Historical Image Bank Eindhoven University of Technology

Mr J. Bremer, TH Eindhoven graduate and former member of the Eindhoven Student Corps, kindly offered a series of student life images dating from shortly after the university's foundation. The series also includes some Eindhoven street views around 1960.

In 2011, the year in which TU/e celebrated its 55th foundation anniversary, the IEC put this series of photographs on display in the Central Library. Images of official ceremonies and festivities, student life, cultural life, the development of new buildings and the expansion of the campus. TU/e, or Technische Hogeschool as it was then known, was in a phase of relentless growth and optimistic expectations of the future.

In the years following World War 2 the Dutch government decided to establish a second university of technology in the country. Eindhoven, with its highly developed electronic and automotive industries, was a main contender to become the location for the new institution from the outset. Nevertheless, the city made every effort it could to put forward its case. These efforts also resulted in the bidbook, a package of documents, maps and images providing a wealth of information on the city and its prospects for the future. This special contains selected maps from the bidbook. The original bidbook has meanwhile been transferred to the Brabant Historic Information Center at Den Bosch.

Along with electrical and chemical engineering, mechanical engineering was one of the three fields of education and research with which TU/e started out in 1957. 'Big names' during the early years were prof. W.L.H. Schmid, A. Horowitz (who helped develop the 'Philishave', the electric shaver from Philips), and P.C. Veenstra. After having been located in the Pavilion and in several places in downtown Eindhoven, the department moved to a specially developed complex of buildings in the mid nineteen seventies. Education and research underwent profound changes through the years. These were of course influenced strongly by the advent of computers (from slide rule to CAD/CAM). Students learned to work together in so-called project-driven education. In earlier decades research was done into nuclear energy, the department being involved in construction of the Athene nuclear reactor. Emphasis was later moved to renewable sources like solar energy, and the development of electrically driven cars and motorcycles. Images in this special give an impression of many aspects of the Department of Mechanical Engineering as it changed through the years.

The Institute for Perception Research (Dutch abbreviation: IPO) was founded in 1957 on the initiative of prof.dr. H.B.G. Casimir, at the time head of the Philips Physics Research Laboratory (Natlab). Staff members from Philips and from TU/e worked together on their research into human perception until the institute was closed in 2001. For that research a wide variety of specialised tools was developed and used. Several types of demonstration models were used in classes. Beside an extensive documentary and photographic archive a small selection from the instruments that were used has been kept. Photographs of those instruments and some images from the photographic archive make up this special.