FAME AIS

Functional Advanced Materials Engineering with Artificial Intelligence for Sustainability

FAME AIS is an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master programme organized by high level European Universities in the frame of ERASMUS +. This joint Master is an international program spread over Belgium, Germany, France and Portugal. Within the mobility scheme of FAME AIS, students spend a first year either at the University of Darmstadt or at Grenoble INP. All classes are taught in English. The second year of the master is then followed in one of the remaining six partner Universities. In this context, the University of Louvain offers a second year centered on the Engineering of Materials and Nanostructures. At the end of the master, the students obtain a dual degree from the two Universities into which they studied. The full program is detailed on the general web site of the FAME master. Here, only details specific to the admission, research and registering in UCLouvain are given.

Contact: Benoit Hackens

In UCLouvain, FAME AIS students are offered 30 credits of courses during the second year of the master, which fit within the FAME specialization Engineering of Materials and Nanostructures. The standard program is shown below. Please note that, depending on the previous background of the students, some compulsory courses may be skipped and other elective courses may be selected. This should be discussed at the start of the academic year with the academic coordinator of the FAME program in Louvain (Prof.Benoit Hackens), by bringing him copies of contents of courses followed before by the student and considered by her/him as equivalent to one of the compulsory courses in UCLouvain. Possible other electives courses are the courses from the options of the degree in Materials and Chemical Engineering of the Louvain School of Engineering.

C: Compulsory (if no proof for prior knowledge in the related field); E: Elective.

Master thesis

If you are selected as FAME AIS student in UCLouvain, you will thus have to choose a specific master thesis project upon arrival in Belgium (over the 2-3 first weeks of the academic year). A list of possible topics will be given to you as a starting point, but you will be authorized to select topics outside this list after a discussion with the local coordinator. Master thesis can also be performed in collaboration with a company or in another lab outside UCLouvain. This requires finding a professor in UCLouvain willing to supervise the work, and certifying its scientific interest with respect to the objectives of the FAME master in UCLouvain (Engineering of Materials and Nanostructures). Some professors also propose topics in collaboration with industry.

Your master thesis should be performed in one of the three research institutes dealing with Materials Science. A large field of systems and applications is covered, including catalysis, solid state physics, nanotechnology, micro-electro-mechanical systems, polymer science, biosensors, metals and ceramics, nanocomposites, etc. More information on the research led in these institutes and their divisions is available below:

• Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanoscience (IMCN)

Division of Bio & Soft Matter (BSMA)

Division of Nanoscopic Physics (NAPS)

Division of Molecules, Solids and Reactivity (MOST)

• Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering (IMMC)

Division of Materials and Process Engineering (IMAP)

• Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics and Applied Mathematics (ICTEAM)

Division of Micro and Nanotechnologies and Systems

These institutes also host a series of technological platforms, including:

• the newly refurbished clean rooms of UCLouvain (WinFab);

• a large range of materials characterization tools such as 200 keV TEM, SEM, a couple of AFMs, XR diffraction and reflectometry, SIMS, XPS, ellipsometry, DSC, TGA, FTIR, UV-Vis, NMR, He cryostats, dilution fridge, 17T magnets, and mechanical testing;

• a large range of materials processing tools including extruders, injection machine, hot plates, metals processing tools, etc.;

• the scientific computing center of UCLouvain.

Admission procedures

Admission procedures vary depending on whether you are a EU student, an 'Erasmus Mundus' Non-EU student, or a UCL student. Since admission procedures are time-consuming, you should apply to the FAME AIS program well in advance - check the deadlines on this site and on the general FAME web site! Please note that registration to UCLouvain is also mandatory if you stay at EPL during your second year.