Université Paris Cité, Grands Moulins, Mbzt, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons ENS Paris, David Monniaux, CC BY-SA 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons ENS Paris-Saclay, Kévin Belbéoc'h, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons École Polytechnique, David Monniaux, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Télécom Paris, Strawhat42, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Institutions

Partner and associated institutions

MPRI is a research-oriented master's program in fundamental computer science run jointly by the following partner institutions.

Partner institutions
Associated universities and research bodies

Associated laboratories

The research environment of MPRI is exceptional: the laboratories supporting it work with CEA, CNRS or Inria, and are recognized at the highest international level. The laboratories in question include:

Within partner institutions
  • IRIF, UMR 8243, Université Paris Cité & CNRS
  • DI/ENS, UMR 8548, ENS Ulm, CNRS & Inria
  • LMF, UMR 9021, Université Paris-Saclay, ENS Paris-Saclay & CNRS
  • LIX, UMR 7161, École Polytechnique & CNRS
  • LTCI, Telecom Paris Tech
Within associated institutions
  • LIP6, UMR 7606, SU & CNRS
  • Inria research units

A high number of MPRI students naturally turn to the above-mentioned laboratories to do their PhD thesis after completion of MPRI. Nonetheless, MPRI has resolutely adopted one of the missions of the Écoles Normales Supérieures and of the École Polytechnique, i.e. that of encouraging students to avoid doing their PhD in a limited number of institutions, and to take advantage of the whole academic network.

Map


Management

The organization of MPRI is based on a Studies Committee and a Steering Committee, both chaired by the MPRI director(s).

MPRI Director

The MPRI director (or directors) is proposed by the Steering Committee to the directors of the partner institutions, for a renewable 4-year term.

Since January 2024, the MPRI directors are Prof. Jean Goubault-Larrecq (ENS Paris-Saclay), Dr. Brice Minaud (ENS Paris, Inria), and Prof. Sylvain Schmitz (Université Paris-Cité).

Past MPRI Directors were: Professor Olivier Carton, Université Paris-Cité (2017-2023), Professor Roberto Amadio, Paris Diderot University (2014-2017), Professor Hubert Comon-Lundh, ENS Cachan (2010-2013), and Professor Paul Gastin, ENS Cachan (2006-2009).

Studies Committee

The Studies Committee is in charge of all practical and daily aspects of MPRI, as well as of relations to individual students; of student selection and educational support—notably via approval of external courses; of the search for and setting up of internships, and their evaluation; and of all MPRI communications (website, application forms, etc).

The Studies Committee is also in charge of maintaining the syllabus, including the evaluation of new course proposals, and potential re-evaluation of existing courses. This evaluation is based on many criteria, including thematic balance, student feedback, future prospects for research positions, and number of students attending a course.

Each partner institution must appoint a study director, who is in charge of liaising for MPRI with the students and the head office of their institution. See here for more details.

The Studies Committee consists of:

  • The MPRI director(s);
  • the study director appointed by each partner institution;
  • other researchers or teacher-researchers whose names have been put forward by a partner institution, or by MPRI teaching staff.

The same person may be a member of both the Steering Committee and the Studies Committee.

The researchers and/or teachers-researchers currently appointed to the Studies Committee are:

C. Dürr Sorbonne U.
J. Goubault-Larrecq U. Paris Saclay at ENS Paris-Saclay, director
S. Laplante U. Paris-Cité
B. Minaud U. PSL at ENS, director
H. Phan IP Paris at Télécom Paris
F. Pottier Inria
G. Schaeffer IP Paris at École Polytechnique
S. Schmitz U. Paris-Cité, director
T. Winterhalter U. Paris Saclay at ENS Paris-Saclay

Steering Committee

The Steering Committee acts as the board of directors of MPRI. The Steering Committee consists at least of:

  • The MPRI director(s);
  • two researchers or teachers-researchers appointed by the head of each partner institution;
  • one researcher or teacher-researcher appointed by the head of each associated institution;

The Steering Committee makes all educational, scientific, administrative and financial decisions of a general nature with respect to MPRI. The Steering Committee meets at least once a year to discuss strategic issues regarding the management of the Master.

