Two teenagers earn special EPFL degrees

Over the past five years, these students have spent all their Wednesday afternoons in math class at EPFL, much like other gifted children specialize in a sport, dance or musical instrument. They came to EPFL at the age of 10 or 12, encouraged by their teachers or parents. After passing an entrance exam, they attended a weekly math class in parallel to their regular school attendance. Two of these students have now earned the coveted Euler Course degrees. The degree also grants them admission into the second year of EPFL’s bachelor program in mathematics, which means they can earn that degree in two years instead of the standard three.

A hard-earned degree
“It’s a big sacrifice, a long-term commitment,” explains Kathryn Hess Bellwald, who created the EPFL Euler Course. As a teenager she benefited from a similar program in the United States, and with Patrick Aebischer’s encouragement she set up EPFL’s first course for mathematically gifted children. “What I’d like to say is that a gift doesn’t amount to much unless it is put to use. There’s nothing inherently meritorious about having an IQ of 170 at birth if you don’t do anything with it, and this is why I created this course – so these children can do something with their gifts.”

Just two ordinary (or almost) students
These first two graduates of the class that began the program in 2008 are 17-year-old Benjamin Favre, and 18-year-old William Borgeaud. They’ve been juggling their maturité exams and their EPFL commitment. They also had to pass two extra physics tests in order to gain admittance to the 2nd year at EPFL. “It was easy,” explains William. “Benjamin and I prepared on our own using exercises available on the Internet.”

Does this apparent facility with the subject matter belie a huge amount of hard work? Not really. Both students say it’s a matter of being disciplined, and they didn’t stress about it. “After class you have to do your series, just like music students practice their scales.” But is it possible to have a social life in addition to all this extra math? “I play Tchoukball, a team sport that’s kind of a mélange of handball, volleyball and squash,” says Benjamin, who also helps younger students in the Euler Course. William spends his free time at the movies, following his passion for black and white films of the 1940s – 1970s.

So they’re just two ordinary (or almost ordinary) students. Benjamin is not quite sure yet what he would like to do in the future, but William is determined to continue on the path he has always imagined: as a child he wanted to be an astrophysicist, and today he is shooting for Bachelor’s degree and eventually a PhD, followed by a career in research. “In the Euler Course you learn 19th century mathematics, but in my research I’ll be doing 21st century mathematics.”

No piece of cake
Every year some 200 students take the entrance exam, and about 10% succeed. Forty percent of next year’s entering class are girls – a first!
The Euler Course has five classes, each of which has ten students. They follow a six-year curriculum in which they first study secondary school math and then higher level high school math at a much faster pace than they would in their regular school classes. Then, in a second cycle, they study the university-level math topics that they’d encounter in EPFL’s first years: linear algebra, geometry and calculus.

“These aren’t “fun” classes but intensive ones; we’re following a tight program,” explains EPFL scientist Jérôme Scherer. But how do you get 10-year olds interested in pure math? “We don’t require the same things as the regular public schools. We have students who are bored to death in their regular school classes, but here they bloom. Some have perfect grades in every subject, while others don’t. We enable them to realize their potential.”

Next year a new group of gifted students will receive their degrees. When we remind William and Benjamin that Kathryn Hess Bellwald will be their math professor next year, they say they hope they will just blend into the rest of the students in the hundred-seat auditorium.