The Faculty of Informatics at the TU Wien stands for excellence in research, quality in teaching, and passion for innovation. Its core is formed by application-oriented fundamental research, the topics of which are inspired by practical problems. The Faculty of Informatics is characterised by ongoing top achievements in research, and by its relentless dedication to providing students with the best possible learning environment. The strategic focus of the degree programmes is on the comprehensive interconnection of research and teaching, thus ensuring the absolute topicality and relevance of course contents. Another goal of the faculty is to provide innovative problem-solving solutions which meet the challenges of the information and knowledge society.

An autonomous faculty of the TU Wien for only forty years, Electrical Engineering and Information Technology are nevertheless among the most important foundations of technical development since the 19th century. Areas of research are numerous and broad – starting with the “classics” like Energy Technologies and Telecommunications, research turned to the fields of System and Automation Technologies, Micro- and Nanoelectronics, and Photonics, all highly complex disciplines that have established themselves as essential to modern society.

The history of the Faculty of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering is as old as that of the TU Wien. As intended by its founders, the former Imperial Royal Polytechnic Institute worked closely together with industry and business, addressing topics from the very beginning that one would today assign to the Faculty of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. In correspondence with overall technological progress, the research topics and teaching fields of the faculty have undergone continual, often even revolutionary, development and change. This commemorative volume provides both a historical overview of the evolution of the faculty as well as exemplary highlights and striking characteristics of the developments of the last 50 years in particular.

The Faculty of Mathematics and Geoinformation of the TU Wien has existed as such since the division of the early, very large Faculty of Technical Sciences in 2004. It provides its own study programmes in both subjects, as well as ensuring the mathematical and geometrical basic education of the students of all seven other faculties. The faculty also conducts research in broad and highly crucial focal areas. The current volume is part of a comprehensive commemorative series published in 2015 for the bicentennial memorial of the TU Wien providing information on the research activities, teaching tasks, and history of the Faculty of Mathematics and Geoinformation, in particular over the last 50 years. Special attention has been paid to the exceptional scientific achievements of faculty members.

This volume takes a look at the past – at the last 50 years in particular – and a look at the present, painting a picture of how the Imperial Royal Polytechnic Institute, founded in 1815, became the Technische Universität Wien – the "TU Wien" – with the launch of the 1975 University Organisation Act, and has increasingly developed into a research university ever since. Contemporaries from the years when the TU Wien was still the TH in Vienna have a place to tell their stories in this volume, alongside articles on interfaculty research facilities and service centres that support research activities and transfer of research results in accordance with the TU Wien's motto, “Technology for people”. One of the main goals of this book is to not only inform readers, but also to amuse them a bit as they peruse the pages of the volume.