Delft University of Technology

Delft University of Technology
Technische Universiteit Delft
TU Delft seal.png
Motto Challenge the Future
Established January 8, 1842
Type Public, Technical
Endowment €369.3 million
President Dirk J. van den Berg
Rector Prof. Dr. Karel Ch.A.M. Luyben
Faculty 227
Staff 2,683
Students 15,321
Undergraduates 10,082
Postgraduates 5,151
Doctoral students 1,839
Location Delft, South Holland, Netherlands
52°0′6″N 4°22′21″E / 52.00167°N 4.3725°E / 52.00167; 4.3725Coordinates: 52°0′6″N 4°22′21″E / 52.00167°N 4.3725°E / 52.00167; 4.3725
Campus Urban
Former names Koninklijke Akademie van Delft, Polytechnische School van Delft, Technische Hoogeschool van Delft
Nobel Laureates Jacobus van 't Hoff, Simon van der Meer, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes
Colors Cyan, Black and White
Affiliations IDEA, CESAER, EUA, 3TU, UNITECH, SEFI, SAE, ATHENS
Website http://www.tudelft.nl/en
TU Delft Logo

Delft University of Technology (Dutch: Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the Dutch largest and oldest public technical university located in Delft, Netherlands. With eight faculties and numerous research institutes it hosts over 15,000 students (undergraduate and postgraduate), more than 2,600 scientists (including more than 200 professors),over 1,800 doctoral students, and more than 2,000 people in the support and management staff.

The university was established on January 8, 1852 by King William II of the Netherlands as a Royal Academy, with the main purpose of training civil servants for the colonies of the Dutch East India Company. School rapidly expanded its research and education curriculum, becoming first Polytechnic School in 1864, Institute of Technology in 1905, finally gaining full university rights in 1986.

During its existence many prominent engineers and scientists were either affiliated with, or educated at TU Delft, including Nobel laureates Jacobus van 't Hoff, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes and Simon van der Meer. TU Delft is a member of many university federations including IDEA League, CESAER, UNITECH and 3TU. It ranks amongst the top universities in the world in the field of technology according to the THE-QS World University (known from 2010 onwards as the QS World University Rankings) and Academic Ranking of World Universities.

History

Royal Academy (1842–1864)

King William II of the Netherlands, founder of Royal Academy in Delft.

Delft University of Technology was founded on January 8, 1842 by King William II of the Netherlands as Royal Academy for the education of civilian engineers, for serving both nation and industry, and of apprentices for trade[9]. One of the purposes of the academy was to educate civil servants for the colonies of the Dutch East India Company. The first director of the academy was Antoine Lipkens, constructor of the first Dutch optical telegraph, called simply as Lipkens. Royal Academy had its first building located at Oude Delft 95 Street in Delft. On May 23, 1863 an Act was passed imposing regulations on technical education in the Netherlands, bringing it under the rules of secondary education.

Polytechnic School (1864–1905)

On June 20, 1864, Royal Academy in Delft was disbanded by a Royal Decree, giving a way to a Polytechnic School of Delft (Dutch: Politechnische School van Delft). The newly formed school educated engineers of various fields and architects, so much needed during the rapid industrialization period in the 19th century.

Institute of Technology (1905–1986)

Yet another Act, passed on May 22, 1905, changed the name of the school to Technische College (Institute) of Delft (Dutch: Technische Hogeschool van Delft), emphasizing the academic quality of the education. Polytechnic was granted university rights and was allowed to award academic degrees. The number of students reached 450 around that time. The official opening of the new school was attended by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands on July 10, 1905. First dean of the newly established College was ir. J. Kraus, hydraulic engineer. Corporate rights were granted to the College on June 7, 1956. Most of the university buildings during that time were located within Delft city center, with some of the buildings set on the side of the river Schie, in the Wippolder district.

Student organizations grew together with the university. On October 30, 1897 first student union de Delftsche Studenten Bond was established, followed by KSV Sanctus Virgilius, established on March 2, 1898. In 1917 Proof Garden for Technical Plantation (Dutch: Cultuurtuin voor Technische Gewassen) was established by Gerrit van Iterson, which today is known as Botanical Garden of TU Delft. In that period a first female professor, Toos Korvezee, was appointed.

