The Department of Materials Science and Engineering was founded in 1993, with a Master program, the first of its kind in central Taiwan. The initial efforts were directed at building up faculty, graduate enrollment and research capacity. In 1996, the department started its Ph.D. program, to be followed by the addition in 2000, of an undergraduate program.

Currently, the faculty members include 14 professors, 3 associate professors, and 4 adjunct professors. There are also two administrative assistants and one technician in the department. The student body consists of about 100 phD, 150 Master (including 100 professional graduate students), and 210 undergraduate students.

Materials science and engineering is a multidisciplinary field that requires both an understanding of the fundamentals of materials science and its engineering applications. Materials science and engineering plays a major role in meeting the demands of an increasingly technical society. As a result, many analytical instruments and materials processing equipments have been set up, including transmission electron microscope, scanning electron microscope, X-ray diffractometer, material testing system, and a wide variety of physical and chemical vapor deposition systems, to name a few. Through launching pioneering research projects and by cooperating research programs with the scientists and engineers from other universities, research institutes and industries, the department is making constant progress to achieve excellence.