Pac-Man or Space Invaders?

All the tools are shared — in the spirit of hot desking — and each one has its place, like in an operating room. In SPOT’s 400 m2 open space, rolling workbenches can be arranged as needed by students or project groups. For example, one group coupled together two workbenches, each topped with a thick wooden plank, mounted a vice on them, and then placed them in front of a large, moveable flat screen. This group of five second-year Bachelor’s students in computer engineering is working on a project for Prof. Christoph Koch’s Making Intelligent Things class. They decided to reconstruct an arcade game like those found in video arcades in the 1970s and 1980s. Next to the workbenches, they set up a system of computers, electrical circuits and other electronics, a 3D-printed joystick, a 3D-printed gamepad, and various other tools. As they work on their project, the students wheel around the workbench on stools, hooking up the computer to a control box they developed themselves.

“Our goal isn’t to build the full-size structure or to create a new video game — we’re focused specifically on the control system that’s linked to the screen,” says Clément, one of the students in the group. They have just 14 weeks to complete their prototype, yet they had to start from scratch with very little knowledge of mechanical and especially electrical engineering. “I never thought it’d be so complicated!” says Clément. At the end of the semester, the group will present a set of two modular consoles — so users can play in pairs — complete with buttons, a joystick, a gamepad and a glove fitted out with a gyroscope and accelerometers. The system will be made available in open access along with a user guide, website and explanatory video. But the group still needs to decide which video game they’ll opt for: it could be Pac-Man or Space Invaders.

To combine an object with software

“In the end, information and communication systems are all about software,” says Koch, who used the possibilities offered by SPOT to launch his class. “And software is being increasingly integrated into all kinds of things, turning them into ‘smart’ and connected objects. Makerspaces provide an ideal opportunity to teach students how to design and prototype these kinds of smart objects.”

The 46 students in Koch’s class are working in groups of five or six on projects they selected themselves based on their interests as well as practical considerations. “I gave them an idea of what would be feasible in terms of scope, time and cost,” says Koch. “Then each group went through an iterative process to come up with a plan for their project, a list of tasks to complete and a shopping list for the materials they’ll need.” The array of projects selected by the students include a smart chess board that lets users play physically against a computer, a set of connected eyeglasses, a headset enabling users to control a robotic vehicle with their thoughts, a robotic shopping assistant, a swarm of connected vehicles to optimize traffic flows, an autonomous sailboat, a magnetic board for drawing with a ball in the sand, and a virtual-reality glove. “Some projects contain very little electronics, while others contain very little mechanics. But in all cases, the goal is to combine an object with software,” says Koch.

Complex issues, varied skills

Antoine, a student working on the robotic shopping assistant, explains: “Before, we had to spend two hours at the computer trying to debug a piece of code. But here, if something doesn’t work the first time, we can re-print the part.” In addition to two 3D-printers in SPOT’s open space, there are around 15 more in a special room in the basement. The room is open 24/7 — but students can’t just go in whenever they want and whip up a Pokémon keychain. A log is posted in front of the printer where they have to jot down their name, the project they’re working on and how long they’ll be using the printer. If a filament gets jammed or a special kind of tool is needed, students can contact the student assistants (unmistakable in their yellow vests) located at the front desk, who are happy to help.

By applying engineering theory in real-world situations, the students learn much more than how to weld, mill, machine or 3D-print a part. “The challenges engineers face today are extremely complex and require drawing on a broad skillset,” says Pascal Vuilliomenet, a project manager at EPFL’s Discovery Learning Labs. “Without this kind of project-based learning, it’s hard for students to acquire the soft skills that will be essential in their careers but that can’t really be taught.” These skills include listening, diplomacy, leadership and teamwork, for example.

