Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Karlsruher Institut für Technologie
Audimax at Forum
Established	October 1, 2009 (1825 as polytechnical school)
Type	Public
Budget	€707 million [2]
President	Horst Hippler, Eberhard Umbach
Academic staff	350
Admin. staff	8000
Students	18,245
Location	Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Campus	Urban/Suburban
Website	kit.edu

The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is an academic research and education institution resulting from a merger of the university (Universität Karlsruhe (TH)) and the research center (Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe).^[1] It is located in the city of Karlsruhe, Germany. The university was also known as Fridericiana and was founded in 1825. In 2009, it merged with the former national nuclear research center founded in 1956 as the Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe (KfK). One of nine German Excellence Universities, the KIT is one of the leading technical universities in Germany, ranking 6th in Europe in terms of scientific impact.^[2]

Historical background

The University of Karlsruhe was founded as Polytechnische Schule, a polytechnical school, on October 7, 1825. It was modeled upon the École polytechnique in Paris. In 1865, Grand Duke Frederick I of Baden (German: Friedrich) raised the school to the status of a Hochschule, a high educational institute. Since 1902 the university also has been known as the Fridericiana in his honour.

In 1885 the institution was renamed a Technische Hochschule, Institute of Technology, and in 1967 it became Universität, a full university, entailing the right to award regular doctorate degrees. Nevertheless in 1899 all technical universities, therefore including the University of Karlsruhe, were granted the right to award doctorate degrees for engineering identified as Dr. Ing..

The University of Karlsruhe has been one of the leading German institutions in computer science. A central computer laboratory was founded in 1966. The department of informatics was established three years later along with the possibility to study informatics in a regular course ^[3]. On 2 August 1984 the university received the first email in Germany.

On April 6, 2006 a contract for the foundation of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) was signed by Professor Horst Hippler and Dr. Dieter Ertmann from the University of Karlsruhe, and Professor Manfred Popp and Assistant Jur. Sigurd Lettow from Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe. The name was selected to emulate the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the leading technical university in the United States. ^[4]

In 2008 Hans-Werner Hector, SAP Co-Founder, raised a 200 Million Euro fund to support excellent researchers within the university. Interestingly Hans-Werner Hector is the only founder of SAP which did not graduate regularly at the University of Karlsruhe but was given an honorary doctorate degree for his support of intellectually gifted children in 2003.

Fridericiana, founded in 1825

The first step to bring together the university and the research center was already made in 1985, when the Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung (Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research) was founded. Both institutes, the university and the research center were merged. The university and the research center have always cooperated but the cooperation increased by Juli 2006 when the KIT was formally founded. The main reason for establishing the KIT was the participation of the university of Karlsruhe in the German Universities Excellence Initiative, including the chance to get a maximum grant of 50 Mio.  € p.a. from the excellence initiative.

In February 2008, the merger of the University of Karlsruhe and the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe forming the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology was agreed upon by the state Baden-Württemberg and the federal German government.^[5] The corresponding state law was passed on 8 July 2009.^[6] KIT was formally established on 1 October 2009.

Admission and education

Since winter semester 2008/2009 the University of Karlsruhe completed the change from the Diplom system to a bachelor and master based system. Students working towards a diplom degree can finish their studies while new students are just allowed to apply for a bachelor or master degree.

The admission policies are based on the different departments. While students are chosen by the quality of their school degree and their extracurricular activities for some courses like business engineering (27% admission in 2008^[7]), other departments do not preselect for their courses, for example in physics, informatics or meteorology. The philosophy of a non preselective procedure is a natural selection during course time. All courses require a minimum amount of passed exams, called "Orientierungsprüfung" (engl.: orientational assessment), in the first three semesters to allow continuing the course to its end.

In the first semesters of a course education tends to be theoretically-oriented at the University of Karlsruhe, requiring a high concentration of mathematical courses for engineering and natural science courses. It is possible to specialize in more practical or theoretical topics in later semesters.

