Main building in winterMain courtyard in summerKTH "Courtyard" ("borggården") 2005Kerberos guarding the entrance to the courtyardRoyal Institute of Technology 2012Royal Institute of Technology 2012Royal Institute of Technology 2012
KTH Royal Institute of Technology (KTH; Swedish: Kungliga Tekniska högskolan) is a university in Stockholm, Sweden, specialized in Engineering and Technology, it ranks highest in northern mainland Europe in its academic fields.[3] The current King of Sweden Carl XVI Gustaf is its High Protector.
Swedish is a North Germanic language spoken natively by 9.6 million people, predominantly in Sweden, and in parts of Finland, where it has equal legal standing with Finnish. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and to some extent with Danish, although the degree of mutual intelligibility is largely dependent on the dialect and accent of the speaker. Both Norwegian and Danish are generally easier for Swedish speakers to read than to listen to because of difference in accent and tone when speaking. Swedish is a descendant of Old Norse, the common language of the Germanic peoples living in Scandinavia during the Viking Era. It has the most speakers of the North Germanic languages.
The core of the KTH Royal Institute of Technology was the Laboratorium Mechanicum for research and teaching in mechanics, founded in Stockholm in 1697 by Christopher Polhem after his extensive trips, studies and research abroad. This core was later called the Mechanical School prior to its 1827 transformation into The Technological Institute, Sweden's first institute of technology (polytechnic) by decision of the King Charles XIV John of Sweden, also Marshal of France, modeled after École Polytechnique which was founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in Paris, France in 1794. The Technological Institute changed its name to the present Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) in 1877 by decree of King Oscar II. The Laboratorium Mechanicum was itself in 1925 handed over from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology to the Swedish Museum of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden.
Mechanics is that area of science concerned with the behaviour of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effects of the bodies on their environment. The scientific discipline has its origins in Ancient Greece with the writings of Aristotle and Archimedes. During the early modern period, scientists such as Galileo, Kepler, and Newton laid the foundation for what is now known as classical mechanics. It is a branch of classical physics that deals with particles that are either at rest or are moving with velocities significantly less than the speed of light. It can also be defined as a branch of science which deals with the motion of and forces on objects. The field is yet less widely understood in terms of quantum theory.
Stockholm is the capital of Sweden and the most populous urban area in the Nordic countries; 960,031 people live in the municipality, approximately 1.5 million in the urban area, and 2.3 million in the metropolitan area. The city stretches across fourteen islands where Lake Mälaren flows into the Baltic Sea. Just outside the city and along the coast is the island chain of the Stockholm archipelago. The area has been settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC, and was founded as a city in 1252 by Swedish statesman Birger Jarl. It is also the capital of Stockholm County.
Christopher Polhammar, better known as Christopher Polhem, which he took after his ennoblement in 1716, was a Swedish scientist, inventor and industrialist. He made significant contributions to the economic and industrial development of Sweden, particularly mining.
KTH Royal Institute of Technology is regularly ranked as one of the highest among institutes of technology in Europe and the world.[4]
Campuses
Main campus
The main campus buildings at Valhallavägen in Östermalm, by architect Erik Lallerstedt, were completed in 1917. The bells of the clock-tower was completed ten years later in 1927 at the 100 year anniversary of the transformation of the Mechanical School from to The Technological Institute, in 1827. The buildings and surroundings were decorated by prominent early 20th-century Swedish artists such as Carl Milles, Axel Törneman, Georg Pauli, Tore Strindberg and Ivar Johnsson. The older buildings on the campus were renovated heavily in 1994. While the original campus was large for its time, KTH very soon outgrew it, and the campus was expanded with new buildings. Today, KTH institutions and faculties are distributed across several campuses in Stockholm County, located in Flemingsberg, Haninge, Kista and Södertälje, beyond the ones in Östermalm.
Östermalm is a 2.56 km² large district in central Stockholm, Sweden. With 71,802 inhabitants it is one of the most populous districts in Stockholm. It's an extremely expensive area, having the highest housing prices in Sweden.
