Program Overview

The Research Program for International Talents gives undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students from international partner universities of Ecole Polytechnique the opportunity to complete a 3- to 6-month research project under supervision of a scientist in one of the institution’s 23 laboratories.

Each year in October, the International Affairs Office sends a call for applications to the laboratories of the Ecole Polytechnique and, at the end of November at the latest, the research subjects are listed below. Find out more about the selection process here.

Ecole Polytechnique's 23 research laboratories are joint research units, affiliated with several national research organisms, including CNRS, INRIA and INSERM, and cover disciplines as varied as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, mechanics and economics. The research conducted by the laboratories’ over 600 scientists results in over 2,7500 A-rank scientific publications every year.

Located at the Plateau de Saclay, the laboratories are at the heart of a scientific cluster made up of national research organizations such as the CNRS, CEA and INRIA, higher education and research institutions, R&D centers and various innovation clusters.

The research program for international talents is supported by the Fondation de l'École polytechnique.

Discover the testimonials of former participants

Subjets for the academic year 2026

Please note that the research subjects presented below are valid for the academic year 2026.
Research subjects are updated at the end of November at the latest each year.

 Title SupervisorCode
APPLIED MATHEMATICS   
 Tomography and inverse scatteringR.G. NovikovCMAP01
 Keep it sparse: algorithms for positivity certificates of univariate polynomialsMatías Bender & Elias TsigaridasCMAP02
PHYSICS   
 Development of a Silicon-Tungsten Calorimeter for a Future Higgs FactoryVincent BoudryLLR01
 Hollow-coRE fiber absorption SpectroscOpy (HCF-AS) for miniatUre pRobing of small densities of IR-absorbing speCiEs (RESOURCE)Svetlana StarikovskaiaLPP01
 Ultrafast Quantum Optics in Acousto-Magneto-Plasmonic NanostructuresVasily TemnovLSI01
 Extreme Nonlinear Laser Nanostructuring Probed with Time-Resolved Photoacoustic MicroscopyVasily TemnovLSI02
 Modelling electronic density fluctuations with time-dependent density functional theoryNathalie VastLSI03
 Modelling point defects for quantum application Nathalie VastLSI04
 Study of the transport properties of boron-rich solids from ab initio calculations: thermal, electricalNathalie VastLSI05
 Optical characterization of hot carriersDaniel SuchetIPVF01
PHYSICS/BIOLOGY/DATA PROCESSING   
 Wide-field Imaging Partial Mueller Polarimetric System for NeurosurgeryTatiana NovikovaLPICM01
THEORETICAL PHYSICS   
 Correlated ultracold quantum matter in exotic potentialsLaurent Sanchez-PalenciaCPHT01
PHYSICS/MATERIALS SCIENCE   
 Phase-field simulations of crystal growth and solidificationMathis PlappPMC01
PHYSICS/COMPUTER SCIENCE   
 Quantum networksMarc-Olivier RenouLIX03
APPLIED PHYSICS/MATERIALS SCIENCE   
 3D tomography of topological defects in colloidal LC assembliesJongwook KimPMC02
MECHANICS   
 Impact of drops on concave surfaces and plant dispersal by rainArezki Boudaoud & Stéphanie DrevensekLadHyX02
 Biomechanics of the eye in the context of myopiaJean-Marc AllainLMS01
 Biomechanics of the human corneaJean-Marc AllainLMS02
FLUIDS MECHANICS   
 Soft microrobots propelled by microorganismsGabriel AmselemLadHyX01