Interdisciplinary education and research

The university allowes a broad band of education with the possibility of cross studies and work. The studium generale(Engl.: General studies) was established in 1949 allowing students to attend lectures not directly pertaining their study field.

The "Zentrum für Angewandte Kulturwissenschaft und Studium Generale" ^[8] (Engl.: Center for applied culture and general studies) was founded in 1989 to support the students as a central institution for their interdisciplinary study. Nowadays it offers specialised qualifications in the fields of "Leadership and Entrepreneurship", "Media - Culture - Communication", "Internationalisation and intercultural decision-making and responsibility", "Diversity Management", "European Integration and Identity Studies " as well as the classical studium generale. A possibility for a concomitant study in applied culture science is given as well.^[9]

In 1979 the "Interfakultatives Institut für Anwendungen der Informatik" ^[10](Engl.: Interfacultative institute for applications of informatics) was founded. It binds together research in the fields of physics, mathematics and engineering which are based on computer science. Its mathematical pendant is the "Institut für Wissenschaftliches Rechnen und Mathem. Modellbildung" ^[11] (Engl.: Institute for scientific calculations and mathematical modeling). Its aim is to enhance the exchange between mathematics and engineering in the fields of scientific calculations.

The "Interfakultatives Institut für Entrepreneurship" ^[12] (Engl.: Interfacultative institute for entrepreneurship) was established by SAP funding. Its teaching professors are entrepreneurs on their own. Current professor is Götz Werner, founder of dm - Drogeriemarkt.

In 2001 the Center for Functional Nanostructures ^[13](CFN) was established. It merges the fields of material sciences, biology, chemistry, engineering and physics which are related to nano technology. The CFN is one of the three Exzellenzzentren (Engl.: Excellence Instituitions) of the University of Karlsruhe. A second interdisciplinary excellence institution is the Center for Disaster Management and Risk Reduction Technology (CEDIM).

The Karlsruhe School of Optics & Photonics^[14] (KSOP) was established in 2006 as a public funded project by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) within the scope of the Excellence Initiative by the German Federal and State Governments to promote Science and Research at German universities. KSOP is the first graduate school at the Universität Karlsruhe (TH) and covers the research areas Photonic Materials & Devices, Advanced Spectroscopy, Biomedical Photonics and Optical Systems. It is supported by several Institutes and Professors of the university.

Reputation

According to the Ranking of Scientific Impact of Leading European Research Universities, an official document compiled by the European Commission, Karlsruhe ranks 2nd nationally and 6th in Europe in terms of scholarly impact.^[15][16]

With the exception of the department of biology, ^[17] this university receives more funding from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft than any other university specializing in the natural sciences in Germany. ^[18] However, when compared to Germany's other universites, the university receives average funding. In the engineering sciences (except mechanical engineering where it is in the top ten^[19]) the university is in the top three together with University of Stuttgart and the RWTH Aachen. It also consistently ranks top in the course business engineering and management, concerning the overall study situation as well as popularity with employers ^[20]. However the university is not in the top twenty in the subject of mathematics ^[21].

More than 20% of its students are attracted from other nations and 0.6% of its students receive grants from the German Studienstiftung (German National Academic Foundation). ^[22] In 1998, ScienceWatch [3] ranked its chemistry faculty as belonging to "the cream of the crop in chemistry" internationally. ^[23]

In 2006 the University of Karlsruhe was chosen to be one of the first three universities with the best future concept within the scope of the German Universities Excellence Initiative. These universities have been called "elite universities" in general public and media from that day on.

For many years the department for Computer Science has been the number one institution in this field in Germany. Hence, the University of Karlsruhe has established international reputation. ^[24]

Campus Nord

The Campus Nord (engl. Campus North), the former Forschungszentrum was founded in 1956 as Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe (KfK) (Karlsruhe Nuclear Research Centre). Initial activities concentrated around the Forschungsreaktor 2 (FR2), the first nuclear reactor built by Germany. With the decline of nuclear energy activities in Germany, Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe directed its work increasingly towards alternative areas of basic and applied sciences. This change is reflected in the change of name from Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe to Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe with the subheading Technik und Umwelt (technology and environment) in 1995. This subheading was replaced by in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft in 2002.