Carl Milles was a Swedish sculptor. He was married to artist Olga Milles and brother to Ruth Milles and half brother to the architect Evert Milles. Carl Milles sculpted the Gustaf Vasa statue at the Stockholm Nordic Museum, the Poseidon statue in Gothenburg, the Orpheus group outside the Stockholm Concert Hall, and the Fountain of Faith in Falls Church, Virginia. His home near Stockholm, Millesgården, became his resting place and is now a museum.
Johan Axel Gustaf Törneman was one of Sweden's earliest modernist painters. Born in Persberg, Värmland, in Sweden, he grew to work in several modernist styles, was one of the first Swedish expressionist artists, and became a part of the international avant-garde in art after embracing more abstract art styles in Germany and France that were evolving there during the early 1900s. He created his most famous paintings, Night Café I and II, and Trait, in France in 1905. These night café paintings, made from studies in the Place Pigalle, and in other nightclubs popular with artists such as Café du Rat Mort, are seen as two of Swedish modernism's most important works, and are considered breakthrough work of Swedish modernism.
Kista
KTH, School of ICT, Kista offers education and research in all the areas which today's information society is based upon – from nano scale physics and corn to the benefit of the end user. Kista is an educational environment with modern facilities, which are always open to the students. All courses are within ICT, creating a strong cohesion and an exchange over the educational programmes. Stockholm University’s computer science programmes are also located in Kista. Together, over 3000 students create a living educational environment and a vibrant student life. KTH Kista is an exciting international environment with teachers and students from all around the world. The Master's and postgraduate programmes offered by the school attracts students from the world's top universities. With companies such as Ericsson, Volvo, IBM, Tele2, TietoEnator, Microsoft, Intel and Oracle as neighbors, the cooperation between industry and KTH is widely known.
Ericsson is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company offers services, software and infrastructure in information and communications technology for telecommunications operators, traditional telecommunications and Internet Protocol (IP) networking equipment, mobile and fixed broadband, operations and business support services, cable television, IPTV, video systems, and an extensive services operation.
The Volvo Group is a Swedish multinational manufacturing company headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distribution and sale of trucks, buses and construction equipment, Volvo also supplies marine and industrial drive systems and financial services. In 2016, it was the world's second largest manufacturer of heavy-duty trucks.
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, with operations in over 170 countries. The company began in 1911, founded in Endicott, New York, as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR) and was renamed "International Business Machines" in 1924.
Flemingsberg
School of Technology and Health has a part of its activities in Flemingsberg. At KTH Flemingsberg the school offers courses in Medical Engineering and conducts research within the subject.
Flemingsberg is a southern suburb of Stockholm, Sweden that is located in Huddinge Municipality in the south-western part of the contiguous Stockholm urban area.
KTH's activities in Flemingsberg started in 2002. Since 2003, the school offers a Bachelor of Education in Medical Engineering, in collaboration with Karolinska Institutet. In autumn 2008, a master of science in Medical Engineering started. located here are undergraduate studies, most research departments, and the research center: Center for Technology in Medicine and Health (CTMH), which collaborates with Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm County Council (SLL) to contribute to the development and growth of research in engineering, medicine and health.
Flemingsberg is an area of high academic "density" and one of northern Europe's most important areas within biotechnology – both terms of research and industrial activities. Here are also Södertörn University and Karolinska Institutet with over 10 000 students and Novum Research Center, where 1000 people are involved in research.
Flemingsberg is an area of strong growth. To meet the need for student housing more apartments are planned.[5]
Haninge
In Haninge, students from two schools at KTH receive education – the School of Architecture and the Built Environment, ABE, and the School of Technology and Health, STH. Here, students study at undergraduate and master level in fields such as building engineering (ABE), computer engineering, electrical engineering and foundation training. The School of Technology and Health also has a research centre i Haninge – Centre for Health and Building.
Just south of metropolitan Stockholm you will discover a modern campus with reputation for its nice campus area, safe atmosphere and the feeling of togetherness among staff and students.
KTH Haninge holds a large number of courses. For example, the international master programme Architectural Lighting Design is located here, with students from over 20 different countries.
