Curriculum Organisation

The curriculum is divided into 6 semesters composed of lectures, supervised and practical courses, along with project work and internships.

The aim is to make students gradually become actors in and responsible for their own training by means of a balanced skill approach, an enhanced individualisation of their course and adapted accompaniment.

Ist Year (Bachelor’s Year): The Fundamentals

The first year is devoted to acquiring the foundations of engineering knowledge relating to fields of electronics, computer science, mathematics and materials and life sciences. There are in addition modules in enterprise discovery, engineering professions, management techniques and fields of excellence.

2^nd Year (Master’s Year 1): Basic Fields of the System Approach

The second year aims to integrate the system approach and to attain a supplementary level in the assumption of autonomy through more developed contexts (robot and industrial projects, entrepreneurship) and a reinforcement of personal working.

The year initially focuses on the finalisation of basic learning acquisition relating to embedded systems and information systems. Significant time is devoted to general engineering training (industrial engineering).

The industrial project serves as the main theme throughout the year for developing the system approach. Particular attention is paid to capacities and aptitudes of agile thinking, such as identifying shortcomings, learning to learn or to know how to adapt to succeed. Specific skill acquisitions are thus proposed to students in the context of their industrial project.

3rd Year (Master’s Year 2): Learning to Improve Knowledge and Understanding through Specialised Courses

The third year is dedicated to the learning of new technologies applied to specific sectors such as security, embedded systems, logistics and bio-electronics. It is composed of developed knowledge teaching leading to R&D type technical projects and ending with a final year internship lasting 6 months. Each student builds up an individualised course content composed of:

One major course from 3 available

One technological theme from 4 available

A study project related to the chosen theme

A workshop week from a dozen choices

An optional professional course from 5 available

Professional experience: projects and internships.

Throughout the course student engineers will carry out several projects and internships which will help them both to develop their skills and aptitudes and to construct a professional integration project. They will be able to benefit from logistical support and advice from the teaching team and researchers.

The proposed projects are rich and varied, structured around the understanding of the innovation cycle, from surveying the market through to the production and implementation phases. They form an integral part of a coherent and progressive teaching structure, thus enabling each student to learn and master, step by step, the different facets of his/her profession. The management courses are designed as direct supports for the practical exercises. These projects are completed by two internships, placed at the beginning of the course (discovering the enterprise) and at the end (final year internship).

Simulated and actual professional situations represent 45% of the total work time.

Semesters 5, 6 and 7 : Robot project.

Built around three sessions (1 per semester), this project allows students to apply electronic and computer science practices to a concrete object with incrementing complexity. The project relies on theoretical knowledge developed during other courses and allows the development of practical design skills, implementation and testing, combining electronics and embedded computer systems.

Semester 6: Discovering the Enterprise work experience

This company work experience, lasting one month, allows the student to discover how an enterprise functions. It takes place at the end of semester 5 of the first year.

Semester 6: The “Solidarity Engineers in Action” projects

The “Solidarity Engineers in Action” projects are citizen projects carried out by 1^st year ISMIN students in the framework of their engineering course. More than 15 annual projects are proposed to the student engineers who form groups of between 4 and 6 students. The projects develop the student’s capacity to work in teams, to manage projects and to open up to fields that are not just scientific.

The actions concern humanitarian, social, sustainable development, cultural, scientific and educative fields.

From the creation of a Science Café to the running of scientific workshops in primary and middle schools, or popularising science in prisons, the projects allow the student engineer to open up to issues of society and its components.

2^nd Year (Master’s Year 1): Entrepreneurship

This activity consists in asking each student to undertake a concrete experience of entrepreneurship, chosen from a large range of possible activities: participation in an event, a challenge, a startup weekend … It is up to each student to determine the scenario and the form of participation, best suited to his/her centres of interests and ambitions.

Semesters 7 and 8: Industrial project

The objective of the industrial project is to elaborate and develop, in groups of 3 or 4 students, a concrete solution or response to a real need expressed by an external client, a partner company of the School. The expected outcome consists in providing a hardware or software prototype or model. The project will be carried out in two phases: during Semester 7 the team learns to draw up and negotiate a set of project specifications, which will then be undertaken during a period of 4 months, on a full-time basis, on the School premises, with tutorials in project and team management. The industrial project enables students to undergo a full scale experience as engineer-designer.

Semester 9 : Innov’actions (Master’s Year 2)

During a period of 3 days non-stop, in a hackathon type format, 3^rd year students will set to work in small groups, on collaborative innovation projects, around a given theme, integrating reflections on meanings and uses. Competing against the others, the group will pitch its ideas at the end of the workshop to a professional jury to convince them of the pertinence, feasibility and potential of their creation project.

Semesters 9 and 10: Study project

Towards the end of the specialisation studies, some 100 hours are devoted to developing an innovative prototype or model linked directly with the chosen technological issue. These projects are proposed by an enterprise or research team. They aim to apply all the acquired technical and scientific knowledge to an R&D question, where the student engineers’ creativity and spirit of innovation are directly solicited.

Semester 10: Final internship

The final internship, lasting six months, is placed at the end of the 3^rd year programme.

It takes the form of an engineering project and is based on a research and design office type of development: developing software programmes, a prototype of an electronic card, study and application of an information system…

It can be undertaken within a company (a major group, SME or start-up), or in a research laboratory, and can be situated in France or abroad.