School of Computer Science & Engineering

South China University of Technology is one of the earliest institutions engaging in computer science research and teaching in China. Research on computer science started in 1958. Then, the specialties of Computer Science and Computer Software were set up respectively in 1960 and 1978. In 1981, the Department of Computer Science & Engineering was established, which developed into the current School of Computer Science & Engineering in 2001. At present, the School offers two doctoral degree programs in Computer Application Technology and Information Security; in addition to three Master degree programs of science in Computer Architecture, Computer Software and Theory and Computer Application Technology and one Master degree program of engineering in Computer Technology. The School also provides four specialized programs for undergraduate studies, which are Computer Science and Technology, Computer Software, Network Engineering, Information Security Engineering. Among these programs, Computer Application Technology is ranked as a key discipline in Guangdong Province, while Computer Science and Technology is among the Province's most prominent university study programs. Meanwhile, Network Engineering is designated as a specialty with national characteristics. The School has also under its administration a postdoctoral station in Computer Science and Technology.
 
The School is proud of its qualified and competitive faculty. At present, the teaching and administrative staff consists of 95 members, of whom 72 are full-duty teachers, including 13 professors and 31 associate professors and senior engineers. Teachers with a doctoral degree account for more than 75%. The current student population is 2198, including 1240 undergraduates, 110 doctoral students, 556 Master degree students of science, and 292 Master degree students of engineering.
 
Since its establishment, the School has focused on training talents with the qualities of "innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship" and emphasized student quality-oriented, innovative education. By forming teaching and research teams on the basis of "Grand masters + Team workers", and by letting upper grade undergraduates engage in professional research groups, the School has greatly enhanced the students' ability of research, engineering practice and innovation. In recent years, students have actively participated in extra-curricular scientific and technological innovation activities, making outstanding achievements and obtaining a lot of awards, including a first prize from Software Development Competition of Microsoft Cup, a Championship from National Competition for Scientific Program, a second prize in the "Challenge Cup" of Extracurricular Academy and Sci-Tech Works Contest of University Students, a silver medal from ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest in Asia and a first prize from National Application Competition of IBM Linux System. What's more, the School's robots soccer team has won more than thirty awards from robot soccer competitions at home and abroad. As to educational strategy, the School has distinguished itself by setting up bilingual classes and classes of different levels for major and minor courses.
 
Over the past years, the School has carried out a large number of research projects supported by the National Natural Science Foundation, the State 863 Program, Guangdong Province Natural Science Foundation, and by the enterprises, with an average annual research funding of nearly 15 million yuan. Linked with these projects, a great quantity of high level academic papers have been published both in domestic and international core journals. At the same time, the School has set up many scientific research bases, such as Guangdong Province Key Laboratory for Computer Network, Guangzhou Middleware Research Center, Sub-center of the National Training and Promotion Center for Linux Technology, Guangdong Provincial RFID Lab, IBM Technology Center, IBM Joint Research Center of South China University of Technology and University of Hong Kong, SUN Java Technology Center.
 
The School has always attracted students' and their parents' interest, because of its high reputation in connection with efficient student enrollment, high employment rate for its graduates, up-to-date teaching facilities, excellent teaching quality and favorable general feedback from society. With these advantages, the School has indeed become an important site for training talented IT professionals in our country, especially in Guangdong Province.