KTH Haninge has a meeting point where the diverse worlds of culture, scientific research and business come together to experience and examine the significance of light and lighting in our daily lives. This is called the Lighting Laboratory.
The campus itself is located near the commuter train, which takes you to Stockholm in just 20 minutes. It is also close to a beautiful archipelago and enjoy the great outdoors in Tyresta National Park.[6]
Södertälje
KTH Södertälje is Södertälje’s university college campus. KTH Södertälje is a moderately large area with close and natural contacts between teachers and students.
KTH Södertälje’s education is being constantly developed via a close co-operation with the town’s business community and in particular major Södertälje companies such as Scania and AstraZeneca. Among other topics, university engineers in electronics and mechanical engineering are educated here. Also, KTH offer various Master's programmes in logistics, project management, and product development.
Since autumn 2007, the design studio Go Deep KTH at KTH Södertälje has been able to offer product development work via surveys, concept, visualisation and development through design. The idea with Go Deep KTH is to create realistic cooperation projects with companies, public administrations and institutions together with researchers in technology, medicine and health.
At KTH Södertälje, each year Tegelnatten is arranged, a competition where students in teams solve a 24-hour project assignment. The project assignment for design night 2008 was to provide proposals and ideas as to how future games and competitions will be designed to attract and entice the future generations.
Södertälje offers KTH's students who will be studying at KTH Södertälje a guaranteed apartment in Södertälje. Students who live and study in Södertälje also receive a computer via cooperation with the municipality which they are able to use during the time they spend as a student.[7]
History
KTH was 1827 transformed from the Mechanical School to the Technological Institute (Teknologiska institutet), following the establishment of polytechnical schools in many European countries the early years of the 19th century, often based on the model of École Polytechnique in Paris in 1794.
KTH's earliest Swedish predecessor was the Laboratorium mechanicum, a collection of mechanical models for teaching created in 1697 by Christopher Polhem, who is considered to be the father of mechanics in Sweden. The models were used intermittently for teaching practical mechanics by different masters until the School of Mechanics (Mekaniska skolan) was founded in 1798. This is the year from which there has been continuous teaching of technology in Sweden. The activities of the School of Mechanics was taken over by KTH when it was founded.
The institute had one professor of chemistry and one of physics, and one class in mechanical engineering and one in chemical engineering. During the first years, however, teaching was at a very elementary level, and more aimed at craftsmanship rather than engineering as such. The institute was also plagued by conflicts between the faculty and the founder and head of the institute, Gustaf Magnus Schwartz, who was responsible for the artisanal focus of the institute. A government committee was appointed in 1844 to solve the issues, which led to removing Schwartz in 1845. Instead, Joachim Åkerman, the head of the School of Mining in Falun and a former professor of chemistry at KTH, took over. He led a full reorganisation of the institute in 1846–1848, after which he returned to his post in Falun. An entrance test and a minimum age of 16 for students was introduced, which led to creating proper engineering training at the institute. In 1851, the course was extended from two years to three.
In the late 1850s, the institute entered a time of expansion. In 1863, it received its own purpose-built buildings on Drottninggatan. In 1867, its regulations were again overhauled, to state explicitly that the institute should provide scientific training to its students. In 1869, the School of Mining in Falun was moved to Stockholm and merged with the institute. In 1871, the institute took over the civil engineering course formerly arranged by the Higher Artillery College in Marieberg.
In 1877, the name was changed into the current one, which changed KTH's status from Institute (institut) to College (högskola), and some courses were extended from three years to four. Architecture was also added to the curriculum.
In 1915, the degree titles conferred by KTH received legal protection. In the late 19th century, it had become common to use the title civilingenjör (literally "civil engineer") for most KTH-trained engineers, and not just those who studied building and construction-related subjects. The only exception was the mining engineers, which called themselves bergsingenjör ("mountain engineer"). For a while, the title civilingenjör was equal to "KTH graduate" but in 1937, Chalmers in Gothenburg became the second Swedish engineering college which were allowed to confirm these titles.
In 1917, the first buildings of KTH's new campus on Valhallavägen were completed, and still constitute its main campus.
