TUM Department of Informatics

The first courses in computer science at the Technical University of Munich were offered in 1967 at the Department of Mathematics, when Friedrich L. Bauer introduced a two-semester lecture titled Information Processing. In 1968, Klaus Samelson started offering a second lecture cycle titled Introduction to Informatics.[4]

By 1992, the computer science department had separated from the Department of Mathematics to form an independent Department of Informatics.[4]

In 2002, the Department relocated from its old campus in the Munich city center to the new building on the Garching campus.[4]

In 2017, the Department celebrated 50 Years of Informatics Munich with a series of lectures and ceremonies, together with the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Bundeswehr University Munich.[4]

Interior of the faculty building for the Departments of Mathematics and Informatics

The Department of Informatics shares a building with the Department of Mathematics.

In the building, two massive parabolic slides run from the fourth floor to the ground floor. Their shape corresponds to the equation ${\displaystyle z=y=hx^{2}/d^{2}}$ and is supposed to represent the "connection of science and art".[5]

The Branch Library Mathematics & Informatics

The department consists of 31 chairs:[6]

1. Engineering Software for Decentralized Systems
2. Formal Languages, Compiler Construction, Software Construction
3. Database Systems
4. Software & Systems Engineering
5. Scientific Computing
6. Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Real-time Systems
7. Foundations of Software Reliability and Theoretical Computer Science
8. Network Architectures and Services
9. Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence
10. Computer architecture and Parallel Systems
11. Connected Mobility
12. Bioinformatics
13. Application and Middleware Systems
14. Theoretical Computer Science
15. Computer Graphics and Visualization
16. Computer Aided Medical Procedures
17. Information Systems and Business Process Management
18. Decision Sciences & Systems
19. Software Engineering for Business Information Systems
20. IT Security
21. Logic and Verification
22. Software Engineering
23. Sensor Based Robot Systems and Intelligent Assistance Systems
24. Cyber Trust
25. Data Science and Engineering
26. Data Analytics and Machine Learning
27. Robotics Science and Systems Intelligence (joint appointment with the Department of Electrical Engineering)
28. Visual Computing
29. Computational Molecular Medicine
30. Law and Security in Digitization (joint appointment with the School of Governance)
31. Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Medicine (joint appointment with the Department of Electrical Engineering)

The TUM Department of Informatics has been consistently rated the top computer science department in Germany by major rankings.[7][8][9] Globally, it is rated No. 36 (QS),[7] No. 14 (THE),[8] and No. 51-75 (ARWU).[9]

In the 2020 national CHE University Ranking, the department is among the top rated departments for computer science and business informatics, being rated in the top group for the majority of criteria.[10][11]

Seven faculty members of the Department of Informatics have been awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, one of the highest endowed research prizes in Germany with a maximum of €2.5 million per award:

• 2020 – Thomas Neumann
• 2016 – Daniel Cremers
• 2008 – Susanne Albers
• 1997 – Ernst Mayr
• 1995 – Gerd Hirzinger
• 1994 – Manfred Broy
• 1991 – Karl-Heinz Hoffmann (mathematician)

Friedrich L. Bauer was awarded the 1988 IEEE Computer Society Computer Pioneer Award for inventing the stack data structure. Gerd Hirzinger was awarded the 2005 IEEE Robotics and Automation Society Pioneer Award. Hans-Arno Jacobsen and Burkhard Rost were awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Professorship in 2011 and 2008, respectively. Rudolf Bayer was known for inventing the B-tree and Red–black tree.

• Media related to TUM Department of Informatics building at Wikimedia Commons