The Information Science and Engineering School of Southeast University, formerly known as the Radio Engineering Department of Nanjing Institute of Technology, has a long and profound history dating back to the Electrical Engineering Department of National Southeast University in 1923. In 1928, the Electrical Engineering Department of National Southeast University was renamed as the Electrical Engineering Department of National Central University. Mr. Zhang Chen, in 1932, came to the Electrical Engineering Department of Central University as a professor and began serving as the head of the department in 1936, during which he initiated China’s radio education. In 1952, Nanjing Institute of Technology was established in the adjustment of colleges and departments of higher education nationwide, and the Department of Electrical Engineering was divided into the Department of Power Engineering and the Department of Telecommunication Engineering. In 1953, Departments of Telecommunication Engineering of Zhejiang University, Fudan University, Jiao Tong University, Xiamen University, Jinling University, Jiangnan University, Shandong Institute of Technology and other universities were merged into the Radio Engineering Department in Nanjing Institute of Technology, and Professor Zhang Chen was the first head of the Department. In 1956, about one-third of the faculty and equipment were transferred to Chengdu to assist in the establishment of Chengdu Institute of Radio Engineering(now University of Electronic Science and Technology of China). In 1962, the Vacuum Electronics major was separated from the Department of Radio Engineering and was reformed into the Department of Electronic Devices (now the School of Electronic Science and Engineering of Southeast University). In 2006, the Department of Radio Engineering was renamed as the School of Information Science and Engineering. In April 2018, the “Information Security” discipline was separated from the school to establish the Network Space Security School with other related colleges.

The school currently has two national first-level key disciplines, “Electronic Science and Technology” and “Information and Communication Engineering”, and two first-level doctoral degree disciplines and postdoctoral stations, covering four national second-level key disciplines, including  “Communication and Information Systems”, “Electromagnetic Field and Microwave Technology”, “Signal and Information Processing”, and “Circuits and Systems”. In 2017 and 2022, “Electronic Science and Technology” and “Information and Communication Engineering” were respectively listed in the national “Double First-Class” discipline construction list.

The school consists of two national key laboratories, namely the National Key Laboratory of Mobile Communication and the State Key Laboratory of Millimeter-Waves, and has the Frontiers Science Center of Ministry of Education for Mobile Information Communication and Security, the national “2011 Plan” collaborative innovation center for wireless communication technology, the key laboratory of the Ministry of Education for underwater acoustic signal processing, and the Engineering Research Center of the Ministry of Education for Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits and Systems. As a core associate, the school initiated the construction of the Network Communication and Security Purple Mountain Laboratory, which has become an important part of the national laboratory and has been selected as a national strategic scientific and technological power. The laboratory aims to meet the major national strategic needs in the field of network communication and security, leads the global information technology development, solves major technological problems in the industry, and promotes the landing of achievements in the national economic and defense construction by gathering high-end personnel worldwide and conducting forward-looking and fundamental research to break through key technologies and carry out major demonstrative applications.

Based on the long-term accumulation of the traditional and advantageous disciplines of Southeast University, the school has formed a culture of lofty aspirations, unity and progress, truth-seeking and innovation, and attracted first-class scholars, well-known professors, and academic backbone at home and abroad with its good reputation and image of its disciplines in the international academic community. It has formed a sustainable faculty led by top talents and gathered by high-end personnel. The school has a total of 247 faculty and staff, including 210 full-time teachers, 74 professors/researchers, 103 associate professors/associate researchers, 93 Ph.D. supervisors, and 168 master's supervisors. It has 1 academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, 1 academician of the European Academy of Sciences, 5 IEEE Fellows, >80 national-level scholars, >50 province-level scholars, 1 Basic Science Center of the NSFC, 2 innovative groups of the NSFC, 3 innovative teams of the Ministry of Education, 1 innovative team of national defense, and 1 double innovation team of Jiangsu Province. Academician Tiejun Cui and his team were selected as the first batch of “Danian Huang style” team in universities across the country.

The school aims at the cutting edge of international disciplinary development and major national strategic needs, and takes the international disciplinary frontier and the needs of national industry development, economic construction, and national defense construction as the guidance to strengthen basic research, enhance core strengths, emphasize interdisciplinary research and pioneering innovation, and form international first-class distinctive research directions. It has achieved fruitful research results in basic research, development and industrialization of key technologies, application demonstration systems, and standardization proposals. Some of the research directions have taken the lead in the world. Since 2011, as the lead unit, the school has won 1 First Prize of National Technical Invention, 3 Second Prizes of National Natural Science, 1 Second Prize of National Science and Technology Progress, and more than 20 provincial and ministerial level scientific and technological achievement awards.

Undergraduate students at the school are enrolled in the “Information Engineering” program, which is a national characteristic specialty construction site and was selected as one of the national key undergraduate specialty construction sites in 2019. The program won the title of “Brand Program of Jiangsu Province” in the first batch, and took the lead in the country to pass the China Engineering education professional certification with high standards. Master’s and doctoral students are enrolled in four disciplines, namely “Communication and Information Systems”, “Electromagnetic Fields and Microwave Technology”, “Signal and Information Processing”, and “Circuits and Systems”. There are currently more than 3,000 full-time students, including over 1,000 undergraduates, 1,500 master students, 500 doctoral students, and over 20 international students. In recent years, students from the school have won 2 gold medals, 2 silver medals, and 1 bronze medal in the final competition of the “Internet+” Innovation and Entrepreneurship Contest for Chinese College Students, as well as 1 national special award, 1 first prize, and 2 second prizes in the “Challenge Cup” National College Students Extracurricular Academic Science and Technology Works Competition. They have also won 5 gold medals and 2 silver medals in the National College Student Entrepreneurship Competition, and 9 first prizes, 5 second prizes of the national level, 21 first prizes, and 16 second prizes of Jiangsu Province in the past four National Undergraduate Electronics Design Contest from 2016 to 2020. In recent years, the proportion of undergraduate students continuing their education has exceeded 72%; graduates from all disciplines are in short supply. The demands from employers are 6 to 8 times to the number of fresh graduates, and the employment rate reaches 100%. So far, the school has trained more than ten thousand graduates and has become a leading talent and backbone in relevant areas. Twelve undergraduate graduates have been elected as academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences or Chinese Academy of Engineering.