Seminars in Electrical and Micro Engineering

Summary

This course introduces broad research directions in electrical and micro engineering through a series of weekly, wide-audience seminars delivered by distinguished speakers. The students practice transferable skills, including active listening, critical thinking, and scientific communication.

Content

Learning Prerequisites

Important concepts to start the course

NA

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

• Categorize • Categorise the research scope of IEM in general to facilitate the selection of their future semester projects.
• Identify • Identify the latest research directions being pursued in the field of electrical and micro engineering.

Transversal skills

• Give feedback (critique) in an appropriate fashion.
• Access and evaluate appropriate sources of information.
• Summarize an article or a technical report.
• Design and present a poster.
• Demonstrate the capacity for critical thinking
• Take feedback (critique) and respond in an appropriate manner.
• Communicate effectively with professionals from other disciplines.

Teaching methods

• Weekly lectures (1h)
• Self-paced learning with materials provided by the seminar speakers
• Presentation instructions and feedback

Expected student activities

• Attend all IEM seminars.
• Participate actively during the seminar and ask questions to the speaker.
• After the seminars, define a research topic of the most interest and study that research field and related papers.
• Prepare posters.
• Take part in the group discussion and provide feedback to other students' presentations.
• Participate in the oral exam of the PhD course EE-625.

Assessment methods

• Attendance at the IEM Distinguished Lecturers Seminars. Exceptions can be granted by contacting the course teachers or TAs.
• Final poster presentation, which counts for 100% of the grade.
• The evaluation will take place by the end of the semester, during a session dedicated to student poster presentations. Each student presents one topic (e.g., a paper) drawn from the seminar speakers, introducing the background of the research field, ongoing studies, and future directions. The student must be able to present it to anybody using a single poster, answering questions like: Why is this field important? What's the dream goal/application? What is the field trying to achieve? What are the key scientific challenges? What is worth spending time on as a researcher in this field? How can I illustrate this research field in an accessible way without being overly technical? What is the goal of the presented work, and in what sense does it push the frontiers of the field? The clarity and design of the poster is also taken into account during the evaluation.
• The poster is evaluated by the course teachers, by other course students, and by the PhD students enrolled in the EE-625 course.

Supervision

Resources

Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)

No

Notes/Handbook

• Guest lecture notes and supporting materials

Moodle Link

• https://go.epfl.ch/MICRO-555