Delft University of Technology

Delft University of Technology

Technische Universiteit Delft
File:Delft-University-of-Technology.png
Type	Public, technical
Established	January 8, 1842
Endowment	€ 470M
President	ir. G.J. van Luijk
Rector	Prof.dr.ir. J.T. Fokkema
Students	13,383
Location	Delft , The Netherlands
Website	http://www.tudelft.nl/

Delft University of Technology, (Technische Universiteit Delft in Dutch) in Delft, the Netherlands, is the largest and most comprehensive technical university in the Netherlands, with over 13,000 students and 2,100 scientists (including 200 professors). It is a member of the IDEA League.

History

On January 8, 1842, King Willem II founded the 'Royal Academy for the education of civilian engineers, for serving both nation and industry, and of apprentices for trade'. The Academy also educated civil servants for the colonies and revenue officers of the Dutch East Indies.

An Act passed on May 2, 1863, imposing regulations on technical education as well as bringing it under the influence of the rules applying to secondary education. Then, on the 20th of June, 1864, a Royal Decree was issued, ordering that the Royal Academy in Delft be disbanded in order to make way for a new 'Polytechnic School'. The School went on to educate architects, and engineers in the fields of civil works, shipbuilding, mechanical engineering and mining.

On May 22, 1905, an Act was passed, acknowledging the academic level of the School's technical education - it became a 'Technische Hogeschool', or an 'Institute of Technology'. Queen Wilhelmina attended the Institute's official opening ceremony on July 10, 1905. The Institute's first Rector Magnificus was the professor of hydraulic engineering ir. J. Kraus. The Institute was granted corporate rights by an Act passed on June 7, 1956.

It was an Act which took effect on 1st September, 1986, that officially transformed the Institute of Technology into Delft University of Technology, also known as 'TU Delft'.

Campus

Initially, all of the university buildings were located in the historic city centre of Delft. This changed in the second half of the 20th century with relocations to a separate university neighbourhood. The last university building in the historic centre was the University Library, which was relocated to a new building in 1997. On the 12th of September 2006 the design of the Mekelpark was officially approved, giving a green light to the transformation of the area around the Mekelweg (the main road on the university terrain) into a new campus heart: the Mekelpark. The new park will replace the main access road and redirect car traffic around the campus, making the newly created park a safer place for bicycles and pedestrians. The completion of the project is due at the end of 2008.

Faculties

Auditorium of Delft University of Technology.

The snow-covered grass roof of the library.

Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science.

The Delft University of Technology comprises eight faculties:

• 3mE; Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
• BK; Architecture
• CiTG; Civil Engineering and Geosciences
• EWI; Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
• IO; Industrial Design Engineering
• LR; Aerospace Engineering
• TBM; Technology, Policy and Management
• TNW; Applied Sciences

Education

Undergraduate Programs

All undergraduate programs lead to a B.Sc. degree.

• Aerospace Engineering
• Applied Earth Science
• Applied Mathematics
• Applied Physics
• Architecture
• Civil Engineering
• Computer Science
• Electrical Engineering
• Industrial Design Engineering
• Life Science & Technology
• Marine Technology
• Mechanical Engineering
• Molecular Science & Technology
• Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis & Management

Graduate Programs

The university offers the following graduate programs (sorted by faculty). All programs lead to a M.Sc. degree.

• Aerospace Engineering
  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Geomatics
• Applied Sciences
  • Applied Physics
  • Biochemical Engineering
  • Chemical Engineering
  • Life Science & Technology
  • NanoScience
  • Science Education & Communication
  • Teacher programme (TULO)
• Architecture
  • Architecture
  • Building Technology
  • Real Estate & Housing
  • Urbanism
• Civil Engineering and Geosciences
  • Applied Earth Sciences
  • Civil Engineering
  • Geomatics
  • Offshore Engineering
  • Transport, Infrastructure & Logistics
• Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
  • Applied Mathematics
  • Computer Engineering
  • Computer Science
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Electrical Power Engineering (track)
  • Microelectronics (track)
  • Telecommunications (track)
  • Embedded Systems
  • Media & Knowledge Engineering
  • Bioinformatics (track)
• Industrial Design Engineering
  • Design for Interaction
  • Integrated Product Design
  • Strategic Product Design
• Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Marine Technology
  • Materials Science & Engineering
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Offshore Engineering
  • Systems & Control
  • Transport, Infrastructure & Logistics
• Technology, Policy and Management
  • Engineering & Policy Analysis
  • Geomatics
  • Management of Technology
  • Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis & Management
  • Transport, Infrastructure & Logistics

