Profile
While the basic calculus and linear algebra is taught by the Mathematical Institute of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, our department is responsible for teaching other mathematical subjects. The core curriculum of the electrical engineering BSc majors contains a course on abstract algebra, number theory, discrete mathematics and the theory of algorithms. For the technical informatics majors we offer obligatory courses on abstract algebra, number theory, discrete mathematics, theory of algorithms and declarative programming. Another stream within that core curriculum consists of probability and statistics, stochastic processes, information theory and coding theory.
For informatics students at MSc we offer specialization in Theory of Computing. This consists of courses in complexity theory, advanced graph theory, data mining, high efficiency declarative programming and semantic technologies. Also, our courses on system optimisation, languages and automata, queueing theory is obligatory for most of the informatics MSc students.
For MSc students in Business Information Systems we offer specialization and several courses in financial mathematics and data mining.
Our department is also responsible for the courses on the above topics in the curricula of the applied mathematics majors of the Faculty of Natural Sciences.
The staff of the department is involved in research in several different areas of pure and applied mathematics. This activity has been sponsored by some 25 research grants in the last 20 years, partly by various Hungarian sources (Ministry of Education, Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunication , National Science Foundation, TÁMOP, etc.), partly by projects of the European Union (TEMPUS, CEEPUS, Human Capital and Mobility) and by bilaterial projects with the USA and Japan.
History
The history of the department (and that of its legal predecessor, the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics) dates back to the middle of the century. The first head of department was Professor István Fenyő, who left the Technical University of Budapest in 1968 and worked as visiting professor in Germany for several years. Then Professor Tamás Frey directed the work of the department until his death in 1978. Professor István Fenyő was the head of the department until 1982, followed by Professor Pál Rózsa until 1990. Then Professor András Recski had been in charge for 21 years.
A special group of Information Theory and Computer Science was founded in 1991, headed by Professor László Györfi, who is currently leading the Informatics and Electronics Research Group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. This group cooperates with the Department of Telecommunications, with the Department of Telecommunications and Telematics, and with the Department of Computer Science and Information Theory. From 1996 the department belongs to the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics. The head of the department since 2011 is Gyula Y. Katona.