Research Center COM - 1998 untill 2005
The Research Center COM was founded in 1998 as a merger between the Photonics Groups of the Microelectronic Center (MIC) and the Centre for Broadband Telecommunication at the Department of Electromagnetic Systems, both at DTU. The initiative for COM•DTU came from the Ministry for Research and Information Technology in collaboration with the Ministry for Education and the Technical University of Denmark. The aim was to establish COM as a world-class research organization in the area of optical communications having close collaboration with Danish industry.
In 2001 a new and greater Research Center COM became a reality through a merger of the three units: Center for Tele-Information, Department of Telecommunication and Research Center COM – all placed at DTU. The merger was driven by the ambition to combine and integrate the individually developed expertise and unify the efforts within telecom research at DTU in one powerful organization.
With the concentration of telecommunication activities gathered at The Research Center COM, in 2001 DTU decided to introduce a new MSc program in telecommunication. Thus Research Center COM as a center for education was established.
COM•DTU - 2005 untill 2008
In September 2005 Research Center COM changed its name to COM•DTU - Department of Communications, Optics & Materials, and became a full fledged university department with direct reference to the Rector of the Technical University of Denmark, DTU.
Each year now, more than 80 MSc students graduate from COM•DTU and during the years several new educational initiatives have been launched. COM•DTU considers these education initiatives to be very important steps to produce top qualified candidates for the Danish telecommunication industry.
DTU Fotonik - 2008 - Bigger and better
In 2008 COM•DTU was merged with three research groups at Risø, the National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy. With the merger came a new name as well: DTU Fotonik, Department of Photonics Engineering. DTU fotonik is focussing more and more on energy saving technologies. Read more here.
Record High Student numbers
Also in 2008 DTU Fotonik experienced a massive increase in the number of admitted students to the 2008-2009 year. We had DTU's highest increase: 120 % relative to last year.