SDF ― Students Development Factory
Photo by John on Unsplash
The Students Development Factory (SDF) is a unit within the IT Services Department that employs students to help with various administrative tasks or to carry out software development work (POCs). It provides students with paid professional experience while also helping meet the campus’s growing needs.
SDF students are hired as student assistants under LEX 4.7.1, Directive on Terms of Employment of
Student Assistants, Construction Assistants and Temporary Assistants at EPFL.
Example projects
This list is not exhaustive, but it highlights a few projects carried out by student assistants within the SDF:
- Conducting security audits
- Developing software proof-of-concepts (POCs), such as GitLab
- Maintaining and restocking campus printers (MyPrint)
- Developing tools such as the student housing management platform
History
Founded in 2015 by Christian Zufferey, the SDF was integrated into the ISAS-FSD unit at EPFL in 2020, where Luc and Nicolas are now in charge of its operations.
Contact
To get in touch with the SDF, please contact Nicolas Borboën and Luc Venries, via the group address sdf-admins_at_groupes.epfl.ch
Frequently asked questions
The SDF mainly works through word of mouth, but we occasionally use the EPFL job board to advertise new positions.
You can reach out to us to check whether your project fits within the scope of the SDF. If it does, we handle all administrative procedures as well as payment of the student assistant’s working hours.
LEX 4.7.1 sets out in detail the terms and conditions of employment of student assistants at EPFL, including:
- Tasks: support for administrative or technical activities
- Gross hourly wage: CHF 25.–
- Workload: should not exceed 15 hours per week