History

 

  • 1826 – 1831: Preparatory School for the Polytechnic Institute

Stanisław Staszic was the animator of Polish higher technical education.

His efforts lead to the opening of the Preparatory School for the Polytechnic Institute on 4 January 1826.

The School had four departments: Engineering, Chemical, Mechanical and the Trade one. In the first year of operation the School had 44 students. Twenty-eight subjects were taught. Prof. Kajetan Garbiński was the first principal of the School.

  • 1898 – 1905: Polytechnic Institute

The Warsaw Polytechnic Institute was founded on 8 June 1898. The construction work began in 1899 and was completed in 1901. There were six buildings: Main Building without the south-eastern part, Physics, Chemistry and Mechanics buildings and two residential buildings.

  • 1915 – 1939: Warsaw University of Technology

The official opening ceremony of the Warsaw University of Technology, under its current name: Politechnika Warszawska, took place on 15 November 1915. Prof. Zygmunt Straszewicz was the first rector of the University.

There were four faculties:

  • Faculty of Machine Design and Electrical Engineering,
  • Faculty of Civil and Agricultural Engineering ,
  • Faculty of Chemistry,
  • Faculty of Architecture.
  • 1939 – 1945: State Higher Technical School

During the Second World War the University became an underground teaching institution called Higher Technical School, which conducted research (often for the Polish Underground State) and continued education. Two hundred engineers graduated at that time, twenty PhD theses were defended, as well as fourteen postdoctoral degrees were conferred . During the Warsaw Uprising the School suffered the fate of the rest of the city – the buildings were completely destroyed.

  • Since 1945: Politechnika Warszawska (Warsaw University of Technology)

Immediately after the end of the Second World War the reconstruction of the University infrastructure began. By the end of 1945, the faculties which had existed before the War were in operation again.   

  • 1963 : Institute of Mathematics

In 1963 mathematicians working in various faculties of the University were grouped into a single institute.

  • 1975 : Faculty of Technical Physics and Applied Mathematics
  • 1999 : Faculty of Mathematics and Information Science

The Faculty of Mathematics and Information Science was formed  when the former Faculty of Technical Physics and Applied Mathematics had been split into two divisions: one devoted to physics, the other devoted to mathematics and computer science.