TU Dortmund University () is a technical university in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany with over 35,000 students, and over 6,000 staff including 300 professors, offering around 80 Bachelor's and master's degree programs. It is situated in the Ruhr area, the fourth largest urban area in Europe. The university is highly ranked in terms of its research performance in the areas of physics, electrical engineering, chemistry and economics. The university pioneered the Internet in Germany, and contributed to machine learning (in particular, to support-vector machines, and RapidMiner). History The University of Dortmund (German: Universität Dortmund) was founded in 1968, during the decline of the coal and steel industry in the Ruhr region. Its establishment was seen as an important move in the economic change (Strukturwandel) from heavy industry to technology. The university's main areas of research are the natural sciences, engineering, pedagogy/teacher training in a wide spectrum of subjects, special education, and journalism. The University of Dortmund was originally designed to be a technical university, but in 1980, it merged with the adjacent Pädagogische Hochschule Ruhr that housed mostly humanities. In 2006, The University of Dortmund hosted the 11th Federation of International Robot-soccer Association (FIRA) RoboWorld Cup. The university's robot soccer team, the Dortmund Droids, became vice world champion in the RoboWorld Cup 2002 and finished third in 2003. On 1 November 2007, The University Dortmund has been renamed as TU Dortmund University. The University is part of the cooperation program "University Alliance Ruhr", together with the Ruhr University Bochum and the University of Duisburg-Essen. On 4 April 2019, Ursula Gather, Rector of TU Dortmund University abolished the institutes for German Language and Literature as well as English and American Studies. Campuses Following the Zeitgeist of the late 1960s in Germany, the university was built "on the meadows" (auf der grünen Wiese) about outside of downtown Dortmund. It consists of two campuses, North and South, which, since 1984, have been linked by an automated hanging monorail system, the H-Bahn, that crosses the nature reserve between the campuses at a height of about . One of the most prominent buildings of the university is the Mathetower (Mathematics Tower), which houses the Faculty of Mathematics. Faculties Faculty of Mathematics Faculty of Physics Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Biology Faculty of Computer Science Faculty of Statistics Faculty of Biochemical and Chemical Engineering (BCI) Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology