User:42born2code/sandbox

42 is a private french computer programming school created and funded by Xavier Niel (Founder of Illiad) with several partners as Nicolas Sadirac (previous General director of Epitech), Kwame Yamgnane and Florian Bucher (previous executives of Epitech).

The training is inspired by new ways to teach such as peer-to-peer pedagogy. Students will not receive any official engineer's degree, the school bets on advanced knowledge and skill in computer programming and novel ways of thinking. 42’s name is a reference to the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy created by Douglas Adams: 42 is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything.

History
Announced the 26th march of 2013, 42 opened its doors the 15th of July 2013 for the selection phase called La Piscine (the swimming-pool). Students who pass the first piscines are able to start the training begining november 2013.

In an Editorial, Xavier Niel introduced 42 linked to the catastrophic situation of french Education.

"Today, the french system doesn’t work. It is stuck between in the first place University, which provide a training not fitting with the business world needs but is free and accessible to the largest number, then public school which are highly selective and admits only people with a scientific or technologic training finally private schools, expensive and has a qualitative enough formation but leaves aside so many talents and even geniuses."

Campus
42 is located at 96 Boulevard Bessières, in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. Acquired from the State in 2011 for 12.6 million euros, the building extends over an area of 4242 square meters. Pictures of the school architecture are visible on the official website. 42 was designed by In&Edit Architecture agency.

Organization and administration
School’s fee is free : running costs for the 10 first years (estimated at 20 to 50 million euros) have been personally took cared by Xavier Niel. 42 will concern each year one thousand students between 18 and 30 years old, without any degree’s requirement but on the basis of psychometrical tests on the school’s website whose are supposed to evaluate their ability to learn computer programming. One month of evaluation and practical works called La Piscine allows the final selection each year : the amount of works during that time is important and can amount to 100 hours a week. The school isn’t accredited by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.

Academics
After La piscine, training last at least 3 years, and will cover the different IT jobs linked to development.

The first year is mainly focused on the Unix development environment with the C-language. These software developments are planned through 40 projects such as the implementation of a basic First-person shooter engine, an engine for an online game and a 3D rendering engine (rasterizer) by ray tracing. The second semester begins with a piscine of object-oriented PHP, and then introduced a module framework with the realization of a large web project, where the choice of programing language is free.

The second year introduces the C++ through a dedicated piscine, and other languages such as SQL, Java and C#. According to a promotional document about school program, learning software developments is planned through the realization of an arcade game, artificial intelligence or a computer virus. Students must work on a personal project which is validated by educational advisers and last five months.

The third year brings additional knowledge with mobile technologies, networks, video game programming and its mechanisms, or IT security.