistons, which is a reference to the piston engine as one of the key innovations that powered the French industrial revolution.


Name (Year of graduation):

– mathematician

Paul Appell

– economist, vice president of the European Commission, French prime minister

Raymond Barre

– physicist, president of the French Academy of Sciences

Sébastien Candel

– engineer and physicist

Jean-Daniel Colladon

– physicist, known for the Coriolis effect

Gustave-Gaspard Coriolis

– chemist, known for atomic weights

Jean-Baptiste Dumas

– mathematician

Jacques Hadamard

– physicist and philosopher of science

Étienne Klein

– mathematician

Joseph Liouville

– chemist, discovered the first enzyme

Anselme Payen

– physicist, known for the Péclet number

Eugène Péclet

– mathematician

Émile Picard

Centrale-Supélec Career Fair

Education in France

English official website

TIME association Network

Alumni Association Website (in French)

"Understanding the Grandes écoles"

A detailed explanation on the admission process for the centralien curriculum on Stanford University's website