Institutes

The Delft University of Technology has the following legally recognised research institutes:

• Delft Institute of Microelectronics and Submicron Technology (DIMES)
• International Research Centre for Telecommunications-transmission and Radar (IRCTR)[1]
• Kavli Institute of Nanoscience
• Netherlands Institute of Metals Research (NIMR)
• Reactor Institute Delft (RID) (former Interfacultary Reactor Institute)
• The Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies (OTB)

Rectores Magnifici

• 1993 - 1997: Prof.ir. K.F. Wakker
• 1997 - 1998: Prof.dr.ir. J. Blauwendraad
• 1998 - 2002: Prof.ir. K.F. Wakker
• 2002 - present: Prof.dr.ir. J.T. Fokkema

Student societies

Part of student life in Delft is organised in student societies. About half of the Delft students are members. The list includes:

• AEGEE-Delft
• Civitas Studiosorum Reformatorum
• CSFR, dispuut "Johannes Calvijn"
• Delftsch Studenten Corps
• Delftsche Studenten Bond
• Delftsche Zwervers
• DSV Nieuwe Delft, better known as De Bolk
• Laga
• Menschen Vereeniging Wolbodo
• OJV de Koornbeurs
• Outsite
• Proteus-Eretes
• Sanctus Virgilius
• Sint Jansbrug
• s.v. Life
• Technologisch Gezelschap
• VSV Leonardo da Vinci

For PhD students (or better, PhD candidates), there is a special organisation representing the interests of PhD candidates at TU Delft:

• Promood, PROMOvendi Overleg Delft

There's also a students' union in Delft:

• VSSD, Vereniging voor Studie- en Studentenbelangen te Delft

Notable Alumni

Engineering/Science

• Ad Bax, biophysicist
• Lodewijk van den Berg, Space Shuttle astronaut
• Martinus Beijerinck, microbiologist
• Dirk Coster, discovered the element Hafnium
• Herman Hertzberger, architect
• Jacobus van 't Hoff, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• Alexandre Horowitz, inventor of the Philishave
• Warner T. Koiter, mechanical engineer
• Walter Lewin, professor of physics at MIT
• Simon van der Meer, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
• Felix Andries Vening Meinesz, geophysicist
• Jan Roskam, Ackers Distinguished Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Kansas
• Jan Arnoldus Schouten, mathematician
• Bernard Tellegen, scientist and inventor of the penthode and gyrator
• Johan van Veen, father of the Delta Works
• Adriaan van Wijngaarden, computer pioneer

Government officials and executives

• Jan van Bemmel, former rector magnificus Erasmus Universiteit
• Wim Dik, former executive for KPN
• Abdul Qadeer Khan, Pakistani scientist and spy
• Anton Mussert, Dutch wartime Nazi politician
• Cornelis Lely, governor of Suriname and projectleader for the Afsluitdijk
• Prince Johan-Friso of Orange-Nassau
• Gerard Philips, founder of Philips
• Frits Philips, former executive of Philips
• Jo Ritzen, former Dutch Secretary for Education
• Willem Schermerhorn, first Dutch Prime Minister after WWII
• Paul Smits, former executive of KPN
• Jeroen van der Veer, executive of Royal Dutch Shell
• Karien van Gennip, former assistant secretary of Economy
• Pieter Winsemius,former secretary of Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment

Trivia

Han van Meegeren, the notorious art forger, studied architecture in Delft from 1907 to 1912. He was intelligent, took most of his exams but decided to be a artist-painter before his final exams. During his student-days he designed the club-house of the Delft rowing club "DDS", nowadays a protected monument. His influence in the art-world was large; a surge of self-criticism surged through the art-museums after Van Meegeren's confession in 1945 that he had forged so many well-known Vermeers and Pieter de Hoochs.

External links

• Delft University of Technology homepage.
• Template:Nl Delft University of Technology homepage
• Promood, the representative body of PhDs at TU Delft
• Template:Nl VSSD, Delft's students' union