The Department of Automation has actively participated in many national projects, including the construction of the experimental project "Computer Integrated Manufacturing System" (CIMS) and the open laboratory "Integrated Management and Decision Making Information System" (I-MADIS), both of which are the key projects in the field of high technology automation of China; additionally, the Department of Automation was entrusted by the State Science and Technology Commission of China to take charge of the work of the CIMS theme office. After five and a half years of hard work and joint efforts of various units inside and outside the University, the CIMS experimental project was completed and accepted by the Nation at the end of 1992. After that, it developed into an engineering research center for automation science and technology at an international advanced level, and was awarded the "University Leadership Award" by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1995. With the further reform and opening-up, the Department of Automation has successively cooperated with many international companies since 1997 and has set up joint laboratories with Rockwell (USA), NEC and OMRON (Japan), and Festo and P+F (Germany), which greatly contributedto our teaching and research. In 1999, to cooperate with the institutional reform carried out by the University, the Department of Automation adjusted the original eight teaching and research groups to six institutes, namely, the Institute of Control Theory and Application, the Institute of System Integration Technology, the Institute of Information Processing Technology, the Institute of Process Control Technology, the Institute of System Engineering, and the Institute of Electronics and Testing Technology.