Fast forward to 9 May. EPFL Racing Team now has just 16 days to finish their electric racecar. Chiara — a second-year microengineering student working in the mechanics workshop — has just finished machining the inserts that will be used to fasten screws into the carbon-fiber one-seater chassis. The designs that Laura and Jawad sketched out for the inserts have proven to work. “I made 37 inserts!” says Chiara. “Everything has to be ready by the end of the day, since the chassis will be delivered tomorrow morning and we’ll need to drill the holes for the inserts.” Chiara brims with enthusiasm as she handles the lathe — a masterwork of Swiss manufacturing — and shaves off a few tenths of a millimeter from each insert. “I went to EPFL’s open house in 2019 and saw the very first car made by EPFL Racing Team,” she says. “I told my father that if I go to EPFL, I want to be on the team. And today, here I am! It’s fantastic.”

Promoting interdisciplinarity

Julien Delisle, who oversees MAKE projects at EPFL, says: “Project-based learning doesn’t only improve students’ understanding of the theory; it also shows them the benefits of cross-disciplinary teamwork.” That’s why EPFL decided to create and sponsor these projects, around 20 of which have been set up so far — including EPFL Racing Team. “We’re here not because we love Formula 1, but because we want to build something ourselves, in a group, as if it was our job,” says Jawad, a third-year mechanical engineering student. “To design an electric car, you have to apply methods from more than just mechanics and electronics. You also need to know about architecture, microengineering, communications networks and project management, for example. There are over 70 people on our team and they cover all these fields.” Gauthier, the team’s chief technical officer, agrees. “A car is more than the sum of the tasks completed by the separate groups. You have to bring those groups together in the design phase and pool their efforts, so that everything functions properly from the outset. Take the chassis, for example — its design depends on the suspension, the engine and a host of other components.”

“EPFL labs have changed over the years,” says Vuilliomenet. “Today they’re smaller and have fewer technicians.” SPOT aims to replicate the environment in these labs, so that engineers and technicians can learn how to prototype. Students are free to use the smaller, less-dangerous pieces of equipment — such as the soldering irons, oscilloscope and electron microscope — on their own. But access to the mechanics and electronics workshops, with their large machinery, is strictly controlled; these workshops can only be used in the presence of a professional, and students have to be trained on the machines. However, the idea behind SPOT isn’t to turn students into mechanics, machine operators or electricians. Rather, those are the roles held by four coaches at the mechanics workshop — Norbert Crot, Pascal Morel, Sylvain Hauser and Sébastien Martinerie — who help students work out the nuts and bolts of the machinery.

Optimizing a paper helicopter

“Makerspaces like SKIL and SPOT save us time and money, since we can do some of the work ourselves,” says Jawad. Although, as Norbert Crot points out, “you don’t realize how long it takes to make a part until you try it yourself. When we work with students, we have them first perform the calculations themselves, then we help them find the best way to apply them.” For instance, Florian, a second-year Master’s student in mechanical engineering, needs to drill about a dozen holes in an aluminum plate. The plate will be used to fasten items in a battery box for an electric hydrofoil — a high-tech surfboard that literally skims over the water. “We’re building the entire surfboard ourselves except for the engine, part by part. It’s a great way to apply what we’ve learned while doing something we enjoy,” he says with a smile.

Florian is getting help on his design from Pascal Morel. First, Florian — with his pencil and graph paper — calculates the coordinates of the spots to be drilled, Pascal Morel assists him with technical aspects like the flanges, taping, marking gauges, washers and tolerances. Next Florian places the aluminum plate in the milling machine and calibrates the machine: he sets the zero point so the drill starts from the correct spot and then enters the x, y and z coordinates for the holes. A lot goes into drilling a hole!

Suddenly, from the mezzanine corridor, a paper helicopter floats downward — the ambiance here is studious, yet far from boring. Viviane, a second-year Master’s student in mechanical engineering, is testing a helicopter design; her teammate Jianan recovers the paper model ten feet lower down. Their group is working on a project for an optimization class, where they decided to calculate how to optimize the flight time of a paper helicopter using various methods. “The helicopter has to land on the ground as softly as possible, as if it were a real one,” says Viviane. The group is calculating different wing-to-body ratios for the aircraft and testing out various approaches, switching between a computer mouse and real-world scissors.

