Experimentarium TM, the interactive physics laboratory inaugurated for the first time in Timișoara in April 2011, is organised in collaboration by the Politehnica University of Timișoara and the West University, a real "alternative school", to which everyone has access, created to develop students' interest in science. In a generous space of over 800 sqm. Experimentarium TM offers all those interested over 350 various experiments, which illustrate the main phenomena and laws of physics, but do not repeat experiments described in textbooks. The Experimentarium TM Center aims to make science more visible, more tangible and more accessible, through learning methods synthesised under the motto "experiment yourself".

The technical premieres in the history of Timișoara, as well as the latest technologies and applications developed by UPT researchers, are now hosted at the Technical Museum of the Politehnica University of Timișoara. With the Centenary of the University - Politehnica100 (in 2020), the museum brings together the past and the future of Timișoara technology through a series of exhibits with historical value, immersive reality equipment and interactive applications.
The UPT Museum hosts a series of exhibits that made history in Timișoara, starting with MECIPT-1, put into operation in 1961. MECIPT-2, a second generation computer with transistors and ferrite memory, commissioned in 1965, also found its place within the UPT Museum.

The first computer designed and built in a higher education institution was commissioned at the Polytechnic Institute of Timișoara (now the Polytechnic University of Timișoara) in 1961 by a team led by Iosif Kaufmann and William Löwenfeld. Called MECIPT (Electronic Computing Machine of ITP), the computer operated in electronic tube technology with magnetic drum type operating memory.
MECIPT-1 was impressive in size, built with over 2000 electronic tubes, tens of thousands of discrete electronic components, and had a magnetic drum with a capacity equivalent to 3 KB as internal and external memory. The speed of the computer was 50 operations per second and programs were written in machine code. Data and programs were entered on a perforated paper tape and retrieved on an electric typewriter.
The first computer designed and built in a higher education institution was put into operation at the Polytechnic Institute of Timisoara (now the Politehnica University of Timișoara) in 1961, by a team coordinated by Iosif Kaufmann and William Löwenfeld. Called MECIPT (ITP Electronic Computing Machine), the computer operated in the technology of electronic tubes with magnetic drum type operating memory.

(MECIPT: the beginnings of computer science and engineering at the Polytechnic of Timişoara / ed .: dr. Eng. Horia Gligor, prof. Dr. Eng. Sabin Ionel, Timişoara, Politehnica Publishing House, 2011)

"The Politehnica of Timisoara was for me much more than a simple university that I graduated from. Chance made me part of the MECIPT team and everything that followed. The atmosphere at MECIPT was extraordinary. Nobody was watching you if you stayed for 8 or 6 hours and, consequently, we would come in the morning at 8 o'clock, go to lunch for an hour or two, and 10 o'clock would catch us in the evening still in the laboratory. The team grew rapidly, as did the density in the room where I had an office. Personally, every time I pass through the north of Bucharest and see the Romexpo dome, I remember the calculations I made with MECIPT-1 in the summer of 1963. Numerous engineers that graduated from the Timisoara Polytechnic have contributed to the development of the national industry. Some worked at MECIPT, others were students and then graduates, others were beneficiaries and learned the alphabet of the profession on these first computers. Being created in the university environment, MECIPT-1 had a significantly higher national impact than its CIFA and DACICC colleagues. Reaching the top of the national industry, I was pleased to see this real impact of Timisoara. ”

Vasile Baltac, (b. 1940, graduate in 1962 of the Polytechnic Institute of Timișoara, member of the MECIPT-1 team) Thoughts on an anniversary: ​​MECIPT 50 years, Orizont Magazine, 2011.

Bibliography:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MECIPTsite accessed in May 2021.