BIOLOGY   
 Morphogenesis and plasticity of plant organs specialized in dispersalArezki Boudaoud & Stéphanie DrevensekLadHyX03
 Fighting the antimicrobial resistanceHannu MyllykallioLOB01
BIOLOGY/PHYSICS   
 Plant morphogenesis in controlled, stable/fluctuating environmentArezki Boudaoud & Stéphanie DrevensekLadHyX04
CHEMISTRY   
 Lignin Depolymerization via ElectrochemistryCédric TardLCM01
 Dinitrogen activation with organobimetallic complexes of lanthanidesGregory NoctonLCM03
 Synthesis of potentially biologically active beta-carboline derivativesYvan SixLSO01
 MOF thin layers Catherine de VilleneuvePMC04
CHEMISTRY/MATERIALS SCIENCE   
 Chiral Infrared Plasmonic Semiconductor Nanocrystals Jongwook KimPMC03
SYNTHETIC MOLECULAR CHEMISTRY   
 Mixed iminophosphorane ligands for coordination chemistry and catalysisAudrey AuffrantLCM02
COMPUTER SCIENCE   
 Exploiting Deep Learning Foundation Models for 3D shape synthesis and analysisMaks OvsjanikovLIX01
 Runtime Analysis of Randomized Search HeuristicsBenjamin Doerr & Martin KrejcaLIX02
 Aggregate Validation of Network Protocol MessagesThomas Heide Clausen, Juan-Antonio Cordero-Fuertes, Kevin Jiokeng, Kevin VermeulenLIX04
 BGP hijacks at IXPsThomas Heide Clausen, Juan-Antonio Cordero-Fuertes, Kevin Jiokeng, Kevin VermeulenLIX05
 Cloud Infrastructure Optimisation and SecurisationThomas Heide Clausen, Juan-Antonio Cordero-Fuertes, Kevin Jiokeng, Kevin VermeulenLIX06
 Dynamic Systems — Stability & Robustness Modelling/AnalysisThomas Heide Clausen, Juan-Antonio Cordero-Fuertes, Kevin Jiokeng, Kevin VermeulenLIX07
 Wireless Sensing SecurityThomas Heide Clausen, Juan-Antonio Cordero-Fuertes, Kevin Jiokeng, Kevin VermeulenLIX08
 “Zero-Trust” Network and Systems ArchitecturesThomas Heide Clausen, Juan-Antonio Cordero-Fuertes, Kevin Jiokeng, Kevin VermeulenLIX09
 Extending Wireless Sensing Generalisability through Novel Machine Learning ApproachesThomas Heide Clausen, Juan-Antonio Cordero-Fuertes, Kevin Jiokeng, Kevin VermeulenLIX10
 Addressing the scarcity of labeled data for Network Intrusion Detection through Active and Few-shot LearningThomas Heide Clausen, Juan-Antonio Cordero-Fuertes, Kevin Jiokeng, Kevin VermeulenLIX11
 Local Clustering for Directing Messages in Multi-hop Multi-source Linear LPWA NetworksThomas Heide Clausen, Juan-Antonio Cordero-Fuertes, Kevin Jiokeng, Kevin VermeulenLIX12
 Congestion Control Detection and ClassificationThomas Heide Clausen, Juan-Antonio Cordero-Fuertes, Kevin Jiokeng, Kevin VermeulenLIX13
 OLSRv2 Dynamic ClustersThomas Heide Clausen, Juan-Antonio Cordero-Fuertes, Kevin Jiokeng, Kevin VermeulenLIX14
 Purely Responsive OLSRv2Thomas Heide Clausen, Juan-Antonio Cordero-Fuertes, Kevin Jiokeng, Kevin VermeulenLIX15
 Generation of a modern and realistic dataset for cloud native applications running on a kubernetes cluster : Generation of anomalies and security attacksThomas Heide Clausen, Juan-Antonio Cordero-Fuertes, Kevin Jiokeng, Kevin Vermeulen, Jean-Louis RougierLIX16
COMPUTER SCIENCE/AI   
 Exploring intention in videosVicky KalogeitonLIX17
 Data efficiency for conditional visual generationVicky KalogeitonLIX18

It is possible to apply for a subject not listed above, developed as part of a collaboration and with the agreement of the tutor and the Research Program coordinators. In this case, please select the "Specific subject defined with the supervisor" option in the application form.

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