The Key Laboratory of Symbolic Computation and Knowledge Engineering of Ministry of Education was founded in the December of 1993. Initially, it was an open laboratory set by the national education committee, in 1999 it was renamed the Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education. In 1998 and 2006, it passed the evaluations organized by the Ministry of Education, respectively.

The academic committee of the laboratory consists of 15 famous experts from different areas. Professor Lin Huimin, the academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the professor of the Institute of Software of Chinese Academy of Sciences, is the president of the committee. Professor Yang Bo is the director of the laboratory.

Relying on Jilin University, the laboratory is supported by the College of Computer Science and Technology and the College of Mathematics. The discipline of computer science and technology is qualified of granting first-level discipline doctoral degree, and the discipline of mathematics is a first-level national key discipline. The computer software and theory and the computational mathematics are two majors of national key disciplines. Adaptive to the latest trends of computer science and national needs, the layout of the involved subjects within this laboratory has been readjusted, and five primary research directions have been formed including symbolic computation, knowledge engineering, intelligent computation, computer and mathematics graphics and image processing, highly trusted computing and mobile computing. The laboratory emphasizes the overlapping and fusion between computer science and mathematics, and especially emphasis on the integration between fundamental researches such as, symbolic computation and numerical computation, non-linear processing and computer graphics and image processing, knowledge engineering and intelligent software, logical reasoning and quantitative reasoning, intelligent computation and bioinformatics, high trusted computing and mobile computing. So far, the laboratory has obtained manifold innovative research achievements, and some of them have generated remarkable economic and social benefits, which have brought relatively great academic influence at domestic and overseas.

By sufficiently taking advantages of the University, the laboratory has become a center of scientific research as well as educational base. In recent 5 years, the laboratory has undertaken 100 national and provincial scientific projects, and the total funding is up to 30 million RMB. More than 800 research papers have been published, among which more than 300 paper are indexed by SCI and EI. 5 monographs have been published. The laboratory has won 1 second-class National Scientific Technology Progress Award; 1 special-class, 5 first-class and 2 second-class provincial and ministerial Scientific Technology Progress Award. The laboratory has obtained 5 national invention patents, 3 national excellent courses, 1 Ministry of Education-IBM excellent course, and 1 national education team.

Through integrating and optimizing different resources, the laboratory has formed a research team with appropriate scale, reasonable organization structure, complement on advantages, and comprehensive strength, which currently consists of 1 academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1 Changjiang distinguished professor, 1 Changjiang chair professor, 2 distinguished young scholar funded by NSFC, 2 members of discipline evaluation board of Academic Degree Committee of State Council, 6 members funded by the Program of New Century Excellent Talents of Ministry of Education, 1 winner of excellent young teacher award, 5 members sponsored by the state council special allowance, 3 advanced experts in Jilin province, 6 young experts with outstanding contributions to Jilin Province, 3 distinguished young scholar funded by Jilin government. The president of the academic committee and the academic leading professors of the laboratory have great academic influence in related scientific areas domestically and internationally.

The laboratory has become the national educational base aiming to educate persons or eve talents with innovative abilities in the areas of symbolic computation and knowledge engineering. In each year, more than 3 postdoctoral researchers finish their studies, more than 50 Ph.D. candidates and 170 masters receive their Ph.D. and master's degrees, and at least two of the Ph.D. candidates win the Jilin Province Excellent Ph.D. Dissertation Award.

The laboratory provides high-level public research platforms, and proactively develops academic exchanges. It has constructed multiple long-term collaborations with oversea and domestic universities or research institutes. In each year, it organizes and co-organizes several international and domestic academic conferences, and more than 40 academic researchers are invited to visit the laboratory for collaborations. The laboratory sends more than 10 stuffs go abroad as visiting scholars every year. All of above academic activities have greatly promoted the influence of the laboratory.

Under the great support by Jilin University, the laboratory has been sponsored with more than 20 million RMB from different sources such as "211" project, "985" project, capital construction and others, which have improved the software and hardware conditions and environments of the laboratory. The laboratory has more than 3,500 square meters space for experiment and office work. Moreover, it uses the combine resources from the two colleges it relies on, such as library and computer network. The equipment and devices owned by the laboratory worth more than 30 million RMB. A set of completed management policies and operational mechanisms have been established for standard managing and operation.