The KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Swedish: Kungliga Tekniska högskolan, lit.

'Royal Technical High School'), abbreviated KTH, is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden.

KTH conducts research and education in engineering and technology and is Sweden's largest technical university.

But the origin of KTH dates back to the predecessor of the Mekaniska skolan, the Laboratorium mechanicum, which was established in 1697 by the Swedish scientist and innovator Christopher Polhem.

The Laboratorium mechanicum combined education technology, a laboratory, and an exhibition space for innovations.

[8] KTH's earliest Swedish predecessor was the Laboratorium Mechanicum, a collection of mechanical models for teaching created in 1697 by Christopher Polhem.

In 1827 the School of Mechanics was transformed into the Technological Institute (Teknologiska institutet), following the establishment of polytechnical schools in many European countries the early years of the 19th century, often based on the model of École polytechnique in Paris.

Instead, Joachim Åkerman, the head of the School of Mining in Falun and a former professor of chemistry at KTH, took over.

An entrance test and a minimum age of 16 for students was introduced, which led to creating proper engineering training at the institute.

In 1867, its regulations were again overhauled, to state explicitly that the institute should provide scientific training to its students.

In 1871, the institute took over the civil engineering course formerly arranged by the Higher Artillery College in Marieberg.

Those engineering graduates who went on to academic research had to earn their doctorates, typically in physics or chemistry, at a regular university.

With the mission to "make something with neutrons", the Swedish team, with scientists like Rolf Maximilian Sievert, set out to research the subject and eventually build a nuclear reactor for testing.

It was risky, but was deemed tolerable since the reactor was an important research tool for scientists at the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (Ingenjörsvetenskapsakademien).

The motto of KTH, "Vetenskap och konst," is directly translated as "Science and Art."

KTH was the 138th best-ranked universities worldwide in 2022 in terms of aggregate performance across QS, THE, and ARWU, as reported by ARTU.

The buildings and surroundings were decorated by prominent early 20th-century Swedish artists such as Carl Milles, Axel Törneman, Georg Pauli, Tore Strindberg and Ivar Johnsson.

In the 1980s, the predecessor to the current School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (at KTH) located some of their operations to a campus in Kista, Stockholm.

Kista is situated north of central Stockholm and is Sweden's largest corporate center and one of the most important ICT clusters in the world.

[17] The area is home to over a thousand companies in the ICT sector, for example Ericsson, Volvo, IBM, Tele2, TietoEnator, Microsoft, Intel and Oracle.

Since 2002, the current School of Engineering Sciences in Chemistry, Biotechnology and Health (at KTH) has had a part of its activities in Flemingsberg, Stockholm.

Södertörn University and the Karolinska Institute also conducts education and research in Flemingsberg, often in collaboration with KTH.

In 1869, Falu Bergsskola was transferred to the institute, and 2 000 books in metallurgy and chemistry were incorporated into the library collection.