Evaluation of the SPECIALISATION SEMESTER (STATISTICS)

All MSc students in Statistics need to complete a specialisation semester either in a company or in an EPFL lab. The specialisation semester is an integral part of the study program. It represents a practical immersion in a company or an EPFL lab of the same domain as the student's training and fosters their professional and/or academic development. The specialisation semester must take place before the Master project.

According to the rule book, the MSc students in Statistics have to do a specialisation semester rewarded with 30 ECTS (obtained during the master cycle) and lasting 4 to 6 months. Those who do a minor can also refer to the process described below, although the specialisation semester should last at least 2 months (up to 6 months). In this case, the associated credits are credited with the master project.

Evaluation Process

The evaluation is the responsibility of the EPFL supervisor (who is often the deputy director). The evaluation takes into account:

• the feedback of the supervisor at the company/EPFL lab (hereafter referred to as external supervisor)
• the final report

Feedback of the company/EPFL lab

The company/EPFL lab is invited to give two forms of feedback:

• an online form. An invitation is sent to the external supervisor at the end of the internship
• a videoconference call between the external supervisor and the EPFL supervisor

The deputy director contacts the external supervisor towards the middle of the period to check that the internship is going smoothly.

Rules for the final report for Statistics

At the end of the internship, the student must provide EPFL with a technical scientific report. It should be approximately 20 pages (or approximatively 5 pages minimum if you do a minor) and has to be approved by the external supervisor before being sent to EPFL. It can be written either in French or English. The report will be used to evaluate the internship along with the feedback of the external supervisor. It must also cover the following information.

• Objectives of the work, process and main results, including recommendations and conclusion.
• Internship environment (general information about the group mission and size, working language, intern’s role and interactions within the group)
• Type of activities (general information about tasks, tools, instruments)
• Acquired skills during the internship (technical and professional in general) and adequacy with study program

In addition, the students are asked to provide to stat.msc@epfl.ch a short description of the experience to be published online on the Section web-pages. It should include

• a brief description of the company/EPFL lab,
• a short description of the scientific results obtained,
• an image
• the name, the link, and the logo of the company or the EPFL lab

Both the report and the material to be puslished online have to be approved by the company/EPFL lab and shall not mention any confidential information.

The deadline for the report is 2 weeks after the end of the internship