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École nationale des ponts et chaussées  |
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| Established: | 1747 |
| Type: | French Grande Ecole, member of ParisTech (Paris Institute of Technology) |
| Director: | Philippe Courtier |
| Students: | 1200 |
| Undergraduates: | No undergraduate student |
| Postgraduates: | 1,000 |
| Doctoral students: | 150 |
| Location: | Paris, Champs-sur-Marne, France |
| Nickname: | Les Ponts |
| Affiliations: | ParisTech (Paris Institute of Technology), Conférence des Grandes Ecoles |
| Website: | www.enpc.fr |
Founded in 1747, the École nationale des ponts et chaussées (ENPC) ("National school of Bridges and Roads"), often referred to as les Ponts, is the world's oldest civil engineering school. It remains to this day one of the most prestigious French Grandes Écoles of engineering.
It is headquartered in Marne-la-Vallée (suburb of Paris), and has historical buildings in Paris. It is the oldest and among the most prestigious institutes members of ParisTech (Paris Institute of Technology).
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History
1747-1794: Origins
Following the creation of the Corps of Bridges and Roads in 1716, the King's Council decided in 1747 to found a specific training course for the state's engineers, as École royale des ponts et chaussées. In 1775, the school took its current name as École nationale des ponts et chaussées.
The school's first director, from 1747 until 1794, was Jean-Rodolphe Perronet, engineer, civil service administrator and a contributor to the Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert. Without lecturer, fifty students initially taught themselves geometry, algebra, mechanics and hydraulics.
1794-1945: Growth and industrialisation
During the First French Empire, a number of members of the Corps of Bridges and Roads (including Barré de Saint-Venant, Belgrand, Biot, Cauchy, Coriolis, Dupuit, Fresnel, Gay-Lussac, Navier, Vicat) took part in the reconstruction of the French road network that had not been maintained during the Revolution, and in large infrastructural developments, notably hydraulic projects.
From 1945: Modernisation
Teaching and degrees
With traditional core competences in civil engineering, environment, transport, town and regional planning, mechanics, industrial management and logistics, ENPC offers high-level programmes in an extensive range of fields, from applied mathematics to economics and management.
ENPC is among the schools called "généralistes", which means that students receive a broad, management-oriented and non-specialised education, and often quickly become top industrial managers.
Three major types of programmes are on offer :
- Engineering programmes: leading to a 5-year postgraduate engineering degree (accessible, after competitive examinations, by both undergraduate-graduate curriculum and the 2-year master course) or to masters of science
- Doctoral programmes: Ph.D.s
- Professional programmes for postgraduates: Mastères spécialisés (M.S.), MBA.
- In conjunction with Temple University-Philadelphia, USA, ENPC is the first leg of the Fox School of Business International MBA, with study in Paris, Philadelphia, and Tokyo.
ENPC is also an application school of École Polytechnique, and provides education for the Corps of Bridges and Roads.
Departments
Education for the Master of Engineering is organised in the six following departments:
- Civil Engineering and Construction
- Transport, Planning, Environment
- Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
- Applied Mathematics and Computer Sciences
- Economics, Management, Finance
- Industrial Engineering and Management
Research
ENPC runs research in the following disciplines (the names of corresponding research centres are in bracket):
- atmospheric environment (CEREA)
- water, urban planning and environment (CEREVE)
- mathematics and scientific computing (CERMICS)
- information technologies (CERTIS)
- international environment and development (CIRED)
- regional planning and social sciences (LATTS)
- urban planning and transport (LVMT)
- economics (PSE)
- soil mechanics (CERMES), materials (LAMI), materials and structures of civil engineering (LMSGC), grouped together within UMR Navier
ENPC is also the lead developer of Scilab along with INRIA.
| French science |
| Higher education |
| Universities |
| Grandes écoles |
| Grands établissements |
| EPST (public research labs) |
| Cemagref (agriculture) |
| CNRS (fundamental sciences) |
| INED (demography) |
| INRA (agronomy) |
| INRETS (transports) |
| INRIA (IT and automatic) |
| INSERM (medecine) |
| IRD (development) |
| LCPC (civil engineering) |
| EPIC (public industry) |
| CEA (nuclear industry) |
| Ifremer (maritime applications) |
Laboratoire central des ponts et chaussées or LCPC is an Établissement public à caractère scientifique et technologique 1.
Alumni and faculty
Alumni include (by alphabetical order, French unless indicated):
- Paul Andreu, architect
- Guy Béart, singer and songwriter
- Henri Becquerel, physicist
- Eugène Belgrand, engineer
- Fulgence Bienvenüe, chief engineer for the Paris metro
- André Blondel, engineer and physicist
- Albert Caquot, civil engineer, considered the "best living French engineer" during half a century
- Marie François Sadi Carnot, French president from 1887 to 1894
- Jules Carvallo, civil engineer
- Augustin Louis Cauchy, mathematician
- Louis-Alexandre de Cessart, civil engineer
- Antoine de Chézy
- Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis, mathematician and physicist
- Augustin-Jean Fresnel, physicist
- Eugène Freyssinet, structural and civil engineer, pioneer of prestressed concrete
- Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, chemist and physicist
- Fouad Laroui, Morrocan economist and writer
- Alain Lipietz, economist and politician
- Charles Joseph Minard, civil engineer and pioneer of information graphics
- Claude-Louis Navier, engineer and physicist, known for Navier-Stokes equations
- Jean-Rodolphe Perronet, architect and structural engineer
- Prince Souphanouvong, president of Laos from 1975 to 1991
- Jean Tirole, economist
- Daniel-Charles Trudaine, administrator and civil engineer
- Pierre Veltz, academic and ENPC's former director
- Louis Vicat, engineer, inventor of artificial cement
Past and present faculty include:
- Étienne-Louis Boullée, architect
- Alexander Spiers, English lexicographer
External links
- Official site
- (French) History of ENPC on the official website
- (French) Alumni website
- (French) Student association website
References
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Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 12 December 2008, at 11:06.
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