Royal+Academy+for+Civil+Engineering

=Royal Academy for Civil Engineering=

Delft
In 1842, King William II of the Netherlands understood that he needed technically trained citizens in the city of Delft, which was once a flourishing city and center for the arts and sciences. The Netherlands had started to lag behind its neighboring countries from an industrial point of view. The King also realized that having a branch of the Dutch East India Company was important to the vitality of the city of Delft, as it provided trade with faraway countries. Therefore King William II established the Royal Academy, with the main purpose of training civil servants for the Dutch East Indies. The Academy included departments for professions in the Government service, such as public works, mining, the colony of the Dutch Indies, and the Department of Finances, and for architectural and engineering professions.

Originally the Academy used a building vacated by an artillery school. All the buildings were located within the historic city center of Delft. This changed in the middle of the 20th century. Now the University is located at Mekelpark, a separate University neighborhood, and is safe for bicycles and pedestrians.

From its inception, the school underwent rapid expansion in its research and education curriculum, becoming first a Polytechnic School in 1864. During this time, the school educated engineers of various fields and architects. This type of training was crucial to the continued success of the city during the rapid industrialization period during the 19th century. In 1905, the Academy then became the Institute of Technology, gaining full university rights, and finally changing its name to Delft University of Technology in 1986. Nobel laureates Jacobus van 't Hoff, Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, and Simon van der Meer have been associated with TU Delft. It is known today as TU Delft.

Delft University of Technology (Dutch: Technische Universities Delft) is the largest and oldest Dutch public technical university. It has 8 departments and numerous research institutes and hosts over 19,000 students in combined undergraduate and post graduate programs. In the Academy’s logo, the letter “T” in TU Delft, has the flame that Prometheus brought from Mount Olympus to the people, contrary to Zeus’s orders. For this reason, Prometheus is considered the first engineer and there is a statue of him on campus. The Netherlands is world famous for its hydraulic engineering works, and TU Delft Campus continues to host international conferences on a variety of engineering topics.