A logic of knowledge acquisition

The projects are deliberately open-ended — there’s no right or wrong answer. “We teach students to work with uncertainty and to be able to explain their decisions,” says Vuilliomenet. That often goes against what they learn in the classroom, where each problem is usually presented with just one solution. We want to deconstruct that way of thinking.” With project-based learning, students are also encouraged to think about the bigger picture. “We ask them to consider more strategic issues like whether their idea is feasible, viable and sustainable — and whether there’s a real need for it,” says Vuilliomenet. In other words, the goal is not to reinvent the wheel or build a smart toilet-paper dispenser.

“At SPOT, we aren’t seeking to perform R&D but rather to equip the next generation of engineers with the skills they’ll need,” says Samuel Cotture, SPOT manager and SKIL coordinator. However, that doesn’t mean the student projects don’t evolve, or are pointless, or aren’t innovative. MAKE projects generally require students to be creative and clever, and to improve on the solutions they come up with. This year, EPFL Racing Team is on its third racecar, which weighs 20 kg less than the last one thanks to its lightweight, tubular chassis that’s also more rigid and safer. A big step forward!

Advances are being made in other areas, too, such as by students in the simultaneous engineering class given by Prof. Pedro Reis. He teamed up with Bernina, the Swiss sewing-machine manufacturer, to procure five latest-generation machines for his third-year Bachelor’s students in mechanical engineering. One pair of students — Gonzalo and Guillaume — are designing a security system that can prevent users from injuring their fingers. Their idea is to install a laser on the machines that can detect whether there’s a finger at the point where the needle will fall — and if so, stop the machine immediately. “We never could have experimented with electronics to this extent in a regular class,” says Gonzalo. “Of course, we don’t know enough to make the systems ourselves, but we’ve been put in touch with people who do.” Those people include employees at Bernina. “This kind of project makes us feel like real engineers,” says Guillaume.

Teaching braille to a sewing machine

Other student groups are creating modular clothing with sections that are held together using magnets; sewing “smart” wires into bandages that can send alerts if a significant amount of fluid accumulates in a wound; and developing a glove that can help sufferers of arthritis contract their fingers. In addition, three exchange students from Canada and Spain — Juliet, Anusha and Maria — are looking at how to program sewing machines to sew braille characters into clothing. “Our idea is to make the machines capable of sewing information — like the color of a piece of clothing — either into the label or directly onto the fabric, says Juliet. “That way, the visually impaired can select their outfits more easily and more independently.” Juliet and Anusha are currently testing out their braille-sewing method on samples of fabric.

On 25 May, EPFL Racing Team’s big day has finally come. By 7pm, the workbenches, stools and movable screens have been cleared out of the open space. Taking their place are rows of chairs arranged in a U shape for the 250 guests attending the launch event. A red carpet lines the main entrance, with the Racing Team’s previous two cars — Orion and Mercury — on display. Spotlights cast a red glow on the building’s structure. Everything is decked out in red and white — the team’s colors. The new speedster, dubbed Artemis, covered with a black sheet, sits encircled by the rows of chairs. It’s taken the team ten months of hard work to reach this point. “I learned how to build a racecar from A to Z and discovered that yes, it is possible,” says Jawad. And the excitement is just beginning, as the team already has four races lined up this summer. ■

EPFL now plans to go further in this direction with a new center devoted entirely to communication and transferable skills. The center is currently being set up and will start holding classes this fall in a pilot test. The goals will be to compile all the different classes that can be shared among degree programs, encourage teachers to open up their classes and exercise sessions to students from different fields, and either develop or expand classes on topics that go beyond our core focus at EPFL — topics such as foreign languages, communications, entrepreneurship, project management and interpersonal relationships. “These transferable skills will be listed on the degrees we give out,” says Hess. “We believe that it will really help our graduates stand out in the job market — even if that’s not our only objective. By equipping the young men and women who come to EPFL with transferable skills as well as technical know-how, we can help them feel more confident in all aspects of their lives.”

The popularity of our other cross-disciplinary initiatives — like our MAKE projects — shows that students are already eager to learn skills they can take with them wherever they go. Efforts to make this kind of learning even more attractive and effective, such as the creation of this new center, are the natural next step. ■

Play dough and LEGO ® bricks

Knowing that the total body of knowledge doubles every ten years, how can we prepare future engineers to parse through the facts and apply them to meet pressing global challenges? One answer lies in giving them a holistic education: teaching them to be flexible and versatile, and to take on a more interdisciplinary approach combining their engineering know-how with concepts from fields such as ethics, public policy, sustainability and even art.

Most communication courses for engineers focus on the technical aspects of writing papers and making presentations. However, about 60% of the communication that engineers do in their jobs involves less structured modes of communication, often with professionals from different backgrounds and cultures.

Thus, our School needs to provide students not only with in-depth technical knowledge of their chosen fields, but also with cross-cutting skills that can be applied in about any field or profession. These skills include negotiation, conflict resolution, critical thinking, communication skills, public speaking, inclusion, sustainability, ethical reasoning, and much more.

At EPFL, we are rolling out several initiatives to equip students with transversal skills. One of these is called 3T PLAY, in which students are engaged in using a variety of tangible objects such as LEGO® bricks, play dough, popsicle sticks, glue, masking tape, and cardboard to learn these skills in a fun, hands-on way.  This approach gives students the opportunity to develop these essential skills in playful, low-stakes environments.

3T PLAY is supported by the LEGO Foundation and focuses on creating innovative pedagogical activities and documenting the impact of these activities on students’ transversal skills’ development. This initiative is led by a team of researchers and pedagogical advisors in collaboration with EPFL’s Center for Learning Sciences (LEARN), the College of Management of Technology (CDM), the Teaching Support Center (CAPE), and the Discovery Learning Labs (DLLs). ■

“Dual-discipline” experts in subject-matter expertise and teaching skills

The man behind most of these initiatives is Pierre Dillenbourg, head of the CHILI lab, Associate Vice President for Education, and founder of the Swiss EdTech Collider incubator, which champions educational technology (edtech) startups based in Switzerland. A former elementary-school teacher, he strongly believes in reforming teaching practices for learners at all levels — from school-age children and apprentices to PhD students.
This year, Dillenbourg and his colleague Manu Kapur, who holds the Chair of Learning Sciences and Higher Education at ETH Zurich, are rolling out a new joint PhD program in the education sciences. “Our aim is to produce what we call ‘dual-discipline’ graduates — people who hold a Master’s degree in a science or engineering discipline as well as a PhD in the education sciences,” says Dillenbourg, who adds that the program spans teaching and learning methods for pupils and students of all ages: elementary school, high school and higher education. “We believe the best way to learn how to teach is to develop your own methods, not merely to apply existing ones,” he explains.

The first year’s intake will see nine students join the program from a pool of 51 applicants. The selection process was extremely demanding, not least because each student will have two supervisors: one at EPFL and another at ETH Zurich.

Adapting tools and resources, including mid-program

EPFL students are already experiencing the benefits of novel teaching approaches that have been developed in recent years. And given the pace of innovation in this field, more new resources could emerge even before they leave our School. “For instance, we’ve replaced some of the platforms we used in the past with new software and applications,” says Dillenbourg. “One example is Piazza, a Q&A system for students and teachers that’s more powerful and efficient than Moodle forums. We’re also promoting more widespread use of Jupyter, which lets students create documents combining class notes with live code. In addition to sharpening their coding skills, Jupyter lets students create dynamic, interactive displays in which they can adjust variables and observe the effects without having to switch platforms.”

For Dillenbourg, the most important thing is to be open to innovation and willing to try out promising new methods — even if they don’t always work. Kapur, meanwhile, is a proponent of a technique known as productive failure. “Studies have shown that when students are first presented with a problem and then given instructions on how to solve it, they gain more skills than if the process is reversed,” he explains. “That’s because when students try — and fail — using their prior knowledge, they identify gaps in their understanding, and are more receptive to gaining new knowledge to fill those gaps.”

Productive failure could prove especially useful in project-based-learning approaches. By incorporating this technique into teacher training programs, we could help future educators employ it in their own classrooms.

90 edtech startups in Lausanne

No discussion of innovation would be complete without mentioning startups. Many of these fledgling businesses are active in the edtech space. In 2017, EPFL once again blazed a trail by opening the Swiss EdTech Collider — the first incubator of its kind in mainland Europe, which has supported more than 90 startups to date. “Now we’re starting to see some of these companies being bought out by major digital education firms,” says Dillenbourg. “It’s a real success story.”

Several businesses hosted at the Swiss EdTech Collider are developing virtual and augmented reality systems. Only time will tell whether these systems are a mere flash in the pan — or whether they have demonstrable benefits for teaching and learning. “There are already some notable examples out there,” adds Dillenbourg. “Take UbiSim, for instance. It has developed immersive VR simulation software for trainee nurses. Its application lets users practice for hours on end without supervision, and without needing to interact with real patients. UbiSim was bought in late 2021 by Labster, the market leader in virtual lab simulation technology — whose CEO is one of Manu Kapur’s PhD students.”

Coorpacademy, meanwhile, was one of the first startups to take residence at the Swiss EdTech Collider. Its online training platform caught the attention of Australian firm Go1, and — after being acquired by its bigger rival — Coorpacademy — now spearheads Go1’s operations in Europe.

Transforming the potential

Education is a fast-moving industry with new methods and technology coming to the fore as educators aim to keep pace with changing needs and expectations as well as wider societal shifts. The ultimate goal is to equip today’s learners — tomorrow’s citizens — with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in an unknown future, with jobs and professions we can’t yet conceive of. “In all this, it’s important to remember that technology is not a silver bullet,” says Dillenbourg. “In education, as in other industries, technology has only a potential impact. It’s up to educators and their students to transform this potential by harnessing the technology that best fits the subject matter in question. Tools alone are no guarantee of success. What really matters is how these tools influence human cognition and learning.” ■

Narrowing the gap

“We found that the flipped format appears to be more inclusive than traditional teaching methods,” says Verma. “Specifically, this format significantly reduced pre-existing disparities between different types of students.” Students with weaker math backgrounds who took the flipped class performed better on their final exams than those with similar backgrounds who took the non-flipped one. So, the gap between students with different initial skill levels was narrowed (whereas it remained the same among students in the control group), without this affecting the performance of students with stronger initial math skills.

“We also observed a gender effect,” says Verma. “Female students with a weaker background in mathematics who took the flipped class did just as well as the ‘high-performing’ students.”

A difficult model to evaluate

Cécile Hardebolle, from EPFL’s Teaching Support Center, led the research and helped Prof. Deparis implement the flipped classroom format. “This format is a complex teaching model with a range of components, including preparation at home and a variety of activities in the classroom,” she says. As a result, the model is hard to evaluate. “In our study, we implemented the model in a real-world setting while evaluating it through a rigorous, quasi-experimental protocol allowing us to compare a control group with a test group. This is what gives all their validity to our findings, and for EPFL it’s valuable to have such data coming directly from its own teaching environment.”

Achieving more equitable outcomes in heterogenous classes

Hardebolle finds the research results encouraging. “For professors who are thinking about flipping their classes, knowing that this model can help students who don’t necessarily have a very strong background in the subject is a positive sign.” She notes that professors sometimes wonder how best to approach first-year Bachelor’s classes, since they generally include students from a wide range of backgrounds. “Flipped classrooms are effective for these kinds of situations and help students better integrate into our degree programs,” says Hardebolle.

