The School of Information Science and Engineering of Lanzhou University is originated from the major of Radio Physics founded in 1958. In 1980, the Department of Radio Physics and Computer Science was established. In 1986, the Department of Electronics and Information Science, as well as the Department of Computer Science were established. In 2000, the School of Information Science and Engineering was established by merge of the Department of Electronics and Information Science, the Department of Computer Science and the Computing Center.

The school currently has 1,716 full-time students, including 1,328 undergraduates (exchange students included) and 512 graduate students. There are 128 faculties and staffs, among which 83 full-time teaching and research personnels, including 11 professors, 33 associate professors, 12 doctoral supervisors and 60 master's supervisors. There are 1 Laureate of the National Recruitment Programme of Global Experts and Laureate of the Special allowance of the State Council, 1 Laureate of the National Recruitment Programme of Global Experts (Youth Project), 1 Laureate of the New Century Talents Project, 4 Member of Ministry of Education New Century Outstanding Talents Support Program, 1 Laureate of Leading Talents in Gansu Province and 1 Prominent Educator in Gansu Province in the school.

The school has three departments and one experimental teaching center, including the Department of Computer Science, the Department of Electronic Information and Communication Engineering, and the Department of Data Science. The Department of Computer Science includes four undergraduate majors: Computer Science and Technology, Information Security, E-Commerce, and Educational Technology. The Department of Electronic Information and Communication Engineering includes two undergraduate majors: Electronic Information Science and Technology, and Communication Engineering; the Department of Data Science includes two undergraduate majors: Data Science (Lanzhou University and Drexel University Joint Education Programme), Data Science and Big Data Technology (New Engineering Major); The Experimental Teaching Center covers practical experimental courses for all undergraduate majors in the school. The research institute includes Institute of Circuits and Systems, Institute of Information and Communication Engineering, Institute of Signal and Information Processing, Institute of Optoelectronics and Electromagnetic Information, Institute of Computer Software and Theory, Institute of Computer Application Technology, Institute of Computer Architecture, Institute of Educational Technology, Institute of Military and Civil Integration, Cyberspace Security Research Center, Brain Computing Research Center, Data Science Research Center, National Demonstration Base of International Science and Technology Cooperation , Open Source Software and Real-Time System Engineering Research Center, National LINUX Training and Promotion Center, National Security Technology Evaluation Center (Gansu Province) Sub-center, Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Wearable Equipment, Gansu Provincial Education Department E-commerce Key Laboratory, Gansu Province Computer Basic Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center.

The school has the first-level discipline to award doctoral degree in computer science and technology, the second-level discipline to award doctoral degree in radio physics. It has 2 first-level dicipline to award master's degree in computer science and technology and communication and information systems, 6 second-level discipline to award master's degree in radio physics, circuits and systems, signals and information processing, computer application technology, computer architecture and computer software and theory, 3 master's degree programs in electronics and communication engineering, computer technology and software engineering, 7 undergraduate majors in communication engineering, electronic information science and technology, computer science and technology, information security, e-commerce, educational technology and data science and big data technology (new engineering major), and a computer science and technology joint education programme (data science major). The school has 1 training base for information science and technology talents in Gansu Province; 2 key disciplines in Gansu Province in computer science and technology and electronic science and technology, and 1 key cultivation discipline in Gansu Province in communication engineering. Since the establishment of the school, a large number of information technology talents have been trained for the country, and the employment rate of graduates is among the best in Lanzhou University.

In the past five years, under the leadership of the Laureate of the National Recruitment Programme of Global Experts, Professor and Dean Bin Hu and aiming at building the global first-class discipline, the school has established seven key research directions including psychophysiological computing, chemical information computing, tsafety-critical system, key technologies of big data, and non-invasive intelligent optical sensing, visual neural computing and intelligent information processing, information sensing and modern communication key technologies. The school's scientific research strength has been significantly enhanced. Faculties have undertaken 500 projects funded by the National Crucial Fundamental Research Development Programme, the Ministry of Science and Technology International Cooperation Project, the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Military Science and Technology Commission, National Defense Special Zone Innovation Project. The level and type of projects have been continuously promoted. Faculties have published over 300 high-level articles indexed by SCI/EI, including over 60 articles in A and B class.

The school has actively carried out foreign cooperation and exchanges, building long-term cooperation with a dozen well-known institutions at home and abroad. Every year, famous experts and scholars from home and abroad are invited to give lectures and hold academic conferences. Outstanding faculties were exchanged and further educated abroad to promote the continuous improvement of teaching and research, and overall development of discipline construction.

Facing the development trend and frontier of information science, the School of Information Science and Engineering based in western China aims to combine the geographical advantages of “One Belt, One Road” and the technological advantages of “Internet Plus” to build first-class scientific research and vigorously serve for society by industry-college-institute cooperation/government-industry-college-institute cooperation in highlighting engineering characteristics and providing services and assistance for local economic and social development.