Education through research

Thanks to its 23 research laboratories, 22 of which are co-supervised with the CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique offers its students an exceptional learning environment with programs at the cutting edge of new discoveries and societal innovations. Its professors and faculty members are at the forefront of scientific advances and thus complement their students' teaching programs with current knowledge in fundamental and applied research.

Students can also take advantage of the scientific conferences and seminars held throughout the year at X on very contemporary research topics.

While research always had an important place at the School, since 2013, education through research has been emphasized in the curriculum of Ingénieur Polytechnicien program. Scientific conferences from the first year onwards, strengthening the role of the collective scientific project that allows second-year students to work on a concrete problem in the laboratories: several actions have been put in place to strengthen the porosity between education and research.

Bachelor's students benefit from privileged contacts with the laboratories of Ecole Polytechnique and can address problems on which researchers are currently working. Regardless of the specialization chosen by the students, they must complete a "Bachelor Thesis" in the third year, which takes the form of a research project. This allows them to discover the laboratories from the inside, where they interact regularly with researchers. They get to know the daily life of doctoral students, post-doctoral students, laboratory staff and eminent researchers.

A passport to positions in the international arena, the doctorate is often mistakenly associated in metropolitan France with careers exclusively dedicated to academic research. The doctorate is a real research project within a laboratory and allows students to acquire numerous skills: the preparation of a thesis is a professional project and requires strong autonomy, boldness and creativity, an ability to work in a team and in an international and competitive environment. All essential assets for the high-level researcher as well as for the future leader of large industrial projects.