The Campus Nord is the site of the main German national nuclear engineering research centre and the Institute for Transuranium Elements. Also present on the site is a nanotechnology research centre.

There is further a 200 metre tall guyed mast for meteorological measurements at Campus Nord.

Computer facilities

The Steinbuch Centre for Computing (SCC), named after Karl Steinbuch, is the institution which was formed in 2008 out of the merging process between the main computer facilities of the University of Karlsruhe and the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe. It is responsible for the university's IP connectivity and provides central services (Mail, Web, Campus management) for students and employees. It supplies students with 10 fully equipped computer rooms, one professional print office and a wireless network over the whole campus area. Some departments, like computer science, physics, and mathematics, run their own computer rooms as well.

The SCC runs some of the fastest computers in Germany:

• HP XC3000 (334 nodes with 8 cores each, 27.04 TFLOPS),
• HP XC4000 (750 nodes with 4 cores each, 15.77 TFLOPS),
• a cluster bought by a corporation of institutes of different disciplines (200 nodes with 8 cores each, 17.57 TFLOPS),
• the two vector parallel calculators NEC SX-8R and NEC SX-9

On August 2, 1984 Michael Rotert, a research fellow at University of Karlsruhe, received the first email ever sent to Germany at his address rotert@germany.

Libraries

The original central library was extended in 2006. It became a 24h library with many working places and a relaxing area. The faculty of physics, the faculty of mathematics, the faculty of computer science and the faculty of economics and business management have got their own libraries to supply students and researchers with topic related literature.

Faculties

The university has eleven faculties:

1. Mathematics
2. Physics
3. Chemistry and Biology
4. Humanities and Social sciences
5. Architecture
6. Civil engineering, Geology, and Ecological Sciences
7. Mechanical Engineering
8. Chemical and Process Engineering
9. Electrical engineering and Information Technology
10. Computer Science
11. Economics and Business engineering

Many departments cooperate, some are shared with the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe.

Famous people and discoveries

Karl Benz, was granted the patent for the first automobile, which he built in 1885

• Ferdinand Redtenbacher (1809-1863), founder of mechanical engineering in Germany
• Karl Benz (1844-1929), the inventor of the automobile, a graduate who also received an honorary Ph.D. in 1914
• Karl Ferdinand Braun (1850-1918), who developed the cathode ray tube in 1897, which is widely used in televisions, in 1909 he received the Nobel Prize for the invention
• Otto Lehmann (1855-1922), the founder of liquid crystal research
• Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857-1894) discovered electromagnetic waves in 1887, which are the basis of radio, and after whom the SI unit of frequency, hertz is named
• Fritz Haber (1868-1934), who developed the high-pressure synthesis of ammonia in 1909 and won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918
• Wolfgang Gaede (1878-1945), who founded vacuum technology
• Hermann Staudinger (1881-1965), who won in 1953 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discoveries in the field of macromolecular chemistry
• Wilhelm Nusselt (1882-1957), the co-founder of technical thermodynamics
• Edward Teller (1908-2003), who is known as the originator of the hydrogen bomb

Famous students

Presidents

• 1968 - 1983 Professor Dr. Ing. h. c. Heinz Draheim
• 1983 - 1994 Professor Dr. h.c. Heinz Kunle
• 1994 - 2002 Professor Dr.-Ing. Dr.-Ing. E.h. Dr.h.c.mult. Sigmar Wittig
• 2002 - current Professor Dr. sc. tech. Horst Hippler ^[25]

Points of interest

• Botanischer Garten der Universität Karlsruhe, the university's botanical garden

References

External links

• Official website of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
• Official press releases of the KIT (since 2007)
• de:Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (on German Wikipedia)
• Facts & Figures
• Further Facts & Figures (PDF, 2004, German)
• figures about students: 1970-2008 (graphic, numerical series)