Inauguration of the Institute for Automation and Operational Research (IAUTOM), the first university institute of its type in Europe. This was a visionary and innovative event since informatics did not yet exist as a discipline in itself. Automation, however, was not recognized as a university discipline.
 

The institute obtained its own computer, an LGP-30, whose performance would be exceeded nowadays by even a modest pocket calculator.
 

Up to 1973, the institute used the computing facilities of the cantonal administration. The university then obtained its own computer – a PDP 11/30.
Operational research was introduced into the Economics courses of the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences (SES).
 

At the beginning of the 80’s, the political authorities recognized the lag in Switzerland in the field of information technology and, in 1986, a chair of informatics was at last established in the Faculty of Science. During this period, the institute was able to acquire 25 computers, each worth 25'000 francs. It was at this moment that informatics started to develop and was separated from the university computing service.
 

The Faculties of Science and of Economic and Social Sciences approved a common study programme leading to the award of a diploma in informatics.

Foundation of the Institute of Informatics (IIUF) which united the informatics chairs of the Faculties of Science and of Economic and Social Sciences.
 

The Institute of Informatics was replaced by the actual interfaculty Department of Informatics.
 

Following the introduction of the Bologna reform to the disciplines of Informatics and Business Informatics, students were able to obtain a European Bachelor or Master in both of these study courses.
 

The Society for the Promotion of the Department of Informatics was transformed into a foundation to promote the development of Informatics at the University of Fribourg.
 

On November 7th 50 years of Informatics at the University of Fribourg were celebrated. On this day Prof. Jürg Kohlas also gave its last lecture.
 

The Department of Informatics wishes to give priority to informatics applied to human and social sciences and to reinforce research in the fields of processing of documents, e-books, systems of computer-assisted teaching, the interface man-machine and methods of automatic reasoning.