The Hydraulic Engineering Laboratory at the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Patras was founded in 1980. Initially, its title was “Laboratory of Hydraulic Works”. It was renamed to its present name in 1991. Professor Emeritus C. Hadjitheodorou was the Director from 1980 until 2006. Since 2006, Director of the Lab is Professor Alexander C. Demetracopoulos.

The aim of the Hydraulic Engineering Laboratory is to support teaching, advance research and provide services related to flow of surface, ground and sea waters, coastal engineering, hydrology and water resources management, as well as associated technical works.

The personnel of the Lab include four Faculty Members, one Engineer, one Lab technician and one Administrative staff member.

The Laboratory consists of the primary laboratory space with an area of approximately 1000 m², and a secondary space of approximately 100 m². The main facilities in the primary space are the Long Flume, the Intermediate Flume, the Wave Basin and the Network of Constant-Head Conduits which lead to the corresponding space for operation of hydraulic models. The main facilities in the secondary space are the Small Flume and the Hydraulic Benches with assorted attachments which allow performance of various small scale experiments. There exists the necessary equipment for measurement of characteristic parameters in laboratory experiments as well as in field work. In addition, there exists a computer lab which consists of 20 serial computers and a parallel computer with four (4) nodes.

The courses offered by the Lab, both for undergraduate and graduate studies, are given in Table 1. Elective courses are available for undergraduate students interested in the field of Hydraulic Engineering and pursuing a Diploma thesis in the same field. Over the last five years, the approximate number of undergraduate students who undertake a Diploma thesis in the area of Hydraulic Engineering is eight (8) per year.

Table 1. Courses offered by the faculty of the Hydraulic Engineering Laboratory.

CORE UNDERGRADUATE COURSES	#	Title	Semester	Teacher
	1	Fluid Mechanics	4th	Horsch
	2	Hydraulics	5th	Demetracopoulos
	3	Hydrology	6th	Kaleris
	4	Elements of Hydraulic Engineering	7th	Hadjitheodorou
	5	Water Supply and Sewer Systems	8th	Hadjitheodorou
ELECTIVE UNDERGRADUATE COURSES	6	Harbour Works Analysis and Design	8th & 10th	Dimas
	7	Computational Hydraulics	8th & 10th	Demetracopoulos
	8	Laboratory Topics in Hydraulic Engineering	9th	Horsch
	9	Costal Hydraulics	9th	Dimas
	10	Water Resources Management	9th	Kaleris
	11	Groundwater	9th	Kaleris
	12	Hydrodynamics of Bays and Reservoirs	10th	Horsch
POSTGRADUATE COURSES	13	Hydromechanics		Horsch
	14	Water Resources Management		Kaleris
	15	Groundwater		Kaleris
	16	Environmental Hydraulics		Demetracopoulos
	17	Coastal Protection Analysis and Structures Design		Dimas
	18	Hydrodynamics of Bays and Reservoirs		Horsch
	19	Special Topics in Hydraulic Engineering		Demetracopoulos Kaleris Dimas Χορς