Addis Ababa Institute of Technology

Initially, it was named the Imperial College of Engineering. It was established in 1953. At the beginning, the college opened two-year intermediate engineering programs. Subsequently, the students were sent abroad for a further study leading to a B.Sc. degree. In 1958, a four-year degree program in civil and industrial engineering was launched. In the following year, the industrial engineering program was split into electrical and mechanical engineering programs, and the duration of the study for all programs was extended to five years. In 1961, the college became a chartered member of Addis Ababa University and expanded further in 1963 by opening the Department of Architecture and Urban Planning In 1965, the college moved from its former location in the compound of the Technical School at Mexico Square (the now Tegbare-Id) to the Arat Kilo Campus (the current College of Natural Sciences). In the following year, the college then moved to its present campus. The new campus was constructed by the financial assistance of the Federal Republic of Germany. The former Ethio-Swedish Institute of Building College, the College of Engineering and the Building College merged to form the Faculty of Technology in 1969 For the last six decades, Faculty of Technology of Addis Ababa University has been educating. The Faculty of Technology used to admit 200 - 250 students per year. Eight years back, the Ethiopian government has introduced new educational policy whereby the student admitted to tertiary education would be 70 % Science and Technology, and 30 % social sciences, business, economics, and humanities. In this ratio, the engineering and technology contribution is expected to be on average about 40 % of the student population in the undergraduate programs. This was introduced to create engineers and scientists needed to speed up technology transfer and innovation in order to bring the transformation and fast growth in the Ethiopian economy In order to effectively manage the large student population and swiftly respond to the need of the government transformational plan and support the growth and competiveness of the industry, the Faculty of Technology was given autonomy and new leadership with international experience since April 2010. The Faculty of Technology was re-organized into Addis Ababa Institute of Technology and the leader of the Institute is named as Scientific Director, with Vice President Status of the university. The new institute was officially inaugurated in October 2010 The institute is the largest engineering institute with better staff profile as compared the other thirty two public universities in the nation. For young PhD holders and researchers returning from aboard, it is a very preferred environment to work in. It does still play critical role in supporting engineering education in most of the universities across the nation and beyond. It trains instructors of other universities and delivers courses as visiting professors in their programs. Thus, the quality of education and research at AAiT reflects the national strengthen and weakness in creativity, innovation and entrepreneurial culture Academic staff