The researchers and/or teachers-researchers currently appointed to the Steering Committee by the partner and associated institutions are:

D. Kesner U. Paris-Cité
R. Treinen U. Paris-Cité
S. Schmitz U. Paris-Cité, director
B. Minaud U. PSL at ENS, director
X. Rival U. PSL at ENS
P. Senellart U. PSL at ENS
J. Goubault-Larrecq U. Paris Saclay at ENS Paris-Saclay, director
P. Bouyer-Decitre U. Paris Saclay at ENS Paris-Saclay
Ph. Schnoebelen U. Paris Saclay at ENS Paris-Saclay
F. Morain IP Paris at École Polytechnique
H. Phan IP Paris at Télécom Paris
A. Miné Sorbonne U.
D. Rémy Inria


Rules

The following rules are meant to clarify specific aspects of MPRI, and provide a guiding framework. They should be understood with some flexibility, to be evaluated by MPRI management according to the spirit of each rule. Towards that end, and to the extent possible, each rule is accompanied by an explanation of its purpose, and whose interest the rule serves.

These rules are not meant to be exhaustive, and may be augmented or modified by the MPRI director, after consulting the MPRI Steering Committee.

  • A teacher refers to any person who gives a course at M2 MPRI, whether they are a teacher-researcher, researcher, engineer, or other.
  • A student refers to any person registered at M2 MPRI, or who takes at least one course at M2 MPRI.

Rules are presented in no particular order.

Rule 1

Each M2 MPRI course must have a single course manager.

Rule 2

A teacher giving a course at M2 MPRI may not teach another course with a large overlap in content, including outside MPRI.

Rule 3

A teacher may teach at most 24 hours per year at M2 MPRI.

Rule 4

A course may not have more than 2 teachers per 24-hour period in the same year, on average.

Rule 5

A teacher at M2 MPRI must practice in Île-de-France.

Rule 6

Changes of course manager, teaching team, or substantial changes in course content must be submitted to the MPRI Studies Committee for approval.

Rule 7

Each year, an internship supervisor may be either: (1) the main supervisor of (at most) one M2 MPRI internship; OR (2) the co-supervisor of (at most) two M2 MPRI internships. If an internship supervisor is considering supervising two internships or more, even as a secondary co-supervisor, they must contact MPRI director(s) beforehand.

Rule 8

Course managers must ensure that exam grades are fully entered on the administrative server, no later than fifteen days after the end of the relevant exam period.


New courses

Prospective teachers wishing to propose a new course to MPRI should contact the MPRI director(s) no later than May 15, in order to potentially start teaching in September of the same year. They will be required to fill a document asking, among other things, for the following information.

  • A title, acronym, and list of themes for the course. Themes should be chosen among existing themes.
  • A teaching team, which should respect the MPRI rules.
  • A source of funding to pay the teaching team. The MPRI master itself has no source of funding; teachers at MPRI are paid by their own institutions, or sometimes by a partner institution of MPRI who has agreed to pay for external teachers.
  • A presentation of the course material, and discussion of why it would benefit the MPRI syllabus.
  • Information about how the course would integrate with existing courses.

New course proposals will be evaluated by the Studies Committee by the end of June of the same year. Please note that there is a hard limit to how many courses can be taught at MPRI, in part due to the physical constraint of having only two classrooms available in parallel. The Studies Committee may also consider questions of thematic balance. Due to these factors and others, an excellent course proposal may not be accepted. Prospective teachers are encouraged to discuss with MPRI management for more information.


Student feedback

MPRI students may be asked to provide anonymous feedback in two ways.

  • On the administrative server, they will be invited to provide feedback for each course where they were registered. This feedback will be visible to the course teachers (in an anonymous way).
  • Each year, the MPRI director(s) may choose to ask the students for global feedback, especially aiming to improve MPRI in ways that are not course-specific.

Teachers should look at course feedback every year, to see if some criticisms are actionable, and to get a sense of the students' opinions.

Course-specific feedback is taken into account when evaluating courses. Global feedback is discussed when proposing changes to the MPRI structure, and can also inspire some changes directly.

In addition, students (and teachers) are welcome to send feedback or comments to the MPRI director(s) (contact). Students may also send their feedback to their study director, or any other teacher or supervisor, if they prefer to remain anonymous to the rest of MPRI management. Students are of course free to require that their feedback may or may not be shared beyond the Studies Committee.