The department was established in 1964, initially named the Ceramics and Glass Division, and was renamed the Ceramics Engineering Division after the Ministry of Education in 1972. Then the inorganic materials of ceramics and glass were included in the scope of ceramics engineering, plus The original process, inspection, analysis, quality control, design and other contents in the engineering department have formed the only ceramic engineering department in China. In 1989, it was renamed the Department of Ceramics and Materials Engineering and invested in the field of high-tech material manufacturing. In 1992, it was renamed the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and established at the same time Master's Program of the Institute of Materials Engineering. The current development direction of the department is professional fields such as glass and ceramic materials, semiconductor and nanomaterials, photoelectric polymer, thin film process, material process simulation, and metal casting.

The future development focus and direction of this department include:

Ceramic materials: sensing components, electronic passive components, theories and applications of piezoelectric ceramic components, biomedical ceramics, fuel cells.

Glass materials: optical molding glass, glass fiber, touch glass, green glass, encapsulation glass, magnetic glass.

Nanomaterials: Nanostructures such as nanograss, nanowires, nanopillars, and AAO-assisted nanostructures.

Polymer materials: solar cells, resistive memory, adhesive systems.

Semiconductor materials: gate oxide layer and electrode, ion implantation, transparent conductive film.

Thin film process: super-hard alloy coating, semiconductor process technology.

Precision process technology and simulation: multilayer ceramic process technology, glass process technology, material process simulation.