The Department of Physics was established in 1946 by Prof. Sazdo Ivanov, the first rector of the State Polytechnic, today Technical University - Sofia. In 1989, the department was renamed the Institute of Applied Physics, which in 1999 was transformed into the Department of Applied Physics. Since 2016, it has become part of the Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Informatics as Department of Applied Physics (DAP).
The Department of Applied Physics provides general physics training for all students, full-time and part-time, at the bachelor's level at TU-Sofia, training in physical disciplines in the three foreign-language faculties, as well as training in some specialized disciplines. For general physics training, the department has eight well-equipped laboratories.
In 2018, at TU-Sofia in the professional direction "General Engineering", a bachelor's specialization "Applied Physics and Computer Modeling" was opened, the successor of the existing bachelor's specialization "Engineering Physics", established in 2012 under the leadership of Prof. Ivan Uzunov.
The specialization "Applied Physics and Computer Modeling" is aimed at in-depth study of the physical essence of the processes and phenomena through which modern photonic, laser, optical, electronic and nano-technologies, and other areas of modern engineering are developed and implemented. Another main focus of the specialization is computer modeling and simulations, which nowadays replace many expensive physical experiments and at the same time allow obtaining the necessary information for a given technology about the properties of the studied objects and systems and the processes occurring in them. Students enrolled in the specialization master the use of computer technologies and high-level professional software products to solve practical engineering tasks. The training also includes the mandatory set of engineering, language, economic and business knowledge and skills needed for successful implementation in industry.
For the needs of the specialization, two new general physics laboratories were created at DAP, equipped with exercises from the German company Phywe. Specialized laboratories in optical information technologies, laser technology and laser technologies, condensed matter physics, optics, and quantum electronics have been established.
