Program Studi Matematika

The Department was established in 1948, as a part of the Faculteit van Exacte Wetenschap. The Faculty itself underwent a few changes: it was renamed Faculteit the Wiskunde en Natuur Wetenschap, and then Fakultas Ilmu Pasti dan Alam (FIPIA) as a part of the Universitas Indonesia. Eventually the Department, as a part of the Fakultas Matematika dan Pengetahuan Alam (FMIPA) was integrated to the Institut Teknologi Bandung in its charter in 1959.

The Department's early mission was simply to provide training for candidates of high school mathematics teachers. As the size of the Department grew, its mission expanded. Master's program was started in 1979 as one of the first three graduate programs within the Institut Teknologi Bandung, and the first of its kind in Indonesia. Doctoral Program was started in 1997. Currently the Department has 53 academic staff (28 Ph.D. holders, 24 Master's holders, 1 holds a Sarjana degree holder). Among them, 40 staff are active, 13 are on study leave for advance degrees, and on postdoc. The student body is about 500, which consists of 398 undergraduate students, 66 Master's students, and 24 doctoral students (late 2003 count). However, the students throughout the Institut Teknologi Bandung, who take various math courses offered by the Department, numbered around 8,000 annually.

The program in Actuarial Science saw its first light in the sixties. In the eighties the Department, in collaboration with PT Jiwasraya State Insurance, opened an Associate Program in Actuarial Science. Currently, the Department has a Master's program in Actuarial Science, as well as a Double Master Diploma Program in Actuarial Science, in collaboration with the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

The Department of Mathematics, Institut Teknologi Bandung was one of the recipients of the Quality Undergraduate Education (QUE) grant for the period of 1999-2004. The fund for the grant was provided by the World Bank, for the purpose of quality improvement of undergraduate education in developing countries. The grant has helped the Department in improving the overall process of undergraduate learning. However, the whole department program has benefited from the improvement of facilities provided by the grant.

Two computer laboratories are housed in the Department, equipped with more than 110 Pentium 3 and Pentium 4 powered PCs. The computers, which are operated under Windows and Linux freeware, are all connected through department's Local Area Network to the internet. Mathematically and scientifically oriented software, such as Maple, Matlab, Mathematica, SPSS, SAS, are available in the labs. The labs also house multimedia equipments.

The library of the Department collects more than 11,500 books and periodicals. Its catalog is accessible through on-line service. The referencing service Mathscinet from the American Mathematical Society is available though computers within the Department.

The Department has a considerable interest on community empowerment, and service to the public. One of the activities done along this line is School Mathematics. The department is active in conducting seminars and workshops for school teachers. Improving professionalism of teachers is the theme.