History

The Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven) was founded in 1425. The origin of the Electrical Engineering Department of the Faculty of Engineering goes back to the "Chair of Electricity" at the "Special School" (for engineering) of the Faculty of Sciences of this university. This chair was founded in 1900. It grouped all the research and educational activities in the field of Electrical Engineering at the university. Therefore, in 2000, the centennial anniversary of Electrical Engineering in Leuven was celebrated. In 1961 the School of Engineering was separated from the Faculty of Sciences to constitute an own Faculty of Applied Sciences (Engineering). Not much later, in 1964, the educational structure was split up in a French and a Flemish one. In 1968, the French programme was transferred to the city of Louvain-la-Neuve. The Flemish programme remained in the city of Leuven.

The Department of Electrical Engineering is also known as ESAT. Originally, E.S.A.T. was an abbreviation of four research domains in the departement. Due to internal reorganisations and growth, the meaning of the four letters changed several times over the years. So it was decided to keep the well known name ESAT as an alternate name for the department, but to not consider it an abbreviation any longer. This is why it is ESAT and not E.S.A.T.!