The School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of XAUAT began as the Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering in 1960, offering three five-year undergraduate programs in Mining Electromechanics, Metallurgical Machinery, and Construction Machinery. In 1986, the department was split into the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Automatic Control. In 1998, the Department of Mechanical Engineering was expanded into the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. In 2020, the school relocated to the Caotang campus.
The school currently offers five undergraduate programs: Mechanical Design, Manufacturing and Automation; Electrical Engineering and Automation; Mechanical Electronics Engineering; Vehicle Engineering; and Intelligent Manufacturing Engineering. Among these, the Mechanical Design, Manufacturing and Automation program is part of the Ministry of Education’s “Excellent Engineer Education and Training Program” and a National First-Class Undergraduate Program, and has also received accreditation from the China Engineering Education Accreditation Association.
The school hosts a postdoctoral research station in Mechanical Engineering and is authorized to confer doctoral degrees in Mechanical Engineering (first-level discipline) as well as professional master’s degrees in Electrical Engineering. The school houses five research platforms: the Ministry of Education Engineering Research Center for Wear-resistant Materials and Technology; the Shaanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Nanomaterials and Technology; the Shaanxi Provincial Engineering Research Center for Wear-resistant Materials; the Xi’an Municipal Key Laboratory of Clean Energy; and the Xi’an Municipal Key Laboratory of Intelligent Technology for Heavy Machinery Equipment. Additionally, the school maintains a provincial-level experimental teaching demonstration center for Mechanical and Electrical Engineering.
The school comprises five research institutes: Machinery Dynamics Theory and Application; Mechatronics System Detection and Control; Advanced Manufacturing Technology; Vehicle and New Energy Technology; and Electrical Engineering and Automation. The school has 132 faculty and staff members, including 104 full-time teachers, 14 professors, and 33 associate professors. Its faculty team includes recipients of the Shaanxi Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, Shaanxi Provincial “Famous Teacher Award”, “Youth Thousand Talents Plan”, “Sanqin Talents Award”, and Chief Scientists of the Qinchuangyuan “Scientist+Engineer” Program – forming a well-structured, highly competent, and dynamic team.
Rooted in western China and serving the nation, the school supports the construction and metallurgy industries, significantly promoting technological progress and local economic and social development. Over the past five years, it has has undertaken 83 national and provincial-level research projects and 223 industry-sponsored projects, securing a total research funding of 100 million yuan. It has been granted 132 invention patents, published 4 monographs, and received 5 provincial-level or higher science and technology awards. Over the past six decades, the school has trained more than 10,000 specialized professionals in mechanical and electrical engineering, making significant contributions to industrial and regional economic development.
Building on its academic heritage, the school leverages its strengths and distinctive features in construction machinery, actively integrating with the XAUAT’s “Architecture and Technology” disciplinary cluster. At the same time, in response to national needs for future engineering construction and intelligent manufacturing, the school pursues technological innovation and engineering applications in areas such as intelligent construction machinery, intelligent control of mechatronic-hydraulic systems, and smart manufacturing and intelligent operation/maintenance technologies. Committed to fostering virtue through education, the school combines academic excellence with engineering leadership, aiming to cultivate high-level specialists with global vision, national commitment, and a spirit of craftsmanship – striving to become a high-level, internationally recognized school of mechanical and electrical engineering with distinctive industry characteristics.
