The beginnings of electrotechnical higher education in Timişoara are confused with the beginnings of the Polytechnic School - Timişoara. November 15, 1920, is the date of the Polytechnic School in Timişoara. Initially, the Polytechnic School in Timişoara had two specialized departments: Electromechanics and mine and metallurgy respectively, with 15 teaching staff and 117 students. In 1923, the Laboratory of Electrical Measurements was established, the first laboratory in the Polytechnic School, which began to be equipped with a series of highly performing equipment for that period. In 1925 he was appointed to the Electrotechnical discipline as a professor, Plautius Andronescu, who "left behind a theoretical and applied school of electrotechnics, which continues to develop on the path initiated by him, through his disciples and by the remarkable achievements of them."
Thus, one of the disciples, Remus Răduleţ, became a member of the Romanian Academy, he was professor of electromagnetism theory, author of the axiomatization of this science, with remarkable contributions in the theory of relativist electrodinamics and the theory of primitive physical magnitudes , the initiator of the enormous technical encyclopedia entitled "Romanian Technical Lexicon", chairman of the International Electrotechnical Commission (CEI), the creator of the Romanian School of Electrotechnical Basics. Another graduate of the Polytechnic School of Timisoara, Professor Alexandru Rogojan, employed after graduating from CFR, published in 1947 "Course of Bearer Currents". Since 1948 he has been appointed at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the Polytechnic Institute of Timisoara as a substitute professor at the "Low Current Techniques" discipline, and then, in 1952, he becomes Head of the Electrical Measurement Department. Over the years, he teaches new disciplines such as "Automation and Remote Controls", "Industrial Electronics", and since 1964 "Numerical Computers". Thanks to Professor Alexandru Rogojan's activity in 1966, at the Faculty of Electrotechnics in Timişoara, the first group of specialists in the field of electronic computers, which later turned into the Department of Electronic Computers and then Automation and Computers.
In 1970, the specialization " Applied Electronics was established. at the Faculty of Electrotechnics. In 1974 the Chair of "Electronics, Automation and Measurements" was established. In 1990 the Faculty of Electrotechnics was reorganized into three faculties corresponding to the students' training profiles. Thus, by MI Order no.7751 / 15.05.1990 came into being:
- Faculty of Electrical Engineering
- Faculty of Automation and Computers
- Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications
The Applied Electronics and Communications are foreseen in the order of the Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications.
In the coming years, as a result of the restructuring process in higher education, there are a series of changes in the structure of the educational process, which result in the development of new curricula, more rigid by MI. Thus, the leadership of the Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications has developed a curriculum for the specializations of Applied Electronics and Communication which provided for two years of general training specific to the profile and three years of complementary training and fundamental specific specialist. Additionally, specialization courses were developed through packages of optional subjects and independent optional disciplines.
In 1994, the first in-depth degree programs were set up within Applied Electronics specializations and Communications under the Order of the Minister 6572 / were titled "Electronics of Intelligent Industrial Systems", "Electronic Instrumentation" and "Adaptive Numerical Processing of Telecommunication Signals" and debuted with a total of 10 students each. The programs were accredited in 1995. By 2000, each program had about 10 students.
The first step in modernizing engineering higher education was the introduction of the credit system. Thus, the Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications proceeded in 1997 to rebuild the university curriculum by reporting it to the requirements of education based on transferable credits. Also, a higher degree of flexibility of the curriculum has been imposed by introducing optional subjects, individual or grouped in packages, as well as the quadratic mechanism. All this led to the development of new educational plans for engineers in the Applied Electronics and Communications specialties that were implemented over the years 1997-2002. In 2002, has practically completed the first graduate graduation program benefiting from the new curriculum. Restructuring and moving to the transferable credit system has of course also affected the in-depth study programs at the Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications. In 2005, at the request of the economic environment in the electronics field and telecommunications, and in particular, the master program "Advanced Design and Testing Techniques in Electronics", which obtains accreditation in the same year. The establishment of this program was based on a Collaboration Agreement with Solectron which provided for the master's program during the academic year 2005-2006, with the possibility of extension with the agreement of the parties, with a minimum of 10 students.
Master programs were all accredited and approved by MEI, including for English language courses, under the procedure in force at each structural or content change.
As far as the doctorate activity, which has been going on at UPT since 1935, it has been constantly developing. If at the beginning of the Electronics and Telecommunications specialization there was only one doctoral supervisor, Professor Eugen Pop, at present 16 faculty heads conducting the activity of over 80 PhD students). From 1970 until now, over 150 doctoral theses have been supported within the specialization/faculty.
The Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications, in accordance with the Declaration of the Bologna, undertook a new restoration of the university curriculum by reporting it to current requirements and trends in the field of Electronic Engineering and Telecommunications. Starting from a grid approved by the Senate of the University, a grid that strictly regulates the relationship between the fundamental, specialized and related disciplines, as well as the number of hours and their distribution within the disciplines, a new curriculum has been developed since 2004 for the bachelor and master level, which involved a great effort of study, conception and implementation by faculty members. The new curriculum, launched in the 2005-2006 academic year, is a modern, flexible one that mainly targets the two specializations: Applied Electronics and Telecommunication Technologies and Systems. Masters' curricula were correlated with the new 4-year bachelor's curriculum, correlated with both the Applied Electronics specialization and Technology and Telecommunication Systems, thus enabling the graduate of any specialization to pursue master studies. Emphasis was placed on training the skills that are absolutely necessary for an engineer in the field, along with the greatest freedom in choosing curriculum paths. The development of competences associated with study fields, curricula and specifications for the analytical programs was delegated by the leadership of the University of the Specialization and Fields Board - bodies composed of representatives of the teaching staff of various specializations, age categories and grades didactic, representatives of employers and students' representatives, set up by HBES no. 20/2005. Since 2007, board competencies have been extended to master domains. In this case, the licensed authority for the licensing program in question is the Electronic Engineering and Telecommunications Board with the two sections: Applied Electronics and Technologies and Systems
With the launch of the new 4 year training plan, the Electronics and Telecommunications is transformed into the field of Electronic Engineering and Telecommunications, a field that currently harmonises specific study programs.
Specialization Applied Electronics was periodically evaluated by CNEAA in 2005, 2007 and ARACIS respectively in 2009. The results of the evaluation were each time very good and ARACIS has approved the maintenance of the accreditation.
Today the graduates of the study program Applied Electronics are future engineers and researchers from Continental Automotive, Hella, Flextronics, Autoliv or Yazaki, if we are talking about the Timisoara economic space, but also future master students not only of UPT but also of prestigious universities in Western Europe or the American Continent.