Huge Success for the 2019 Open House
© Jamani Caillet / EPFL 2019
The EPFL campus was full of fun this weekend during the Open House organised for the School's 50th anniversary. Nearly 40,000 visitors were on site over the weekend.
An attractive programme combining demonstrations, lab visits, conferences, workshops and drone races drew crowds to EPFL's 2019 Open House. With the help of the weather, nearly 40,000 people, including many children, came to discover what the Ecole polytechnique de Lausanne, which became a federal institution 50 years ago, had in store.
The organisers could not contain their contentment. "Nearly 1500 employees and students enthusiastically agreed to participate in the celebrations, whether to animate stands or guide visitors - and always with a smile," says Maureen Décosterd, Head of the Mediacom Events Department.
As for attendance, measured both by the security services and the counting mats developed by one of our School’s start-ups (Technis), it was slightly higher than expected. This is despite the fact that the event took place during the bank holiday weekend, and that the CERN in Geneva was also hosting its Open House.
The conferences animated by Fred Courant have been a huge success. © EPFL / Jamani Caillet
EPFL's Open House has become a real tradition. They are organised every three to five years, in accordance with special events, such as this year’s fiftieth anniversary of the federalisation of the School, which took place in 1969. We are lucky enough to be able to count on the public to attend, eager to discover this environment, which has become world-famous for the quality of its teaching, research and the innovation it cultivates.
"Our status as a public school requires us to regularly report to the population on our activities, says Martin Vetterli, President of EPFL. We are particularly delighted to be able to do this in the form of such a wonderful and popular event as this one, and to see that the audience was in attendance!"