While interest in flipped classrooms has existed for several years at EPFL, the pandemic accelerated the format’s adoption. Some teachers used the videos they recorded of their lectures to experiment with alternative ways of imparting knowledge in class. Students can now take flipped courses in a number of fields, at both Bachelor’s and Master’s level. ■

Application helps learn to write

Handwriting problems affect nearly 25% of children aged 5 to 12. These problems, if not managed early on, can negatively impact them throughout their school years. EPFL startup School Rebound has provided a concrete solution by developing an application that uses tablets and artificial intelligence to better detect potential handwriting problems and support children as they learn. The subscription app is called Dynamilis, and can be used by all children learning to write — with difficulties or without — at home or at school.

https://dynamilis.com

Robots, the pencils of the future

Thymio is based on a three-pronged approach to digital education: a sustainable, open-source platform; simple programming interfaces; and a rich ecosystem and set of learning resources. One of the educational opportunities it offers is Remote Rescue with Thymio II (R2T2), a space-themed program introduced by EPFL and NCCR Robotics to bring together students from all over the world. Children aged 8 to 18 collaborate on tasks to complete a space mission, like a rescue operation set on Mars. Each team must program and — using video feed streamed to their classroom — remotely operate a robot that is stationed at an EPFL “Martian base.” Since 2015, R2T2 space missions have been carried out by over 3,000 students in 13 countries across Europe, Asia, North America and Africa, and the program has expanded to include a wider range of assignments. The newest mission, Corona, is fully online, created specifically to accommodate lockdown teaching constraints.

Another focus at LEARN is a swarm robotics project featuring Cellulo robots, designed to make abstract concepts more tangible for learners. A student can pick up and move a Cellulo planet to find out what happens to its orbit, for example, or shake a Cellulo molecule to find out how vibration affects its behavior. These robots can help teach a variety of topics like geometry, handwriting, computational thinking and emergent behavior. More than 600 children worldwide have tried out Cellulo in research contexts. Recent studies have also evaluated its potential for use in cognitive training for older adults.

Digital education

Digital education is also making its way into the classroom, as part of Switzerland’s digital transformation strategy. The subject was officially incorporated into the curriculum in French-speaking regions (through the Plan d’études romand) in April 2021, and is now on the same footing as math, languages and the arts. Vaud is a pioneer in this effort, partly because it has formed strong partnerships with top local universities, and partly because it is the only canton whose digital education reform encompasses all levels of schooling, benefiting even the youngest pupils in the system. To ensure the success of its initiative, the canton tapped LEARN to head up the project, also seeking support from the University of Lausanne (UNIL) and the Vaud University of Teacher Education (HEP).

The project is called EduNum and has two main objectives: to improve training for teachers at all levels of compulsory education, and to allow students to begin receiving digital education as early as possible — at just four years old. Digital education is being integrated into every aspect of the curriculum, helping students develop the fundamental knowledge and skills they need to become informed, mindful, autonomous citizens in an increasingly connected society, and to successfully face the challenges that come along with that.

In terms of schoolteachers, the goal is to encourage creativity and highlight the potential of more diverse teaching methods. To this end, the LEARN team worked in conjunction with partner institutions from 2018 to 2020 to provide digital-education training to nearly one thousand primary school teachers (students aged 4—13) from 12 pilot schools. Starting in the 2020—2021 school year, some of the instructors who received training began training other teachers in turn. 20% of primary and lower-secondary school students — that is, over 20,000 children in 30 Vaud schools — now benefit from the preparation their teacher has received.

For three schools that participated in a pre-pilot program, the 2020—2021 school year also marked the first time that lower-secondary students (aged 12—15) received computer science instruction. To help meet teacher training needs, LEARN began offering a Certificate of Advanced Studies in Computer Science. At the request of the canton, another team coordinated the development of teaching resources for upper secondary-level classes in computer science, which the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education made mandatory beginning in 2022. ■

Education that never stops

EPFL introduced its first MOOCs — online classes available to anyone, free of charge — in 2012. Since then, we’ve regularly expanded our full slate of continuing education programs to encompass a range of topics useful to today’s professionals. Our Extension School, for example, runs courses on data science, computer programming and artificial intelligence that lead to a Certificate of
Open Studies (COS).

