A new collaborative course format is launched at l'X

École Polytechnique has launched the first edition of a new collaborative course format, named "Collider". The course has been developed as part of the EuroTeQ Engineering university* project, of which the School is a founding member. Promoting a challenge-based learning approach, the eight-week course allows students to develop new technical competencies while working alongside research professors and corporate partners on particular problems. In addition, as the participants tackle the challenges in teams, the innovative, collaborative setup also stimulates soft skills development.

“Contributing to resolving a problem on a societal theme that they relate to is extremely stimulating for students. Moreover, the challenge-based learning approach and the experience of working within a diverse team (students, PhD candidates, scientists, and industry experts) will also prove valuable in their future careers", explains Caroline Cohen, research professor at École Polytechnique and Learning & Development Manager of the course.

Existing, real-world challenges

Each edition of the Collider is placed under an all-embracing theme to which every challenge has to refer. Following the motto "Leave no waste behind" - the theme of this first edition – the course focuses on the theme of waste reduction.

Students, staff, and industry partners had the opportunity to submit ideas to influence the formulation of the challenges to be addressed during the EuroTeQ Collider course. Subsequently, an academic committee analyzed the suggestions to identify principal themes and formulate the final challenges. Finally, to ensure the challenges represent real problems, the academic committee collaborated with industrial partners, which support École Polytechnique in the context of the EuroTeQ project.

Formulated in conjunction with three industrial partners, the challenges for this first Collider edition at École Polytechnique are 1. Carbon capture efficiency, 2. Reducing the impact of plastic waste, 3. Optimization of detection radars, 4. a new approach to recharge electric cars.

Supported by experts

Based on the four suggested challenges, the participants split into teams and further define the problem they wish to work on. Then, they will tackle the chosen challenge during the eight-week course and present their project to a jury at the end of the course. The winning team will qualify to participate in the EuroTeQaThon. This European competition of the best teams of the six EuroTeQ partner universities will take place on June 11-12 and select the overall winning team.

* The six founding partners of EuroTeQ Engineering University are École Polytechnique, Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Technical University of Munich (TUM), Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), and Czech Technical University in Prague (CTU).