Marking the 140th Anniversary of Riga Technical University (RTU), several events took place before the official celebrations: at the end of September – a student evening in the large hall of RTU Exhibition, Culture and Sports Centre in Ķīpsala, erudite competition «RTU Spice 2002» and various sports competitions. The artist J. Strupulis made a medal to commemorate the 140th Anniversary of RTU, with which the most outstanding long-term university employees were awarded.
On 13 October, a festive concert took place in the Grand Guild at 6 Amatu Street, where all RTU students’ artistic amateur groups performed. The next day, Rector Academician I. Knēts received guests in the Small Hall at 1 Kaļķu Street 1. The number of congratulators testifies to the ambition: six foreign embassies, 19 foreign universities, 18 Latvian universities, 10 state institutions, 12 companies, nine unions, associations and representatives of three student corporations.
On the evening of 14 October, RTU employees, students and guests gathered at the Riga Latvian Society House for a solemn sitting. Welcoming the family of the university, the President of Latvia Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga acknowledged: «Latvia will be able to remain a strong country in the world, we will be able to continue its development and regain what was lost in the long Soviet years only by continuing to invest in our people and abilities. But in the modern world, this means that we have to make a very big and significant contribution to science, technology and technical sciences, without which we cannot survive .. I wish that in the future your prestige will only increase and your fame will be heard far and wide all over the world!».
The 43rd RTU International Scientific Conference, which took place from 10 to 14 October, aroused widespread interest during the festival; 544 papers were read in eight sections during the conference.