Our School is also a member of the Swiss Circular Economy of Skills and Competences (SCESC) consortium set up in February 2022 for a period of four years. The SCESC brings together major Swiss universities, including the University of St. Gallen, to develop a website where individuals can enter their skills and the professions they’re interested in; this information will then be used to select continuing education programs and job offers suited to their profiles. The website will employ artificial intelligence to pinpoint the most relevant results. This initiative was launched out of a belief that systemic change is required to meet the formidable needs of both individuals and companies for job retraining and continuing education. The hope is that the website will prompt people to rethink the way they assess their skills, envision their career paths and approach local job markets. ■
www.epfl.ch/education/continuing-education

Which skills are important under Education 4.0?

Of course, technology skills in a very broad sense are important. I don’t mean very specialized technology, just a basic familiarity with how technology works and an openness to it. There will be a bigger role for technology in many jobs. But the other skills that are needed are more human: personal skills, emotional skills, social skills, innovation, creativity and so on.

Last but not least, there’s the need for global citizenship, which includes everything from ethical awareness to environmental awareness. If you look, for example, at the situation in Ukraine, or what we need to do to address climate change, it’s clear that the goal of education can never just be to get a job. So we can see that citizenship skills are also more and more important, even in the workplace.

Where does informal learning fit in?

It is estimated that about 70% of what we learn is basically through informal learning, or learning on the job. So to get an idea of what a learning system for the future looks like, it should include methods to demonstrate, document and measure both formal and informal learning.

How could such skills be measured and valued?

In the spirit of project-based learning, new ways of measuring could involve a more ongoing and iterative assessment process that includes giving people feedback on what they are good at in order to motivate them over time. What we would ultimately measure with that is not how good you are at calculus at the age of 18, for example, but the emotional skills that are actually a predictor of your success in the workplace and of your ability to collaborate with others, work on a team, and so on.

What can technology bring to education?

Technology takes many forms, from wireless connectivity to artificial intelligence assistants. It can expand access to education for people in remote areas and increase inclusion by focusing much more on the needs of particular learners, thus creating a much more tailored and targeted learning experience for everyone. At the same time, there’s always the risk of seeing technology as a silver bullet or an end in itself. We know that those who are already doing well are more prone to benefit from technology. So bringing technology in — in any way — should be part of a holistic approach. We should continue to look at low-technology or no-technology solutions as well.

What would be a good education system?

The days when you learned something once that will serve you for the rest of your career are definitely gone. No education system can be expected to do that. Whatever job you do, whether highly specialized or not, we estimate that 40% of the skills you use on a daily basis are likely to change in a five-year period. This shows that we are to become lifelong learners. So education systems really need to be set up to equip people for that, teaching them how to learn, but also how to be motivated and curious.

What should we change in the actual educational system?

One thing we should get rid of is the traditional way of doing exams. It hasn’t changed since the 19th century: put your books away, don’t talk to anyone, you have 30 minutes to write down everything you know — and that will lead to a certificate that will get you a good job. Of course, the real world is not like this. Instead of teaching facts, teaching why they are relevant or not is much more sensible.

Which sectors face the highest job losses under the Fourth Industrial Revolution?

Actually, job creation under the Fourth Industrial Revolution is net positive: technology creates more jobs than it destroys. What’s even more encouraging, many of those jobs are not very specialized and can be found in a wide variety of sectors, from marketing to the green economy and the care economy. And rather than particular sectors completely changing or disappearing, we are seeing how certain roles within these sectors are being transformed. The problem is that those newly created jobs are often very different from the outgoing ones, so you can’t just shift people from the job they had to the new job. Our research has found that 50% of the current workforce will have to be reskilled over the next five years.

Where do universities come in?

High schools and universities are, of course, absolutely central to this. But the formal education system cannot deliver everything we need. The educational process should involve various entities in both the public and private sector. But it’s equally important to accept that learning will be part of any job — and not only on your off time, but also during working hours. That could include returning to school periodically with the backing of your employer and with financial support and incentives from the government. The work-life-learn balance needs to change. ■

Link to the report: go.epfl.ch/CatalysingEducation4.0