The Ecole des Mines d'Albi-Carmaux

A Cutting Edge school

Founded in 1992, the École des Mines d’Albi-Carmaux is a leading engineering college answerable to the Minister of State for Industry. It is a member of the Groupe des Écoles des Mines (GEM), a network with longstanding experience in training future top management for cutting edge industrial and industrial service companies.

Since October 1995, the School has occupied its own 22-hectare campus at Jarlard; the campus offers 40,000 m2 of buildings, designed by architect Martin Robain, whose landmark commissions include the Institute of the Arab World in Paris and the European Parliament building in Strasbourg.
Inside the main building everything has been carefully designed to simplify the lives of the 500-odd students and 65 teacher researchers: a documentation center (20,000 works), 3 spurs totaling 6000 m2, dedicated exclusively to research, 3 lecture theaters, including the main 450- seat theater, all equipped with the latest audiovisual and multimedia installations.

A School That Trains All-Round Engineers

Every year the School grants diplomas to 150 graduate engineers. Admission is primarily competitive, following a one year class preparing for admission to the so-called Grandes Ecoles. The School also recruits by qualification (DUT, BTS, DEUG, Bachelor of Science, Master of Science) during the second and third years. Students of pharmacology (industrial stream) who have previously validated their fifth year of pharmacy study may also be admitted to the School in Year 3, in order to prepare for a double qualification, taken two years later, in pharmacology and engineering.

The School also offers continuing professional training leading to a diploma for technical professionals with an appropriate tertiary qualification and a minimum three years experience in industry.

Courses last four years. The School's ambition is to train all-round engineers, providing them with a solid grounding in science and technology as well as knowledge of finance and management. The School prepares its students to become highly versatile engineers, capable of shouldering responsibilities and of understanding a company's industrial projects from a variety of standpoints.

As its core professional orientation, the School has elected concentrate on Materials and Energy Transformation Processes. Process Engineering covers over 75% of modern industrial applications and, therefore, opens doors to every sector of industry. More specifically, the School targets eight particular fields that are studied in greater depth during students' fourth year of study: Pharmaceutical Engineering, Bioindustry, Ecoindustry, Energetics, Materials Engineering, Materials for Aeronautics and Space, Industrial Engineering and Information Systems Engineering.

As part of its training courses, the School attaches especial importance to work placements (totaling 13 to 16 months), acquisition of foreign languages, and periods of study spent outside France (minimum 3 months).

A Cutting-Edge Research Center Focused on Industry

90% of the School's permanent teaching staff are also researchers actively working in laboratories at the School's research centers; they are therefore strongly grounded in both teaching and research.

One of the School's most notable features is its major commitment to research, which is structured around 3 research centers:

• the Tools, Materials and Processes Research Center (CROMeP)

• the Divided Solids Process Engineering Laboratory (created following the merger of the the Powders, Processes, Energetics and Environment centers)

• the Industrial Engineering center

Research activities carried out in these centers are defined and for the most part conducted under the terms of research contracts (worth approximately 2 million euros per calender year), ensuring that research is tailored to meet the needs of companies of all size, from France and farther afield.

Research activities are also at the leading edge of scientific research, resulting in publications in leading scientific journals, the award of academic distinctions (Master of Research, Doctorate, Accreditation to Supervise Research) as part of studies whose results are of interest to industry. On average these three centers produce 70 articles in scientific revues, 3 patents and 15 theses annually.

A Business Partner for Economic and Regional Growth

As an Engineering School and research center, EMAC is equally a partner for business. The school has forged close links with manufacturing industry and has put in place a policy for participating in the development of the local economy. This contribution takes the form of:

• providing technologies via its Research Centers, which provide technological services and research activities on behalf of business

• contributing skills through the activities of its students, as during their engineering training students are available to work with business in a range of different ways (placements, technology and documentary monitoring on behalf of companies, support to project owners, etc.)

• supporting innovation and business creation, notably through the EMAC technology incubator, a mechanism that places project owners at the heart of the School's research centers in order for them to benefit from their additional skills and resources

• aiding business development, providing continuous training for businesses, leading and coordinating manufacturer and institutional networks via the Réseaux d’Entreprises platform

• an active role inciting higher education providers and other bodies involved in transfers, innovation and research to reflect on the viability of a so-called technopolitain project in the North Tarn region

• active participation in local economic development networks

A School Open to the World

Alongside its six sister Schools - the Écoles des Mines de France - the École des Mines d’Albi-Carmaux is committed as a member of the Groupe des Ecoles des Mines (GEM), to a program of development and openness to the wider world.

This program comprises:

• organizing coordinated actions designed to foster more effective ties with partner academic institutions around the world

• putting in place mechanisms intended to provide a substantial boost to the number of overseas students accepted at the Bachelor of Science level into Year 3, in order for them to follow the standard curriculum leading to the award of an EMAC Engineers Diploma, the equivalent of a Masters; as part of this plan, September 2004 saw EMAC welcome its first intake of students from China

• consolidating the training and research activities conducted by the GEM into a Graduate School that will enhance the profile of our offer around the world

A Rich Extra-Scholastic Life

Every year students at EMAC enter a wide range of university championships and, via the student office, organize many large events (gala, theater festival, etc.) that offer the perfect opportunity for them to hone their skills and talents in the fields of imagination, conception and management.