FROM ELEMENTARY PARTICLES TO SPACE

Hailed as a leading educational institution both domestically and internationally for more than two centuries, the BME has been home to engineers, economists and scientists who, through their research and inventions, achieve professional breakthroughs and, with their work and expertise, contribute day by day to shaping a future that requires extraordinary solutions. 

The goal of the visitor centre is to bring the university’s exceptional achievements, traditions and innovations in its study programmes of national economic importance under one roof, by providing a viable space for former and current students to present their research activities. The exhibition celebrates the 240th anniversary of the institution, its history, outstanding figures, and successes, which abound in events of national and international significance.

240 years of the BME

1782

the Budapest University of Technology and Economics’ predecessor institution, the Institutum Geometrico-Hydrotechnicum is established with faculties in land surveying, map plotting, river control and flood risk management, the Faculty of Civil Engineering dates its existence from this year

1816

Pál Vásárhelyi, the chief engineer for the regulation of the River Tisza, obtains his degree in water engineering

1846

the Joseph College of Technology is established with technical, commercial, and economic departments

1848

the students of the Joseph College of Technology formulate their demands in 12 points in the early days of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848; in the same year, the university library is also established with its first volumes donated by József Eötvös

1850

the Institutum Geometrico-Hydrotechnicum and the Joseph College of Technology are merged to create the Joseph Industrieschule, providing non-tertiary education in German

1856

the Royal Joseph Polytechnic is established with technical and economic departments, relocated to Buda, the institution once again provides students with tertiary education

1860

education in Hungarian is restored

1871

the institution gains the right to issue engineering degrees, under the name Royal Joseph University, thus becoming the world’s first technical higher education institution to bear the word ‘university’ in its name, the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering is established

1872

Károly Zipernowsky, mechanical engineer, and one of the founders of the Hungarian high-current electrical engineering industry, enrols at the Royal Joseph Technical University

1873

the predecessors of the Faculty of Architecture and the Faculty of Chemical and Bioengineering are established

1881

Donát Bánki, the inventor of the atomizer, obtains his degree in mechanical engineering

1882

the University of Technology and Economics is relocated to Museum Boulevard

1892

Kálmán Kandó, a pioneer in railway electrification, obtains his degree in mechanical engineering with distinction

1896

the Budapest University of Technology and Economics Symphony Orchestra is established, operating to this day, being the first orchestra organised at a university with no Faculty of Music

1897

the still active Technical University Athletics and Football Club is established

1899

Alfréd Hajós, the first Olympic champion of the university and Hungary, obtains his degree in architecture

1901

the university obtains the right to confer doctorate degrees, and the first Hungarian technical doctor is the civil engineer Szilárd Zielinski, pioneer of reinforced concrete architecture

1904

relocation to the Lágymányos Campus begins: the first building to be constructed is the Institute of Chemical Engineering, followed by the Physics Department, and in 1909 by the Central Building, the Main Library and workshops

1907

economist Farkas Heller begins his teaching career at the university

1909

the university acquires the right to confer honorary doctorate degrees, with Archduke Joseph of Habsburg, who donates Rector’s and Dean’s chains to the university, being its first recipient

1911

the youth flag of the university is inaugurated, it vanishes during World War II, and is returned to the university in 2019

1914

the Department of Economics is established

1920

Eszter Pécsi graduates and becomes the first female engineer to earn a degree at the Technical University and in Hungary

1925

among the first in the world, a medical clinic is set up at the university

1927

the statue of the Wounded Hero is inaugurated in memory of people from the university who fell in World War I.; rebuilt in 2000, the monument commemorates all the university’s war heroes

1934

merged with three other tertiary education institutions, the university is renamed as the Royal Hungarian Joseph University of Technology and Economics, and becomes the country’s largest institution of its kind with 98 departments

1936

the sceptre of the university is completed, and building ‘AE’, erected between WWI and WWII is inaugurated

1939

the Institute for Continuing Education in Engineering, Europe’s first continuing education institute within a university, is established

1946

Zoltán Bay, a physicist and researcher at the university, observed the reflection of radar beams aimed at the Moon, thus kickstarting Hungarian space research

1949

the Budapest University of Technology is established, the predecessor of today’s Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics is founded, and over the next 30 years the campus is expanded with 11 new educational buildings in the streets leading toward Petőfi Bridge

1951

The Technical University of Transportation, the predecessor of today`s Faculty of Transportation and Vehicle Engineering, is established

1955

the university is split into two institutions with a separate apparatus: the Budapest University of Technology and the Technical University of Construction and Transportation Engineering

1956

the institution plays an important role during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956: meetings are held by university students, a list of sixteen points that form the political program of the revolution are compiled here, a demonstration starts here and the university acts as an organizing and distributing centre

1963

Jenő Wigner, a chemical engineer and former student of the Royal University of Technology, is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the dispersion theory of nuclear reactions

1967

the previously separated institutions are merged to form the Budapest University of Technology

1967

Ernő Rubik Jr., Kossuth Prize-winning Hungarian architect, designer, interior designer, game designer, inventor, and ‘Artist of the Nation’ awardee, obtains his civil engineering diploma

1971

an experimental training reactor is put into operation on the campus

1971

electrical engineer Dénes Gábor, a former student of the Royal Joseph Technical University, is awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering the holographic process

1984

foreign language education at the university starts first in English, which is later supplemented by Russian, French and German training programs

1986

Bertalan Farkas, pilot, retired brigadier general, and the first Hungarian astronaut obtains his degree from the Faculty of Transportation Engineering

1987

the BME’s Supporters’ and Friends’ Circle is organised, which aims to strengthen the relationship between the institution and its alumni, as well as current students and professors

1991

doctoral training starts in technology, natural sciences, economics and arts

1993

the credit system is introduced, and the title ‘Professor Emeritus’ is first awarded

1994

György Oláh, chemical engineer, alumnus and former lecturer at the Royal Joseph University is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his achievements in the research of carbocations

1998

building ‘I’ opens, and the independent Faculty of Natural Sciences and Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences are established

2000

the official name of the institution changes to the currently used ‘Budapest University of Technology and Economics’

2007

created in 1909 and destroyed in 1945, the allegorical female statues guarding the entrance of the Central Building are reborn

2010

the institution is awarded with the prestigious research university status and building ‘Q’ opens its doors for the first time

2012

Masat-1, the first Hungarian built picosatellite is completed, followed in 2019 by SMOG-P, the world’s smallest operating picosatellite, which was also developed at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics

2017

the BME Centre for University-Industry Cooperation is established to organise, coordinate and strengthen the university’s innovation-related activities

2019

the establishment of the BME Innovation and Development Centre is announced

2020

the university joins EELISA, an alliance between nine European higher education institutions, and the BME Z10 start-up incubation centre is opened

2021

the first rural training centre of the university, the Balatonfüred Knowledge Centre is opened

2022

the developers of the mRNS vaccine pills are inspired by Gömböc, the first known homogenous, mono-monostatic object and the discovery of university professors Gábor Domokos and Péter Várkonyi from 2007

Contact

Address: 1111 Budapest, Műegyetem rkp. 3.

Opening hours: Mon-Fri 8: 00-18: 00, Sat-Sun Closed