DSTI - Nice Sophia-Antipolis Campus
In the heart of the largest European technology cluster!
Google Maps Page: https://g.page/DSTI-Sophia
Our Nice Sophia-Antipolis campus, which is also DSTI headquarters, sits in the largest European technology cluster, often called the “French Silicon Valley”. Colloquially called “Sophia”, the park hosts R&D units from multi-national companies (Amadeus, Thales Underwater Systems, Cisco Systems or HPE to name a few), global institutions (W3C, ETSI) and a thriving ecosystem of teaching (Université Nice Sophia-Antipolis, Skema Business School) and research (INRIA, CNRS, INRA).
Sophia is slightly inland from Antibes, its nearest costal city and is essentially a beautiful pine forest. Antibes is our recommended place to stay, as it’s so international that you may sometimes come across someone who speaks French! This is even more true during the spring and summer seasons, with all the boat crews coming from all over the world for a pint in the (in)famous Blue Lady Pub.
DSTI campus, called “Les Templiers”, breathes of IT history: the premises were built by and for Digital Equipment Corporation and after its merger with Compaq and then Hewlett-Packard, was known to be occupied by both HP and Amadeus. It was also the very first building in the whole park to have a dedicated optic fibre connection in the early 90’s. Bill Gates is known to have visited there a few times, arriving by helicopter from Nice Airport (the campus does have an heliport) during this golden era! Today, “Les Templiers” is a multi-tenant building, with DSTI of course but also quite a few IT companies working in the travel industry thanks to the dynamics of the Amadeus ecosystem.
Where to eat?
The campus hosts its own canteen, offering a pretty nice three-course meal for 8 euros as well as a snack bar for sandwiches and nibbles.
You can also walk across the road to the “Espace Saint-Philippe”, with its supermarket, restaurants, delicatessen and a Subway!
What places to visit?
You have the whole French Riviera to visit: Cannes, Nice, Monaco to name a few.
But also thanks to unique geography, as well as the beautiful beaches, students are only 1 hour away from 3 skying resorts in the winter, Valberg being the nearest and most “homely”!
The wonders of Provence are also by your doorstep. You can visit Marseille which is located few hours from Sophia.
You cannot be in Sophia and not visit the Verdon Gorge, considered one of Europe’s most beautiful river canon (here for a Flickr overview).
But why limit yourself to France when the Italian border and its stunning Riviera are less than one hour away?!
Where to open a bank account?
The “Espace Saint-Philippe” has an international branch of a large European bank where English is spoken and a student residence hall called “Thesa”, which is affordable and practical for coming to DSTI, if a little quiet.
Where to chill after class?
There is no time, homework will always be the last thing you will do before going to sleep!
Well there’s a nicely equipped gym in the campus, and it’s free so no excuse then! Of course, as the typical working week of a DSTI student is made of 50hrs dedicated to science and technology, you still have “plenty” of opportunities to go to the beach with a nicely chilled bottle of Provence Rosé wine and just enjoy being there.
For the club lovers, Nice is very (too?) lively but don’t discard Monaco too: albeit the “name”, it’s sometimes cheaper to go out (in the style of course) there!
And if you are more a “mountain” person, the National Park of Mercantour and its wonders can be accessed with a bus starting from Nice (around 1h30 drive).
(But don’t forget, homework first!)
All DSTI specialisation programmmes in computer science, data engineering, data analytics & artificial intelligence are available on our Nice Sophia-Antipolis campus
DSTI is one school, thanks to 8 years of experience and the best technologies in HD teleconferencing between Nice Sophia-Antipolis, Paris and the rest of the world!
All DSTI programmes are avaible from there:
Take a Look