Delft University of Technology (1986–present)

After the end of the second world war, TU Delft increased its rapid academic expansion. Studium Generale was established at all universities in the Netherlands, including TU Delft, to promote a free and accessible knowledge related to culture, technology, society and science. Because of the increasing number of students, in 1974 the first Reception Week for First Year Students (Dutch: Ontvangst Week voor Erstejaar Studenten, OWEE) was established, which became a TU Delft tradition since then.

On September 1, 1986 Delft Institute of Technology officially changed its name to Delft University of Technology, underlining the quality of the education and research provided by the institution. In the course of further expansion, in 1987 Delft Top Tech institute was established, which provided a professional master education in management for people working in the technology-related companies. On September 1, 1997 13 faculties of TU Delft were merged into 9, providing better efficiency in management of the increasing in size university. In the early 90s, because of an overwhelming outnumbering of female students by men, an initiative to increase the number of women studying at the university resulted in founding a separate emancipation commission at TU Delft. As a result Girls Study Technology (Dutch: Meiden studeren techniek) days were established. In later years the responsibilities of the commission were distributed over multiple institutes.

The former Aula of TU Delft has hosted the Faculty of Architecture since 2008.

Since 2006 all buildings of the university are placed outside of the historical city center of Delft. Relatively new building of Material Sciences department was sold, later demolished in 2007 to give place for a newly built building of the Haagse Hogeschool. Closer cooperation between TU Delft and Dutch universities of applied sciences resulted in physical transition of some of the institutes from outside to Delft. In September 2009 many institutes of applied sciences from the Hague region as well as Institute of Applied Sciences in Rijswijk, transferred to Delft, close to the location of the university, at the square between Rotterdamseweg street and Leeghwaterstraat street.

On May 23, 2008, a huge fire, presumably from the ruptured water pipe which short circuited a coffee machine in the building, completely destroyed the building of Faculty of Architecture. Luckily, architecture library, containing several thousands of books and maps, as well many achritecture models, including chairs by Gerrit Rietveld and Le Corbusier, was completely saved. Currently, Faculty of Architecture has moved to the old Aula of TU Delft.

2007 marks the moment when three Dutch technical universities, TU Delft, TU Eindhoven and University of Twente, established a federation, called 3TU.

Through the course of the years the logo of TU Delft changed, as its official name did. The current logo is based on three official university colors cyan, black and white. Letter T bearers on top a stylized flame, remembering the flame that Prometheus brought from Mount Olympus to the people, agains the Zeus will. Prometheus, is sometimes considered as the first ever engineer, since he brought the knowledge to mortals about fire which they did not posses, and is an important symbol for the university. Its statue stands in the center of the newly renovated TU Delft campus, Mekelpark.

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 neighborhood. 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 project has since been completed.

Faculties

Auditorium of Delft University of Technology.
The snow-covered grass roof of the library.
Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science.
Nuna 3 of the defending champion, and 4-time victors, Nuna team

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 Programmes

All undergraduate programmes 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 Programmes

The university offers the following graduate programmes (sorted by faculty). All programmes 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
    • Sustainable Energy Technology (SET) (In cooperation with the Eindhoven University of Technology and the University of Twente)
    • Teacher programme (TULO)
  • Architecture
    • Architecture
    • Building Technology
    • Real Estate & Housing
    • Urbanism
  • Civil Engineering and Geosciences
    • Applied Earth Sciences
    • Civil Engineering (with a specialisation in: Hydraulic Engineering, Building Engineering, Structural Engineering, Transport & Planning, Water Management or Geo-Engineering)
    • Geomatics
    • Offshore Engineering
    • Transport, Infrastructure & Logistics (in cooperation with the faculties of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering and Technology, Policy and Management)
  • 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 Ecology (in cooperation with Leiden University and Rotterdam Erasmus University)
    • Integrated systems analysis (track)
    • Technological systems innovation (track)
    • Organisation and transition management (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 (in cooperation with the faculties of Civil Engineering and Geosciences and Technology, Policy and Management)
  • Technology, Policy and Management
    • Engineering & Policy Analysis
    • Geomatics
    • Management of Technology
    • Systems Engineering, Policy Analysis & Management
    • Transport, Infrastructure & Logistics (in cooperation with the faculties of Civil Engineering and Geosciences and Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering)

Organization

Research Institutes

TU Delft has three officially recognized research institutes: Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies, International Research Centre for Telecommunications-transmission and Radar, and Reactor Institute Delft. Apart of those three institutes TU Delft hosts numerous smaller research institutes, including Delft Institute of Microelectronics and Submicron Technology, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Netherlands Institute of Metals Research ( of Materials innovation institute), Delft Centre for Aviation, lelft Centre for Engineering Design, Delft Institute f Earth Observation and Space Systems, Delft University Wind Energy Research Institute, International Research Institute for Simulation, Motion and Navigation Technologies. Full list of research schools is available on TU Delft website.

Research Schools

Vital part of Dutch university system are research schools. They combine cutting-edge education, training and research for PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers in a given field. The main goal of the research schools is to coordinate nationwide research programs in a given area. Research schools of TU Delft cooperate with other universities in the Netherlands. Research schools are required to have an accreditation of Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. TU Delft is taking the lead in ten research schools, and participates in nine. The full list of research schools affiliated with TU Delft is available on TU Delft website.

Media

During an academic year TU Delft publishes a weekly magazine TU Delta, which aims at student and employee community of the university. The newspaper is predominantly in Dutch, with last few pages published in English. TU Delta is distributed freely in paper form over the campus and is also available for free on the Internet. Articles focus mainly on current university affairs and student life. Weekly agenda including PhD promotions, inaugural lectures, etc. is also published therein.

Also, approximately four times a year TU Delft publishes a magazine devoted only to research conducted by the university, called Delft Outlook[34]. Delft Outlook is published in English, while the same content is published in Dutch in Delft Integraal magazine. Both magazines present interviews with TU Delft researchers, university officials. Columns of some university professors are published therein, as well as alumni letters and excerpts from recently published PhD thesis's.

Management

TU Delft is governed by the executive board (Dutch: College van Bestuur, controlled and advised by student council, workers council, board of professors, board of doctorates, assistant staff office, committee for the application of the allocation model, operational committee, advisory council for quality and accreditation, deans of each TU Delft faculty, and directors of TU Delft research centers, research schools and research institutes

Executive board is chaired academically by the Rector Magnificus. The currently appointed Rector Magnificus, Prof. Dr. Karel Ch.A.M. Luyben holds his position since 2010. Previous Rectors of TU Delft include Prof. K.F. Wakker (1993–1997 and 1998–2002), Prof. J. Blauwendraad (1997–1998) and Prof. J.T. Fokkema (2002-2010). Executive board is accountable to the Supervisory Board, appointed by the Minister of Education, Culture and Science. One of the many tasks of executive board is the approval of management regulations.

Board of professors advises in the matter of academic quality, deciding on the selection of guest lecturers, research fellows as well as revising proposals submitted for royal honors for professors. Board of doctorates appoints supervisors for PhD students, forms promotion committees, determines promotional code, and confers PhD and doctorate Honoris Causa degrees. Committee for the application of the allocation model reports to the executive board regarding allocation model. Further, it controls output data supplied to the executive board. Operational committee is composed of members of the executive board and the deans. The committee collaborates on the issues of general importance, related in part to the specific interests of the faculties, and strengthens the unity of the university overall.

Student life

Student life at TU Delft is organized around numerous student societies and corporations. They can be generally categorized into professional societies, social societies and sport societies. More than half of TU Delft students belong to a officially recognized society.

Building of the Koornbeurs Society in the old town of Delft.

There are two student parties at TU Delft: ORAS (Dutch: Organisatie Rationele Studenten) and AAG (Dutch: Afdelings Actie Groepen). AAG started as an action group of students in the 60s, willing to have more impact on the quality of education at then Polytechnic Institute Delft. ORAS became active in the earl 70s as a counter-balance to AAG. Currently those two parties are competing each year for seats in TU Delft's Students Council (Dutch: Studenten Raad). Further, all student organizations of TU Delft are associated with The Council of Student Societies Delft VeRa (Dutch: De VerenigingsRaad) and The Society for Study and Student Matters Delft VSSD (Dutch: Vereniging voor Studie- en Studentenbelangen Delft).

Apart from bachelor and master student organizations, PhD students of TU Delft have their own organization called Promood (PhD Students Discussion Group Delft) (Dutch: Promovendi Overleg Delft), which represents TU Delft PhD students at then university. It is also a member of Dutch PhD Students Network (Dutch: Promovendi Netwerk Nederland).

Each faculty of TU Delft has its own set of professional student organizations. Numerous societies are present at the university, many of them with rich traditions, customs and history. For example aerospace engineering department hosts Foundation for Students in Airplane Development, Manufacturing and Management (Dutch: Stichting Studenten Vliegtuigontwikkeling, -bouw en -beheer), while civil engineering department Society for Practical Studies. International professional student organizations are also present at TU Delft, including European Association of Aerospace Students.

Apart from professional student societies, students organize themselves only for the purpose of enriching their social life. Many of the societies have sectarian roots, like a catholic Wolbodo Student Society, Katholieke Studentenvereniging Sanctus Virgilius Delft, Sint Jansbrug, that during the course of the years lost the religious affiliations and accepts students from any denomination. Also organization that has its roots in Rover Scout movement Delftsche Zwervers (at the same time the oldest scouting group in the world) is present or local branch of the european AEGEE.

Student sports are organized around clubs, that focus mostly on single discipline. Those include rowing club Proteus-Eretes (with many olympic medals won by the members of the club) or american football club Delft Dragons.

People

Faculty

Currently TU Delft is a home to 227 faculty, with more than 2,500 academic staff. The responsibility of TU Delft professors is lecturing, guiding undergraduate and graduate students, as well as performing original research in their respective fields.

Many notable people were TU Delft faculty. In science, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, a 1913 Nobel Laureate in physics, a discoverer of superconductivity, was a former TU Delft faculty member, working as an assistant to Johannes Bosscha. Discoverer of the Prins reaction Hendrik Jacobus Prins, co-founders of National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science Hendrik Anthony Kramers and David van Dantzig, developer of crystal bar process Jan Hendrik de Boer, discoverer of particle spin Ralph Kronig, discoverer of Einstein–de Haas effect Wander Johannes de Haas and discoverer of element Hafnium Dirk Coster, all were at some point the faculty members of the university. Faculty members of Delft School of Microbiology were the founder of modern microbiology Martinus Beijerinck and the father of comparative microbiology Albert Jan Kluyver.

In engineering, the inventor of penthode and gyrator Bernard Tellegen and Balthasar van der Pol developer of Van der Pol oscillator, were TU Delft faculty. Currently Vic Hayes, and the father of Wi-Fi, is affiliated with the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management. STS-61A of the Space Shuttle Challenger crew member Wubbo Ockels is currently a professor of Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology. TU Delft faculty geologist were Berend George Escher, Johannes Herman Frederik Umbgrove, discoverer of Bushveld complex Gustaaf Adolf Frederik Molengraaff and discoverer of gravity anomalies above the sea level Felix Andries Vening Meinesz.

Since TU Delft is a home to a major architecture school in the Netherlands, many important architects were a faculty of the university, including Hein de Haan, founder of Traditionalist School in Architecture Marinus Jan Granpré Molière, Bent Flyvbjerg, co-founder of Mecanoo architects bureau Francine Houben, co-founder of MVRDV architects bureau Winy Maas and Nathalie de Vries, co-founder of Team 10 Jacob B. Bakema and Aldo van Eyck, as well as Herman Hertzberger and Jo Coenen. Some notable designers were faculty of TU Delft, including Paul Mijksenaar, developer of visual information systems for JFK, LaGuardia and Schiphol airports.

Political figures that were faculty of TU Delft include former mayor of Lisbon Carmona Rodrigues, vice-chancellor of University of Surrey Christopher Snowden and the first Dutch prime minister of the Netherlands after the second world war Wim Schermerhorn.

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