Norwegian Institute of Technology

The Norwegian Institute of Technology, known by its Norwegian acronym NTH (Norges Tekniske Høgskole), was established in Trondheim in 1910, and existed as an independent technical university until 1996 when it was merged into NTNU.

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 was self-evident as the place for this nationally important seat of learning. However, eventually NTH was located in the geographically central city of Trondhjem, based on an emerging policy of decentralisation as well as the city's existing and highly esteemed technical college (Trondhjems Tekniske Læreanstalt).

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)

This article is in its early stages; more will be written as time permits. This will at least entail: 1) early years, pre-WWII history, incl Samfundet; 2) NTH during WWII; 3) possibly some info on each decade until '96, incl SINTEF, RUNIT, PVV, etc; and 4) end of independent NTH

Notable alumni

• Jens G. Balchen, electronics engr., professor, "father of Norwegian cybernetics", IEEE fellow
• Helmer Dahl, electronics engr., WWII radar and asdic pioneer, research and industry mentor, technology historian
• Ivar Giaever, mechanical engr., physicist, 1973 Nobel laureate
• Bjarne Hurlen, mechanical engr., army officer, defence industry executive (Kongsberg 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
• Olav Landsverk, electronics engr., military weapon systems computer pioneer, professor
• Finn Lied, electronics engr., WWII resistance agent, defence research director, Industrial Minister
• Terje Michalsen, electronics engr., venture capitalist
• Lars Monrad Krohn, electronics engr., industrialist (mini- and microcomputers)
• Ingvild Myhre, electronics engr., telecom industry executive (Alcatel Telecom Norway, Telenor Mobil)
• Lars Onsager, chemical engr., 1968 Nobel laureate
• Edgar B. Schieldrop, mechanical engr., student society co-founder, popular science & technology author
• Rolf Skaar, cybernetics engr., industrialist (minicomputers), Norwegian Space Centre director
• Anders Talleraas, mechanical engr., MP for 20 years, former Conservative party parliamentary leader
• Vebjørn Tandberg, electronics engr., industrialist (radio, tape recording, television)
• Leif Tronstad, O.B.E., chemist, nuclear chemistry scientist, planner and organiser of WWII's Operation Gunnerside
• John Ugelstad, chemical engr., known for his pioneering work on monodisperse polymer beads
• Tore M. Undeland, electrical engr., professor, international textbook author (Wiley), IEEE fellow

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)
• Atmel Norway (inventors and designers of the Atmel AVR RISC microcontroller family, incl HW/SW tools) (N)¹
• Ceetron ASA (3D visualization and technical computing for oil & gas, plus aerospace, automotive, and consumer electronics)
• CorrOcean (industrial/off-shore corrosion monitoring)
• ErgoRunit AS (outsourcing services in IT system planning/administration and accounting) (N)
• FAST Search & Transfer (inter/intranet search engines; developers of alltheweb.com)
• GE Vingmed Ultrasound, formerly Vingmed Sound (ultrasound-based imaging in medical diagnosis and surgery support systems) (N)
• MARINTEK, The Norwegian Marine Technology Research Institute,² including MARINTEK (USA), Inc.
• NordIC VLSI ASA (ASIC design, SoCs, RF/mixed-signal hybrid IC's)
• Oceanor (oceanographic measurements and real-time environmental monitoring in oceans, freshwater, and soil)
• Powel ASA (IT products/services for energy production companies)
• Q-Free ASA; formerly Micro Design AS (radio systems for tolling, traffic information, parking, ticketing, access control, logistics)
• Schlumberger Information Solutions Trondheim, formerly VoxelVision AS (3D visualization, mostly for oil & gas applications)
• SINTEF, The Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research at NTH (contract research corp, 1700 employees)
• SINTEF Energy Research, SINTEF Petroleum Research, and SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture ²
• Sinvent Ltd., SINTEFs development and investment company
• Sun Microsystems Trondheim; formerly ClustRa Systems (high-availability, real-time database technology)
• Systems in Motion AS (SiM) (3D model optimization and visualization)

( ¹ N = Norwegian language website only)  ( ² majority share owned by SINTEF Group)