Politehnica University of Bucharest

Universitatea Politehnica din Bucureşti is a technical university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in 1864 based on the older technical school of Gheorghe Lazăr (1818) and it was renamed "Politehnica" in 1920.

History
Politehnica University of Bucharest is the largest technical university in Romania. Its traditions are connected to the founding of the first higher technical school in 1818 by Gheorghe Lazăr. Born in Avrig, Gheorghe Lazăr studied in Sibiu, Cluj and Vienna. In 1817–1818 he endeavored to convince the local noblemen of the need for supporting a modern technical school in Romania.

Thus, on 24 March 1818, by a royal edict of Ioan Caragea, the premises of Saint Sava Abbey were converted into the new school, Şcoala Tehnică Superioară pentru Ingineri Hotarnici ("The Upper School for Surveying Engineers").

Later, in 1832 this school was reorganised, including four cycles, in accordance with the provisions of Organic Ordinance. Among other faculties, the one dealing with exact sciences included courses such as applied trigonometry, geodesy, mineralogy, engineering graphics, descriptive geometry, mechanical elements applied to ordinary machines, principles of building roads and bridges, elements of architecture, etc. The graduates were obliged either to work for three years for the state, or to return the grant received. In 1862, the ruler Alexandru Ioan Cuza had established by another Royal Decree a set of rules for the organisation of civil engineers, the hierarchy of engineers or conductors, their salaries, the conditions for admission and promotion, were clearly defined. An important figure in the "School of Bridges, Roads and Mines" was Gheorghe Duca. As early as 1887, he analysed the content of courses, finding the weaknesses of the school, as well as the best solutions to improve its academic level. In those times, a substantial condition was the severity imposed on the conduct of students, in addition to evaluation. Students obtaining insufficient results, or having an erratic course attendance, were quickly removed from the school. Indeed, at the beginning, the preparatory year had no admission tests.

Starting with 1881, an admission test was introduced; the top priority was the quality of candidates, the number of the selected ones being less important. Gheorghe Duca tried and succeeded to bring the best professors to the “National School of Bridges and Roads”; among these were David Emmanuel (Elementary Mathematics), Spiru Haret (Higher Algebra and Analytical Geometry), C. M. Mironescu (Statistics and Engineering Graphics), Constantin Istrati (Physics), or Anghel Saligny (Bridges and Roads). Moreover, Gheorghe Duca himself was considered the greatest authority in railways at the end of the 19th century. This was perhaps a turning moment, when it was clearly demonstrated that Romania was capable of achieving on its own what had been deemed likely to be obtained only abroad, namely the training of highly qualified science and engineering specialists.

The year 1890 also represented a momentous point, when at the National School of Bridges and Roads a new commission was set up. Its main role was to issue equivalency certificates for the engineering diplomas obtained abroad, thus transforming this national school into a model for evaluating higher technical studies. Nicolae Vasilescu-Karpen was appointed director of the School in February 1920. As a direct result of his endeavors, the government approved the establishment of Polytechnic Schools in Romania, conceived as higher education institutions, similar to universities, having as their final aim engineering training under the Ministry of Public Works. No surprise, the first Polytechnic School was set up by transforming the "National School of Bridges and Roads" into the "Polytechnic School of Bucharest". In its initial stage it consisted of four sections:


 * Civil Engineering;
 * Mechanics and Electricity;
 * Mines and Metallurgy;
 * The Industrial Section.

In this period, in addition to the Polytechnic School, there were Institutes for Engineers within Universities. For instance, the University of Bucharest hosted an institute for electrical engineering, an institute for industrial chemistry and another one for agricultural and food chemistry. Another important cornerstone was the decree 3799 of 1938 stating that higher education could be provided only by universities, Polytechnic Schools, or Academies for Commercial Studies. As a direct result, the Academy of Higher Agricultural Studies, The Academy of Architecture, The Institute of Industrial Chemistry and Agricultural and Food Chemistry, respectively, were introduced in the framework of "Bucharest Politehnica". The change of name from "Polytechnic School of Bucharest" into "Politehnica of Bucharest" was accompanied by other changes as well. Thus, Politehnica depended on the Ministry of National Education (instead of the Ministry for Public Works), the former director became Rector of Politehnica, the different sections became Faculties, their presidents in turn, became Deans etc. Between 1938 and 1948 Politehnica of Bucharest had seven faculties: Civil Engineering, Electro-mechanics, Metallurgy, Industrial Chemistry, Silviculture, Agronomy, and Architecture. Another important transformation took place in 1948, when several Politehnica or even specialities became independent, or even moved to other towns. So, a lot of universities, institutes and faculties have their roots in the old "Politehnica of Bucharest". Thus, the following establishments, were initially faculties or departments at "Politehnica" University of Bucharest: The University for Civil Engineering - Bucharest; Silviculture Faculty - Braşov; The Agronomy Institute - Bucharest; The School of Mines - Petroşani; The University for Gas and Oil - Ploieşti; The Architecture Institute - Bucharest; Faculty for Food Chemistry - Galaţi; Faculty for Textile Industry - Iaşi. The name of this school was "The Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest". Based on a resolution of the Senate (November 1992), due to the fact that the energy bill for Institutions was no longer a state subvention but for Universities was, the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest turned into University Politehnica of Bucharest.

Achievements
At the 29th Annual ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest, held at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, on April 6, 2005, Politehnica was ranked 10th in the world. ACM-ICPC World Finals. The university organizes important conferences such as INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONTROL SYSTEMS AND COMPUTER SCIENCE and symposiums like INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES IN FRACTAL ANALYSIS.

Faculties
The university is structured into faculties. The faculties are distinct academic entities, each having its own admission criteria, largely distinct staff and limited interaction. However, there are a number of commonalities: all the faculties provide only engineering degrees, there is a largely common curricula that is observed in the first year of studies, there are shared teaching facilities and shared student facilities. Currently there are thirteen faculties. :


 * Faculty of Electrical Engineering
 * Faculty of Power Engineering
 * Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Science
 * Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology
 * Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics
 * Faculty of Engineering and Management of Technological Systems
 * Faculty of Biotechnical Systems Engineering
 * Faculty of Transports
 * Faculty of Aerospace Engineering
 * Faculty of Material Science and Engineering
 * Faculty of Applied Chemistry and Materials Science
 * Faculty of Engineering Taught in Foreign Languages
 * Faculty of Applied Sciences
 * Faculty of Medical Engineering
 * Faculty of Entrepreneurship, Engineering and Business Management

Technical Colleges
Since 1991, University Politehnica of Bucharest offers short-term (three years) studies equivalent to an Associate Degree within the two Technical Colleges, simply called College Number 1 and College Number 2.

Notable alumni

 * Andrei Alexandrescu widely regarded as one of the foremost experts on C++ programming, head research scientist at Facebook, developer on D 2.0
 * Radu Georgescu software engineer, entrepreneur and founder of GeCAD Software (technology bought by Microsoft that became Windows Security Essentials)
 * Mihail Roco chair of the US National Science and Technology Council subcommittee on Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology (NSET), Senior Advisor for Nanotechnology at the National Science Foundation, founder of National Nanotechnology Initiative
 * Dinu Brătianu politician, led the National Liberal Party (PNL) starting with 1934
 * Elie Carafoli aeronautics engineer
 * Silvia Ciornei politician, member in the European Parliament
 * Sergiu Cunescu politician
 * Mircea Gradu Head of Transmission and Driveline Engineering of Chrisler
 * Ion Iliescu former president of Romania
 * Liviu Librescu aeronautics engineer and scientist, hero of the Virginia Tech massacre
 * Radu Manicatide engineer and aircraft constructor, inventor of the M.R. microcar
 * Mihai Nadin computer scientist, Human Computer Interaction pioneer, director of the Institute for Research in Anticipatory Systems
 * Sergiu Nicolaescu film director
 * Ion Mihai Pacepa chemist, general and the highest-ranking intelligence official ever to have defected from the former Eastern Bloc
 * Cristian Tudor Popescu journalist and SF author
 * Vasile Mihai Popov controls engineer
 * Dumitru Prunariu astronaut and first Romanian in space
 * Petre Roman politician
 * George Necula computer scientist
 * Liviu Eremia engineer General Motors and General Electric
 * Adriana Soveja materials scientist

Notable faculty members

 * Irina Athanasiu
 * Elie Carafoli
 * Henri Coandă
 * Traian Lalescu
 * Mihail Manoilescu
 * Costin Neniţescu
 * Aurel Persu
 * Vasile Mihai Popov
 * Simion Stoilow
 * Gabriel Sudan
 * Nicolae Vasilescu-Karpen
 * Paul Flondor