Welcome on the information site of the Athens Program

at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (in short BME. http://www.bme.hu)

Program of the courses (Monday-Friday, November 16-20, 2015)

will be published later..

Program (other activities) and most important information, November 2015 session

Arrival: November. 13.          

Address and name of the hotel: All Central Hostel  Budapest 1052 Bécsi street 2. www.allcentral.hu

We strongly recommend you to buy a monthly public transport pass for students, which is the cheapest solution for unlimited travel. But you need your student ID for that or an international student ID issued by a European university. Sunday (November 15) morning we need to use the public transport, so be sure to have a pass by that time. It is possible to buy it at the airport as well, use your bank card for that, because changing money at the airport is VERY expensive. There is a bus (200E) serving the airport which you can take to the nearest Metro station, where they also sell the passes.

November 14. Free time. Recommended programs:

Visit to the Szechenyi Bath, one of the famous thermal baths of Budapest.

Visit the National Gallery in the Buda Castle

November.15. 9:30     Registration (meet the organizers in front of the hotel)

Information about the program.

You’ll have to pay 38000 HUF (about 120 EURO) for BME 8 and 50000 HUF

(about 160 EURO) for BME4. (If somebody wants to pay in EURO we will use

the buying exchange rate of that day, because it changes very frequently and

drastically). This fee will cover the following expenses during your stay:

Accommodation for 8 nights (in 4-bed rooms, no breakfast) (96 EURO)

Guided sight-seeing bus tour of Budapest,

Lunch on Sunday in the Kaltenberg Restaurant

Half day technical boat trip on the Danube with lunch on the boat for BME4 students only! (about 40 EURO)

12:30     Guided tour of the city by a rented bus.

Lunch at about 17:00 PM in the Kaltenberg Restaurant (9-th district Kinizsi street.).

November. 20.           Closing and evaluation, handing out certificates.

November. 21.            Departure, checking out of the hotel. No organized program.

It is not recommended to change money at the airport, because the exchange rate is very bad there. You can use a bank card conveniently at many places in Budapest, and there are also many exchange offices in town, but the rate can be very different at some offices. Be careful!

We have an emergency mobile phone number for you: 0036-30-4305525. If you need help in Budapest, call this number!!!

You can have a look at our large public transport system: http://www.bkv.hu/en/.

Budapest is slightly less expensive than other big capitols in Europe, but do not expect it to be cheap. A simple lunch will cost around 6-7 EUROs, a beer in a pub is about 1-2 EURO and a taxi for 1km is 1EURO. The cultural program will include one lunch in a Hungarian restaurant, the rest of your meal you will have to buy for yourself.

See you in Budapest!

Short history of BME

Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) was founded in 1782 by Austrian emperor Joseph II. Nowadays the university functions under the supervision of the Hungarian State. The executive functions are carried out by the University Senate and the Rector. BME has 8 faculties: Architecture, Chemical Technology and Biotechnology, Civil Engineering, Economic and Social Sciences, Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Mechanical Engineering, Natural Sciences, Transportation Engineering and Vehicle Engineering. BME is one of the largest Hungarian higher education institution, approx. 70% of engineers graduates here. It is among the 6 Hungarian research universities. Several Nobel Prize laureates have been associated with the Budapest University of Technology and Economics: Dennis Gábor (physics), Eugene Wigner (physics), György Oláh (chemistry). Notable personalities have also studied or taught at BME: John von Neumann, the inventor of the computer, Edward Teller, nuclear physicist, Leo Szilárd, known for his work on nuclear chain reactions, Marcell Breuer, architect, Theodore von Kármán, aerodynamic scientist, Ernő Rubik, inventor of the famous cube, Donát Bánki, co-inventor of the carburetor, Károly Zipernowszky, one of the inventors of the transformer, Dénes Mihály, one of the inventors of television. The Bologna type education (B. Sc, M. Sc, Ph. D) has been fully introduced from 2006. Besides Hungarian there are training programs in English, French, German as well. BME has important international relations and is an active participant of different international programs (mainly European, e.g. Erasmus+), but it has good contacts with several American, Asian universities as well. BME joined the ATHENS program in 2001.