Diploma from EPFL in hand and ready to write the next chapter

These students have been a fixture of campus life over the past five or six years, whether rushing from one class to the next, standing in line in front of a food truck, studying for exams in the library, running scientific experiments in a lab or taking part in any of a number of student activities. And now, they’ve joined the ranks of our alumni. This year’s graduating class has over 100 more students than last year’s. And if you add in the friends and family members who also came to the ceremony, a total of around 3,000 people attended the 2024 Magistrale.

This graduation ceremony provides an opportunity for students to celebrate the completion of their studies and obtain the valuable diploma attesting to their accomplishment. It marks the closing of one door, as the young graduates will be saying goodbye to daily life on campus, but also the opening of another, as they’re about to embark on exciting careers.

These freshly minted graduates aren’t the only ones who will soon be writing the next chapter of their lives. This was Martin Vetterli’s eighth and last Magistrale as EPFL’s president, before he hands over the reins to Anna Fontcuberta i Morral at the start of next year.

For the common good

Martin Vetterli gave his keynote speech in the presence of Guy Parmelin, the head of the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research, as well as former Federal Councillor Johann Schneider-Ammann. In his remarks, Vetterli reminded graduates that they benefited from a high-quality educational system, for which they can now serve as ambassadors. “You’re living proof that Switzerland has an affordable public-education system that works,” he said. “We hope that you, as alumni, will now help us both maintain and improve it.”

Vetterli also stressed that today’s young graduates have a responsibility to guide the development of artificial intelligence, which, “like many inventions that came before it – writing, numbers, printing, the scientific method, computers and computational science – will transform, for better or worse, how we work, conduct research, innovate and live together in society.” He called on graduates to be mindful of how they use AI: “Remember that progress is blind and technology is one-eyed: it seizes opportunities but overlooks the risks. So stay vigilant and contribute to the debate, so that society doesn’t fall victim to AI driven by a profit motive, but rather leverages the potential of AI to improve the common good.”

Guy Parmelin, the minister who supervises EPFL, paid homage to Prof. Vetterli for his services: “I’d like to thank you for your hard work and dedication to both EPFL and Swiss research in general. You’ve been an amazing ambassador for our universities and an active – not to say zealous – advocate of research in our country.”

The ceremony was accompanied by live music from saxophone player Marta Martinez and her jazz orchestra. After the students were handed their diplomas, awards were given out to those with the highest GPAs and to those who combined their studies with athletic achievement. In addition, doctor honoris causa distinctions were given to Kazuyo Sejima, the cofounder of the SANAA architectural firm and one of the architects behind the Rolex Learning Center, and Daniel Huttenlocher, the first dean of the Schwarzman College of Computing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The art of teaching math

Next, awards were given to faculty members and other members of our community. Pierre Dillenbourg, EPFL’s Associate Vice President for Education, gave out the Best Teaching Award (formerly the Credit Suisse Award) to Giulia Tagliabue, a tenure-track assistant professor at the Laboratory of Nanoscience for Energy Technologies.

This was followed by the Polysphère teaching awards for each of the four schools. These awards are selected by the students and handed out by the AGEPoly association. Florian Karl Richter, a tenure-track assistant professor and holder of the Chair of Ergodic Theory, won the highest distinction – the Golden Polysphère – in recognition of his skills in teaching mathematics. The Outstanding Commitment Award, introduced two years ago to recognize the exceptional work done by an EPFL employee, was given to Alice Emery Goodman and a special award was given to the AGEPoly. Four EPFL alumni, Samantha Anderson, Hadi Barkat, Silvia Quarteroni and Marc Ph. Stoecklin, were given an Alumni Award for their remarkable careers.

The ceremony concluded with Vetterli’s traditional selfie with the audience, before the graduates headed to the lecture halls for the ceremonies given by their individual departments.