The École Centrale de Lyon, founded in 1857, is one of the oldest graduate schools in France. It is considered as one of the most prestigious French Grandes écoles of engineering continuously ranking as one of the Top 6 French Engineering research institutions for the post Bachelor study. The university is situated in Écully, a western suburb of Lyon, France (in a region called Rhônes Alpes).

The University is one of the 6 members of the Centrale Graduate Schools (Lille, Paris, Marseille, Nantes, Pekin). The school is well-reputed for educating and training highly skilled engineers with a minimum degree of BSc through the many specialized postgraduate programs. Ecole Centrale de Lyon is a founding member of University of Lyon, Pole Research and Higher Education (PRES) established as a public establishment of scientific cooperation. The Schools excels in the research attached to Acoustics, Biosciences and Nanotechnology.

Ecole Centrale de Lyon, or as sometimes referred to ECL, has strong ties with top institutions in Europe including Imperial College London and Darmstadt University of Technology. This in addition to having most of its post graduate programs shared between INSA Lyon, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon and Claude Bernard University Lyon 1.

Centrale is a shopping centre in Croydon, South London, one of the largest covered retail developments in London. It is owned and managed by Hammerson and was opened in 2004.

Centrale is located on North End, Croydon, facing the Whitgift Centre. It was developed from the existing but much smaller Drummond Centre . It now contains several large stores - House of Fraser, Debenhams and TK Maxx - and around 50 smaller stores including Next, H&M, Zara, Budwals and Build-A-Bear Workshop.

The 820,000 sq ft (76,200 m²) development also houses Croydon's first and only dedicated indoor food court on the upper level. The Food Gallery was given planning permission after the main centre was built and opened in November 2005 with seating for 200 diners and food outlets such as Papa John's Pizza and Quizno's Subs . Other food outlets available in the centre include McDonald's (one of eleven in the London Borough of Croydon), Auntie Anne's and House of Fraser's World Of Food which has international cuisine available from a number of concessions including Yo! Sushi. Recent reports suggest that the remaining un-let units in the centre will be opened to exclusive outlets opening their first London stores outside the West End. The centre also houses a Mecca Bingo establishment.

Coordinates: 45°45′35″N 4°50′32″E / 45.7597°N 4.8422°E / 45.7597; 4.8422

Lyon (French pronunciation: [ljɔ̃] ( listen), locally: [lijɔ̃]; Occitan: Lion [liˈu]; Arpitan: Liyon [ʎjɔ̃]; English: /liːˈɒn/), traditionally spelt Lyons in English, is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located approximately 470 km (292 mi) from Paris, 320 km (199 mi) from Marseille, 420 km (261 mi) from Strasbourg, 160 km (99 mi) from Geneva, 280 km (174 mi) from Turin. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais.

The city of Lyon has 483,181 inhabitants. Together with its suburbs and satellite towns, Lyon forms the largest conurbation in France outside Paris with a population estimated to be 1,422,331; its overall metropolitan area was estimated to have a population of 2,118,132. Its urban region represents half of the Rhône-Alpes region population with 2.9 million inhabitants. Lyon is the capital of this region, as well as the capital of the smaller Rhône département.

The Centrale Graduate School is an alliance consisting of the following graduate schools of engineering:

With about 6,000 graduate engineer students and 800 PhD doctorate students, a total faculty of 700 permanent academic members, 2200 part-time lecturers and associate professors, 450 technical and administrative staff, 2000 researchers, the Centrale Graduate School annually approves hundreds of PhD doctorate dissertations and grants 1500 Centrale graduate engineering degrees and other master degrees. Already more than 35,000 Centrale alumni are active today in business, entrepreneurship, research & development, and management in small and large industries worldwide.

Based on nearly two centuries of recognized Centrale educational know-how in France, the Centrale Graduate School's goal is to promote and implement engineering education with the following characteristics, defined as the Centrale Programme:

Education programmes implemented in Paris, Lille, Lyon, Marseille and Nantes include

The Centrale Programme (Centrale graduate engineering degree - Grade 300 ECTS) includes a three or four-year curriculum. Application to the Centrale Programme is possible after two/three year undergraduate studies in other educational institutes. Admission to an école centrale requires success in either: