Program Overview

Program Overview

The Communication Systems program at EPFL is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the complex and fascinating universe of communication systems. This field, which lies at the junction of mathematics, computing, and electrical engineering, is crucial in today's society, where the circulation of information continues to grow at a breakneck pace.

Program Description

The program focuses on the development of new communication methods that allow data to be compressed, protected from environmental risks, and secured against malicious attacks. This involves cryptology, a field that is continually evolving to resist the efforts of hackers. Wireless applications are also a major area of development, with the miniaturization of components enabling the installation of sensors in various objects, which can communicate over networks and enable actions to be monitored or triggered.

Program Structure

The training for communication systems engineers is founded on mathematics, computer science, electricity, and telecommunications. The study program promotes the opportunity to spend a year in a foreign university, chosen from the large number of institutions EPFL has frequent student exchanges with.

Bachelor's Program

• The first year of the Bachelor's program provides students with fundamental basics in mathematics, computer science, and information science, along with a project that enables them to have their first real experience of their future specialization.
• At the end of the preliminary year, students can choose to remain in Communication Systems or to change to Computer Science.
• The second and third years involve basic training in mathematics and physics, as well as specific fields with classes on network security, signal processing, circuits and systems, stochastic models for communications, etc.

Master's Programs

• Master's degree in Computer Science: This program offers several specializations, including computer engineering, computer science theory, cyber security, data analytics, foundations of software, internet information systems, networking and mobility, signals, images and interfaces, software systems, and wireless communications.
• Master's degree in Data Science: This program aims to place students at the forefront of the exciting development of data science, which extracts knowledge by analysis of large, noisy, complex, and often heterogeneous data.
• Master's degree in Cyber Security: In collaboration with ETH Zurich, this joint-degree program offers a broad set of courses such as cryptography, formal methods, systems, network and wireless security.
• Neuro-X Master's degree: This program enables students to work for clinical applications, product development, fundamental or translational research, either with an experimental or information-technology oriented bend.

Career Prospects

Graduates of the Communication Systems program can work in areas such as R&D, project management, big data, crypto-currencies, or information security. They can function as experts in the efficient treatment, safe storage, and rapid transmission of immense quantities of data. Those wishing to specialize further or to follow an academic career could also choose to join a PhD program.

Alumni Testimonial

I have always been interested in the web and computer networks, so I chose to study Communication Systems.

Yannick Do, Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Communication Systems

After graduation, alumni have gone on to work in various fields, including consulting firms for technology, where they specialize in technical architecture and installation of IT infrastructures and processes. They have also worked on many different projects, discovering new cultures and learning about international collaboration and scientific intelligence. The high-quality and intense studies at EPFL have prepared them to learn quickly and take up new challenges every day.