The main building of the Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH). Granite block construction.
The Norwegian Institute of Technology, known by its Norwegian acronym NTH (Norges Tekniske Høgskole) is a science institute in Trondheim, Norway. It was established in 1910, and existed as an independent technical university for 85 years, after which it was merged into NTNU (1996). 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. (Ph.D.). The operating budget was equivalent to USD 100 M, and the total premises amounted to around 260,000 m² (64 acres).
Since the merger, it forms a part of the University commonly known as Gløshaugen, after the geographical area in which it is situated.
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:
This section 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
Tor Olav Trøim, marine engr., shipping and energy industry executive (Frontline, Seadrill)
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) (Norwegian)[2]
Ceetron AS (3D visualization and technical computing for oil & gas, plus aerospace, automotive, and consumer electronics) [3]