The second half No news since February ... Good news: D
I will not take the excuse of work, it was much cooler than in the first half.
I could go out every Wednesday night with Xchange. Xchange Erasmus is the association. Each week they organize a party with free admission (with map Erasmus and / or student) and drinks at reduced prices. Usually a pub or club DEFOIS both if the bar does not club.
Getting back to school.
Monday of the recovery I wonder quietly (with 15 minutes in advance !!!!) current Business Plan. The teacher never came. We later learned that the course would not occur, the teacher being abroad and no replacement has been found.
For the course of Entrepreneurship & Emerging Economies, I went to the first two courses. It should be about every two weeks. The contents could be interesting, but the project was to create a game for train companies to multi-culture and so on. I did not pursue this course.
So I ultimately
Monday from 9am to 13pm: Virtual Reality (4 credits)
Tuesday from 9am to 12pm: Early detection of Technological Innovation potential (4 credits)
Wednesday from 9 am to 12 pm: High-tech Marketing ( 4 credits)
Thursday from 16h to 19h: Entrepreneurship (4 credits)
And especially my semester project at VRLAB (Virtual Reality Lab) (12 credits)
largment I spent more time than expected in the laboratory. But the atmosphere was really nice and I got to the end of the project.
level course in Virtual Reality, I have made a 3D billiards game, with half of my grade.
(The game is prettier than that, it is integrated in a bar scene with a jukebox for music etc). For Early Detection course of Technological Innovation Potential (EDTIP) I had planned the study of transport in cities in a future medium-term (30 years) followed by a review I did not really like (a matter on one end of the movie Minority Report then a fairly QCM vicieu on the way).
For the course of Electronics Marketing, no consideration. It falait make a marketing plan for a product that we chose a group of 4, participate in class and write a paper 3 to 6 pages on the key points we learned during the course.
My last class on entrepreneurship course is a story unto itself (the course is open to people from HEC Lausanne). The course was to present a business plan for a startup in the Hi-tech.
At the second course, we had to come up with an idea in mind businnes. The groups were "randomly" (some people have lied about their HEC curriculum, they are actually spent for engineers to be more friends HEC).
So I came down with 4 other people. A German Erasmus at EPFL is an engineering supply chain between raw and science. Two Swiss and Mexican HEC HEC.
I give here a very personal opinion but that will count much later in my career path. I honestly think that people who were with me and from HEC lack a technical basis. A simple example of reflection on the idea of business.
The proposal of the two Swiss HEC was to make a syrup dispenser (and water). They had possibly reflecting intelligently, they would drink water with syrup to beverage dispenser next to the Coke Zero and red bull. So why not a machine to dispense the syrup and water. And why not put the syrup and water in an aluminum canister and put it directly next to the other drinks ... cost of machine development and manufacturing cost of deployment = 0 = 0 etc.. (Idea stolen from another guy HEC by the way). Another idea to a company which sends the ashes of loved ones in space. (A pity it is already ...).
For cons the lady was quick-witted. She said she was still struggling with high heels when she must move quickly (run after the subway etc.).. It therefore proposed to design shoes with retractable heels. After a quick search, I started to saw that the company already offered and that it could be difficult to have a shoe rigid enough to withstand the high position while being comfortable without heel.
I will not talk over the idea developed, it has little importance.
I'll add that it is not necessarily easy to make the link between the technical people (engineers) and marketing both in the working method that level communication (replies to emails after 40 retries etc. for certain. ). In parallel
in this course, we had to "play" in an online simulation to create startup and write a report. It was damn good as simulation. There was no discussion and more. I had 5.5 to matter.
Finally I have two things to be accomplished during this semester. The presentation of my semester project to those of the laboratory (20 minutes) and review virtual reality (the course given by the director of my lab).
Let's talk about what I'll do next, the master thesis (CTB in France).
EPFL offers students a database of courses. You can register for 3 proposals per round. There were 3 rounds. The problem is that if the company accepts the application, the student is forced to go (EPFL puts his reputation at stake, its serious blabla).
I really wanted to go in Asia. I tried two courses. The first at Microsoft Research India. They contacted me a month after telling me that because of the crisis World, they did not take a trainee. I also tried
Microsoft Research China, which proposed an internship where the student proposes a topic (the course description was written in incomprehensible English Chinese). So I offered to work in the telecommunication between individuals (VOIP, video conferencing etc..) But rather they sought people in signal processing ... I do not want to do!
Eventually I'll go quietly in the laboratory MICA Vietnam.
My master project will last six months (September 14, 2009 to March 12, 2010). I asked for two small grants of 700 francs each at EPFL for departure. I
do validate my internship in France and Switzerland and I'll pass defenses in the two universities.
Anyway ... I sum up my semester in a nutshell: EPFL is awesome!
I am 6 months during most of my colleagues in France, but I never regret my choice.
remmerci I very very very chalereux Yann Labussiere helped me to organize my year at the EPFL and for his advice. He advised me to do the Masters, he was right!
(I note that according to the classification of Shanghai University of Engineering and Computer Science, EPFL is the 18th largest in the world, 2nd in Europe behind Cambridge (15th) http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/ARWU-FIELD2008/ENG2008.htm).
I do not even speak of meetings that I have done, people around the world, friends from united states, Macedonia, Spain, Bulgaria etc.. But it's a good experience abroad, I think people went to Sweden at KTH have had the same kind of experience.
Ah done ... if you have a choice between going 6 months or 1 year in Erasmus, please, stay as long as possible. It takes 6 months to know the environment, get used and just start enjoying;).
