The main focus of Automation is to discover the underlying principles of various systems, and utilize the obtained principles to design, optimize and control the concerned systems. In other words, Automation Science and Technology attempts to realize and extend the important human functions，such as acquiring information, processing information and making decision, with a variety of robots and other autonomous devices. Automation not only frees the human being from the burdensome labor jobs and some intellectual jobs, but also can accomplish some sophisticated and dangerous tasks in various special environments. In the history of the development of science and technology, Automation Science and Technology always underlies the emerging areas and the advanced technologies, and plays a critical role in the fields of industry, agriculture, military, aerospace, economy, commerce and also in our daily life. Dept. of Automation of Univ. of Science and Technology was founded in 1958 and is the first automation department in China. There are 48 faculty members, including 12 professors and 21 associate professors or sensor staff engineers, in our department. The director of the Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Professor Donglin Wang, currently serves as the chair of our deparment.

There is one undergraduate major, "Automation", in Dept. of Automation. The main subject of the research and postgraduate education in Dept. of Automation is the first level academic subject, "Control Science and Engineering" with 7 second level academic subjects, including "Control Theory and Control Engineering", "Detection Technology and Automatic Device", "Systems Engineering", "Pattern Recognition and Intelligent Systems", "Navigation, Guidance and Control", "Network Communication Systems and Control", "Information Acquisition and Control", and one postdoctoral research center on "Control Science and Engineering". Although postgraduate students are recruited according to the second level academic subjects, they are educated based on the first level academic subject to broaden their knowledge. Dept. of Automation places much emphasis on the development of the creativity of students, requires that students not only have very strong theoretical background in mathematics and control theory, but also be very familar with the fundamental engineering techniques in electronics, computers and modern communication, and encourages students to take some inter-disciplinary courses. Senior undergraduates can enter into the research labs of our department to work on the advanced research topics, or participate in the undergraduate research plans during the summers in some institutes of Chinese Academy of Sciences, such as the Institute of Automation, Shenyang Institute of Automation of CAS, the Institute of Acoustics, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, and the Institute of Intelligent Machines. After its foundation half a century ago, Dept. of Automation has produced many execellent talents and is  one of the cradle of senior talents in the high technology.

The graduates of Dept. of Automation have the capabilities to work in many areas, and can easily get a job. Most undergraduates enter into domestic or international graduate schools while the others can get a satisfactory position to implement their knowledge in research institutes, universities, key national companies and other famous companies. Graduates of Dept. of Automation work on research, teaching, design, new product development, hardware and software development in the various fields of information science and engineering, finance, advanced manufacturing, and  government management. Moreover, some graduates set up their own businesses through operating various types of high technology companies and have significantly contributed to the development of the Automation and Information Industry of China.