Although the engineering education of the late 19th and early 20th century were scientifically founded, up until the early 20th century, research as such was not seen as a central activity of an Institute of Technology. Those engineering graduates which went on to academic research had to earn their doctorates, typically in physics or chemistry, at a regular university. In 1927, KTH was finally granted the right to confer its own doctorates, under the designation Teknologie doktor (Doctor of Technology), and the first five doctors were created in 1929.
In 1984 the civilingenjör course at all Swedish universities was extended from four years to 4.5. From 1989, the shorter training in technology arranged by the municipal polytechnical schools in Sweden was gradually extended and moved into the university system, from 1989 as two-year courses and from 1995 alternatively as three-year courses. For KTH, this meant that additional campuses around the Stockholm area were added.
In present-day KTH continue to be Sweden's largest, oldest, highest ranked and most international technical university. The university provides one-third of Sweden's research and engineering education. In 2012, there were a total of 14,000 undergraduate students, 1,700 postgraduate students, and 4,600 members of staff at the university.[8]
After the American deployment of nuclear weapons at the end of World War II, the Swedish military leadership recognized the need for nuclear weapons to be thoroughly investigated and researched to provide Sweden with the knowledge to defend itself from a nuclear attack. With the mission to "make something with neutrons", the Swedish team, with scientists like Rolf Maximilian Sievert, set out to research the subject and eventually build a nuclear reactor for testing.
After a few years of basic research, they started building a 300kW (later expanded to 1 MW) reactor, named Reaktor 1 (R1), in a reactor hall 25 meters under the surface right underneath KTH. Today this might seem ill-considered, since approximately 40,000 people lived within a 1km radius. It was risky, but was deemed tolerable since the reactor was an important research tool for scientists at the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien).
At 18:59 on 13 July 1954, the reactor reached critical mass and sustained Sweden's first nuclear reaction. R1 was to be the main site for almost all Swedish nuclear research until 1970 when the reactor was finally decommissioned, mostly due to the increased awareness of the risks associated with operating a reactor in a densely populated area of Stockholm. Close to the reactor hall is the restaurant Q.
In February 2017, the new president announced a new plan to review the schools organization. The reorganization will aim at reducing the number of schools by integrating them.[9]
In 2007, by government initiative, the Swedish National Agency for Higher Education employed an international expert committee to find and award the top five highest quality education areas among all universities and colleges in Sweden. The Royal Institute of Technology received one such "Centre of Excellent Quality in Higher Education" (in Vehicle Engineering). It is the only higher education institution in the Stockholm/Uppsala region to receive an award.[13] In 2009, KTH was the only institute among all Sweden's universities to be awarded as a Centre of Excellent Quality in Higher Education (in computer science).[14]
In 2016 the university was ranked 97th in the world as a general university (not only technical) beaten in Sweden only by Lund University in its capacity as a general university by QS World University Rankings.[15] KTH Royal Institute of Technology is 2016 in the world ranked 33rd in engineering and technology and 74th in the natural sciences.[15] The Electrical Engineering subject was ranked as number 26 worldwide in terms of highest quality in the world. KTH Royal Institute of Technology is the highest ranked institute of technology in northern mainland Europe, only rivaled by Germany's and Netherlands' highest ranking institutes of technology.[15] As a comparison, Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg ranks at 133 by QS World University Rankings.[16] The other global ranking, Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranks KTH 159th in the world for 2016–17.[17] As a comparison, Times for instance ranks the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg at 251–300.[18]
Notable alumni
Many prominent former students have attended KTH, including;
Chalmers University of Technology is a Swedish university located in Gothenburg that focuses on research and education in technology, natural science, architecture, maritime and other management areas.
Kista is a district in the borough of Rinkeby-Kista, Stockholm, Sweden. It has a strategic position located in between Sweden's main airport, the Stockholm-Arlanda International Airport and central Stockholm, and alongside the main national highway E4 economic artery. Kista comprises residential and commercial areas, the latter in the highly technological telecommunication and information technology industry. There are large research efforts in this entire area, which therefore is dubbed Kista Science City. It is known as the research park of KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
Stockholm University is a public university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. Stockholm University has two scientific fields: the natural sciences and the humanities/social sciences. With over 34,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, it is one of the largest universities in Scandinavia. The institution is regarded as one of the top 100 universities in the world by the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).
