Humanities & Technology Zones
Certain cross-disciplinary modules are delivered in intensive three-week blocks known as “Zones” throughout the course. These are a set of unique, compulsory courses aimed at developing essential skills for the engineering profession, enabling students to learn “differently”, with greater autonomy and through immersion (project-based learning, off-campus activities, fablabs, etc.).
In the first year, the Arts and Sciences Zone (previously known as Intersemester 1) offers a collective experience at the crossroads of the arts (theatre, radio, drawing, writing), science and the sensory. Designed as a research-creation pathway, it invites students to compare their perspectives with those of researchers and engineers from civil society by combining creative work with reflection on living systems.
In the third year, the Ethics Zone (previously known as Intersemester 3) is a space for questioning technologies, societies, possibilities and what is desirable. Introduced to moral philosophy, students come to understand the tensions within their future profession and the means to overcome them; they identify the vulnerabilities present in any technological deployment (human, environmental, societal) in order to better protect against them. The programme as a whole aims to develop an embodied sense of responsibility in engineers.
These Zones are supplemented by the Generalist Zones, delivered from the first to the third year (FISE) or fourth year (FISEA). The Generalist Zones are multidisciplinary projects which, through experimentation and prototyping, enable students to make connections between the technical and non-technical disciplines studied throughout their studies. They enable students to be placed in engineering scenarios to tackle a multidisciplinary problem (electronics, mechanics, computer science, mathematics, English, humanities), with a high degree of autonomy (approximately 30% supervised time) and in teams. They also aim to develop skills in systems thinking, teamwork and project management.