The Departamento de Informática of Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Department of Informatics/Computer Science) was established in 1975 with responsibility for creating the first Portuguese university degree in Informatics Engineering/Computer Science, having graduated more than 1000 Engineers in the last 30 years. It now has about 1000 students enrolled in its various degrees and programmes.
The first Master in Computer Science/Informatics of FCT / UNL was launched in 1991, followed in 1997 by the Master in Artificial Intelligence. With the adoption of the Bologna model, the teaching at DI-FCT-UNL has been profoundly restructured offering modern and innovative degrees at the national and international levels.
In 2004, DI-FCT-UNL was the founder of International Master in Computational Logic (2nd cycle) in partnership with the Technical University of Dresden, the Free University of Bolzano, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, and Technical University of Wien. Recently, in 2006, began the new Undergraduate degree in Computer Science/Informatics (1st cycle) and during 2007 the new Master in Computer Science/Informatics Engineering (2nd cycle).
The new PhD program accredited by the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education as a 3rd bologna cycle, started in the academic year 2008 in conjunction with the international degree programs at Carnegie Mellon-Portugal, and University of Texas at Austin-Portugal. The DI-FCT-UNL has faculty in the the national management of the PhD UT Austin.
The scientific activities of the Department of Informatics are accomplished since the mid-1990s in two research centers. The DI-FCT-UNL has several researchers in the top positions, among Portuguese scientists, in the international rankings of scientific publications.