École des Ponts Paris Tech

Ecole des Ponts ParisTech, created in 1747 under the name École Royale des Ponts et Chaussées, is a higher education establishment that trains engineers to a high level of scientific, technical and general competency. Apart from civil engineering and spatial planning, historically the source of its prestige, the School develops high-quality programs and research associated with the energy transition.

The Graduate School, underpinned by the excellence of its 12 research labs, develops Masters and PhD programs in mechanical and civil engineering, materials sciences, nuclear engineering, mathematics, information technology, environmental sciences, urban planning, transportation, economics, and sociology.

Through its subsidiaries or in its own right, it develops initial education and lifelong learning that are closely connected with different sectors of the economy.

Building the worlds of tomorrow. Tackling major societal challenges has been essential to the School’s history and continues to guide it. So building a future in a world that is becoming aware that resources are limited and that human activities affect the environment at planetary scale, is a formidable challenge that the young generations graduating from the School will need to take on.

In a fast changing environment of globalized education and research, with growing international competition, École des Ponts ParisTech maintains its aspiration to be a leading international player in higher education and research.

Since January 1, 1994, École des Ponts ParisTech has been officially recognized in France as a public scientific, cultural, and professional institution (EPSCP), accountable to the Ministry of the Environment, Energy, and the Sea (MEEM). This legal status allows it to foster initiatives that encourage dynamic development.

The Scientific Council is responsible for proposing priorities for scientific policy to the School Council. It may be consulted on any issue relating to the performance of the laboratories and to PhD programs. The chair is selected by MEEM (Ministry of the Environment, Energy, and the Sea) from the different individuals appointed.

In France, the building of roads, bridges and canals was for a long time the sole prerogative of aristocrats, merchant associations or monastic orders. With Colbert, more effective policies emerged, but technicians were recruited on an ad hoc basis. It was not until 1716 that a properly appointed corps of engineers was created by royal order: the Corps des Ingénieurs des Ponts et Chaussées.

The introduction of a specific training programme for this corps was decided by the Royal Order of February 14, 1747, the School’s founding act. And until 1794, the School was marked by the personality of its director, Jean-Rodolphe Perronet, engineer, talented administrator and erudite scholar who contributed to the production of Alembert and Diderot’s Encyclopaedia. At this time, the School had around fifty students (Lebon, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Méchain, Brémontier…) and not one teacher. Indeed, the students taught themselves and each other to obtain a theoretical grounding in geometry, algebra, mechanics, hydraulic.

The theoretical instruction was underpinned by a fairly intense practical training through annual assignments to provincial construction sites or through collaborations with scientists and aristocrats. This practical aspect of the training was also reflected in the requirement on the students to take part in the mapping of the Kingdom.
Assessment was based on a number of factors: work rate, previous studies, outside courses, the annual assignments, classes taught and examination results. The period of study could therefore last from 4 to 12 years.

The education gradually became structured and Ponts et Chaussées engineers steadily increased their prerogatives, obtaining a virtual monopoly over planning and development. With the Revolution, the authoritarian nature of this policy came under attack, and the idea emerged of creating a powerful school bringing together students from Ponts, Mines and Génie. The École Polytechnique thus came into being in 1795 and Ecole des Ponts was retained as an applied school.