The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a public research university located in the urban coastal city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. QUT is located on two campuses in the Brisbane area: Gardens Point and Kelvin Grove. The university in its current form was founded in 1989, when the then Queensland Institute of Technology (QIT) was granted university status by the 'Queensland University of Technology Act' passed in 1988 and also by the subsequent merger of Brisbane College of Advanced Education with QUT in 1990. QUT was a member of the Australian Technology Network of universities and had withdrawn participation since 28 September 2018 onwards.
The Karolinska Institute is a research-led medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area of Sweden. It covers areas such as biochemistry, genetics, pharmacology, pathology, anatomy, physiology and medical microbiology, among others. It is recognised as Sweden's best university and one of the largest, most prestigious medical universities in the world. It is the highest ranked in all Scandinavia. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The assembly consists of fifty professors from various medical disciplines at the university. The current rector of Karolinska Institute is Ole Petter Ottersen, who took office in August 2017.
Södertörn University is a public university (högskola) located in Flemingsberg, which is located in Huddinge Municipality, and the larger area called Södertörn, in Stockholm County, Sweden. In 2013, it had about 13 000 full-time students. The campus area (Universitetsområdet) in Flemingsberg hosts the main campus of SH, several departments of the Karolinska Institutet, and the School of Technology and health of the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH). The Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge, is also located there.
Swinburne University of Technology is an Australian public university based in Melbourne, Victoria. It was founded in 1908 as the Eastern Suburbs Technical College by George Swinburne in order to serve those without access to further education in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs. Its main campus is located in Hawthorn, a suburb of Melbourne which is located 7.5 km from the Melbourne central business district.
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is a public research university in Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong. Founded in 1991, it is the territory's third institution being granted university status along with establishment.
The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Although its origins are said to trace back to the 1870s, the university was founded in its current form in 1988. As of 2018, UTS enrolls 45,930 students, including 33,070 undergraduate and 12,860 postgraduate students through its 9 faculties and schools.
Tokyo Institute of Technology is a national research university located in Greater Tokyo Area, Japan. Tokyo Tech is the largest institution for higher education in Japan dedicated to science and technology, and is generally considered to be one of the most prestigious universities in Japan.
The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (UC) is one of the six Catholic Universities existing in the Chilean university system and one of the two Pontifical Universities in the country, along with the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso. It is also one of Chile's oldest universities and one of the most recognized educational institutions in Latin America. According to the QS Ranking, its Faculty of Law ranks 44th in the world, and its Faculty of Education ranks 21st worldwide. It was ranked 1st university in Latin America in 2018 according to the same QS ranking.
Southeast University, colloquially Dongda is a public research university located in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China. It was part of one of the oldest universities and the first coeducational university in China. It is a member of both Project 985 and Project 211, and sponsored by the Ministry of Education of China aiming to become a well-known world-class university. It is a Chinese Ministry of Education Class A Double First Class University.
National Research Nuclear University MEPhI is one of the most recognized technical universities in Russia. MEPhI was founded in 1942 as the Moscow Mechanical Institute of Munitions, but it was soon renamed the Moscow Mechanical Institute. Its original mission was to train skilled personnel for the Soviet military and atomic programs. It was renamed the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute in 1953, which was its name until 2009.
Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) is a private research university in Pohang, South Korea dedicated to research and education in science and technology.
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) is a national key university directly under the Ministry of Education of China. UESTC was included as one of the first universities into "Project 211" in 1997, and then the nation's “Project 985” in 2001. It is a Chinese Ministry of Education Class A Double First Class University.
Pakistan Institute of Engineering and Applied Sciences (PIEAS) is a public institute focused on the study of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). It is located in Islamabad, Pakistan.
The Department of Mechanical Engineering is responsible for teaching and research in mechanical engineering at Imperial College London, occupying the City & Guilds Building at the South Kensington campus. The department has around 45 faculty members, 600 undergraduates, and 250 postgraduate students. The department ranks 8th in the QS World University Rankings's 2018 table.
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