The Department of Tractors was established in 1953.
The department's staff actively participates in the creation of new models of mobile machinery at OJSC "MTZ", OJSC "MZKT", OJSC "UKhX "Belkommunmash", OJSC "Amkodor" - the managing company of the holding, and others. The Department of Tractors is a leading scientific school specializing in wheeled and tracked vehicles with multifunctional technological complexes. The faculty members combine a full range of requirements from modern engineering production, scientific research, creation of new machine designs, their production, and operation.
The educational process at the Department of Tractors is organized jointly with the leading departments of the automotive and energy faculties. Upon request from enterprises and organizations, the department can provide in-depth training for graduates in various fields, including automated design, microprocessor control systems and diagnostics, research and testing of vehicles with automatic traction electric drive, and their power supply devices.
In 1975, by joint order of the ministers of tractor and agricultural machinery engineering of the USSR and higher and secondary specialized education of the BSSR, the Department of Wheeled Tractors was established at the Minsk Tractor Plant. This allowed for the integration of the educational process with production based on the experience of highly qualified plant personnel and its material and technical base.
The Department of Wheeled Tractors was located at the premises of the Minsk Tractor Plant and operated under the methodological guidance of the Department of Tractors of BNTU, using factory equipment and facilities for educational purposes.
Since 2011, the Department of Wheeled Tractors has been transformed into a branch of the Department of Tractors of BNTU at OJSC "Minsk Tractor Plant". The branch was headed by Vladimir Andreevich Korobkin, a specialist in the design and production of special tracked vehicles and machines for various national economic purposes. He graduated from the Belarusian Polytechnic Institute in 1964 with a degree in "Automobiles and Tractors". Since 1986, he has held a Ph.D. in Engineering, and since 2005, a Doctor of Technical Sciences. He is a laureate of the Lenin Prize and the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus Prize, an academician of the Academy of Quality Problems (Russia) and the International Academy of Information Technology, a distinguished worker of industry in the Republic of Belarus, the best inventor of Minsk Tractor Plant, scientific supervisor of 3 tasks of the State Scientific and Technical Program "Engineering", a member of the Expert Council of the Higher Attestation Commission of the Republic of Belarus, awarded the Order of "Badge of Honor" and the medal "For Distinguished Labor". He is the author of over 120 scientific papers and articles, co-author of the book "Multifunctional Tracked Chassis" and the textbook "Forestry Machines 'Belarus'", holder of more than 110 author's inventions and patents, most of which are implemented in production. Currently, he is a professor at the Department of Tractors of BNTU.
Since September 1, 2008, a branch of the Department of Tractors has been established at the Minsk Wheel Tractor Plant. The branch was headed by the Chief Designer of OJSC "MZKT" Yuri Ivanovich Nikolaev.
Since 2017, a branch of the Department of Tractors has been organized within the structure of the United Institute of Mechanical Engineering of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (UIM NASB) - in the design department. Its main task is educational, methodological, and professional support for training engineers-designers specializing in "Design of Tracked and Wheeled Vehicles". Under the guidance of specialists, students undergo practical training, complete coursework, and thesis projects there.
The Department of Tractors actively engages in patent and licensing work. It conducts international scientific and technical cooperation with a number of universities in Russia (Bauman Moscow State Technical University, Izhevsk State Technical University named after M.T. Kalashnikov, Nizhny Novgorod State Technical University named after N.A. Alekseev), Uzbekistan (Tashkent State University), and Poland (Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Plock branch of Warsaw Technical University, University of Ecology and Management in Bydgoszcz).
In the educational process at the Department of Tractors, modern teaching technologies are widely applied, including information technologies for complex machine design based on automated designer workstations. The department's local computer network has Internet access. The department operates master's and doctoral programs.
Over the years, the Department of Tractors has trained over two thousand specialists for the national economy. The department has completed and defended 15 doctoral and over 80 candidate dissertations. Its staff has published over 340 monographs, textbooks, and teaching aids, more than 1600 articles, created over 1100 inventions, completed and defended 15 doctoral and 78 candidate dissertations.
Graduates of the department include: S.V. Kharitonchik - rector of BNTU, A.I. Safonov - first vice-rector of BNTU, R.B. Ivut - head of the Department of Economics and Management in Transport, A.D. Molokovich - head of the Logistics Department at the Institute of Business of BSU, A.T. Skoybeda - professor of the Department of Machine Science and Machine Parts, BNTU, O.S. Rukteshel - professor of the Department of Automobiles, P.V. Zeleny - professor of the Department of Engineering Graphics. The department's students have included leaders of design schools: I.N. Uss - former chief designer of Minsk Tractor Plant, director of R&D Center of Minsk Tractor Plant; P.A. Amelchenko and M.G. Meleshko - former chief designers of GSKB Minsk Tractor Plant; V.A. Korobkin - chief designer for special equipment at Minsk Tractor Plant, head of UKER-2; as well as M.V. Matusevich - former Deputy Chairman of the State Control Committee of the Republic of Belarus, former Deputy Chairman of the Council of the Republic; E.V. Chalovsky - former First Deputy Minister of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Belarus; V.M. Yatskovsky - former First Deputy General Director of Minsk Tractor Plant.
The department's staff has created a complex of textbooks and teaching aids, for which in 1996 they were awarded the State Prize of the Republic of Belarus: Prof., Dr. Eng. V.P. Boykov, Prof., Ph.D. S.M. Belov, Prof., Dr. Eng. V.V. Guskov, Prof., Dr. Eng. N.V. Bogdan, Assoc. Prof., Ph.D. Yu.E. Atamanov.
Several members of the department have been awarded honorary titles of the Republic of Belarus: Prof., Dr. Eng. V.P. Boykov, Prof., Dr. Eng. A.M. Sologub - "Distinguished Inventor"; Prof., Dr. Eng. V.V. Guskov - "Distinguished Scientist and Technologist". Prof., Dr. Eng. A.Kh. Lefarov was awarded the title of "Distinguished Mechanical Engineer", Prof., Ph.D. S.M. Belov - "Distinguished Worker of Higher Education".
