A high-ranking delegation from École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL, English: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne) headed by professor Patrick Aebischer, President of EPFL University, visited Isfahan University of Technology on Wednesday October 14th, 2015.
EPFL delegation were warmly welcomed by Prof. Mahboobi Soofiani, director of the International and Scientific Cooperation Office of IUT and Dr. Keshmiri, Director of Isfahan Science and Tecnology Town (ISTT), during an official meeting at IUT administration building, parties discussed about the possible ways to expand scientific and academic collaboration.
In this session, Professor Mahboobi Soofiani, had an informative presentation about IUT facilities and capacities and expressed the hope that this visit will be a guide for future cooperation.
Dr. Keshmiri director of ISTT and Dr. Omidi, vice president for ISTT Research Affairs, had speeches about ISTT and its facilities and capabilities, afterwards.
Prof. Patrick Aebischer, president of EPFL, described the main goal of their trip to Iran as getting familiar with Iranian universities and students capabilities and pave the road for future scientific and academic collaboration between EPFL and Iranian universities.
“EPFL is an international university, so that more than 50 percent of EPFL students are international. A significant number of these foreign students are Iranian. Therefore, this is important to us to have a true and fair view about Iran and its scientific situation, and honestly, we really impressed by Iranian universities and students potentials and capabilities.” Said Prof. Aebischer.
The rest of this meeting was an open discussion between EPFL delegates and some of the IUT academic members about the ways of expanding cooperation between the two universities.
EPFL is regarded as one of the world leading universities, ranking 14th overall and 17th in engineering in the 2015 QS World University Rankings; 31th overall and 12th in engineering in the 2015 Times Higher Education World University Rankings. EPFL is located in the French-speaking part of Switzerland; the sister institution in the German-speaking part of Switzerland is the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich).