The Norwegian Institute of Technology (Norwegian: Norges tekniske høgskole, NTH) was a science institute in Trondheim, Norway. It was established in 1910, and existed as an independent technical university for 58 years, after which it was merged into the University of Trondheim as an independent college.
In 1996 NTH ceased to exist as an organizational superstructure when the university was restructured and rebranded. The former NTH departments are now basic building blocks of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
NTH was primarily a polytechnic institute, educating master level engineers as well as architects. In 1992 NTH had 7627 master and doctoral students and 1591 employees; it graduated 1262 chartered engineers (master level), 52 chartered architects, and 92 Dr.Ing. (PhD). The operating budget was equivalent to US$100M, and the total premises amounted to around 260,000 m2 (64 acres).
Since the merger, it forms a part of the university campus commonly known as Gløshaugen, from the geographical area in which it is situated.
Contents
History
The decision to establish a Norwegian national college of technology was made by the Norwegian parliament, the Storting, in 1900, after years of heated debate on where the institution should be located; many representatives felt that the capital Kristiania (now Oslo) was self-evident as the place for this nationally important seat of learning. However, eventually Den Tekniske Høgskole was located in the geographically central city of Trondheim, based on an emerging policy of decentralisation as well as the city's existing and highly esteemed technical college, Trondhjems Tekniske Læreanstalt.
Hovedbygningen, the building of Norges tekniske høgskole was designed by architect Bredo Greve. It was built of granite block construction in the National Romantic style of architecture.
Five academical departments were originally present in the parliament's resolution of 31 May 1900:
Architecture and city planning
Civil engineering
Mechanical engineering (a. General and b. Naval, i.e. ship and ship engine construction)
Electrical engineering
Chemistry (a. General and b. Electro-chemistry)
Academic faculties
The academic structure of NTH during the last years before its inclusion in NTNU was as follows:
Faculty of Architecture, with 5 Departments:
Form and Colour Studies
Building Technology
Architectural History
Arch. Design
Town and Regional Planning
Faculty of Applied Earth Science and Metallurgy, with 3 Departments:
Metallurgy
Geology and Mineral Resources
Petroleum Technology and Applied Geophysics (see also Department of Petroleum Engineering and Applied Geophysics)
Faculty of Civil Engineering, with 8 Departments:
Building and Construction Engineering
Geotechnical Engineering
Road and Railway Engineering
Transportation Engineering
Hydraulic and Sanitary Engineering
Building Materials
Structural Engineering
Geodesy and Photogrammetry
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, with 5 Departments:
Notable alumni
Jens G. Balchen, electronics engr., professor, "father of Norwegian cybernetics", IEEE fellow
Alf Egil Bogen, electronics engr., co-inventor of Atmel AVR μcontroller, co-founder of Atmel Norway
Helmer Dahl, electronics engr., World War II radar and ASDIC pioneer, research and industry mentor, technology historian
David Lie Eide, engineer
Johannes Falnes, wave energy researcher
Ivar Asbjørn Følling - chemical engr., discovery of Phenylketonuria, Jahreprisen 1960
Ivar Giaever, mechanical engr., physicist, 1973 Nobel laureate
Bjarne Hurlen, mechanical engr., army officer, defence industry executive (Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk 1956–1975)
Ralph Høibakk, physicist, computer industry executive, mountaineer, adventurer (Seven Summits; South Pole)
Fred Kavli, physicist, innovator, business leader (sensor technology: Kavlico Corp.), and philanthropist
Paal Kibsgaard, petroleum engineer, chairman and CEO of Schlumberger
Arne Korsmo - architect, professor, Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry
Olav Landsverk, electronics engr., military weapon systems computer pioneer, professor
John M. Lervik, electronics engr., co-founder and CEO of cXense, co-founder and former CEO of Fast Search & Transfer (FAST)
Commercial impact
The following companies, or divisions of international companies, have been created directly or partly from NTH research and influence, including its contract research arm SINTEF with spin-offs:
3d-Radar AS (advanced ground penetrating radar technology for shallow subsurface mapping in 3D) [1]
Atmel Norway (inventors and designers of the Atmel AVR RISC microcontroller family, incl HW/SW tools) (in Norwegian) [2]
Ceetron AS (3D visualization and technical computing for oil & gas, plus aerospace, automotive, and consumer electronics) [3]
Cybernetica (Norwegian company) advanced process control, specializing in nonlinear model predictive control
CorrOcean (industrial/off-shore Corrosion Monitoring) [4]
ErgoRunit AS (outsourcing services in IT system planning/administration and accounting) [5] (N)
Fast Search & Transfer (FAST) (inter/intranet search engines; developers of alltheweb.com) [6]
GE Vingmed Ultrasound, formerly Vingmed Sound (ultrasound-based imaging in medical diagnosis and surgery support systems) [7] (N)
Marine Cybernetics, specialising in the testing and verification of ship and offshore structure control systems [8] (N)
MARINTEK, The Norwegian Marine Technology Research Institute, including MARINTEK (USA), Inc. [9]
Nordic Semiconductor ASA (ASIC design, SoCs, RF/mixed-signal hybrid IC's) [10]