The Department of Software Engineering was founded in 1971 as a computer science major, and is one of the earliest computer disciplines established in the western region of China. Since 2011, the university has been awarded the first-class doctoral degree in software engineering and a postdoctoral station, and has formed a complete talent cultivation system of bachelor, master, doctoral and postdoctoral degrees.
The department has several high-level teaching and research platforms, including one national local joint engineering research center, one Shaanxi provincial engineering research center, one national virtual simulation experimental teaching center, and one provincial experimental teaching demonstration center. There are 13 doctoral supervisors, 5 innovation teams of the Ministry of Education and the province, 1 national teaching team, 2 national special experts, 1 excellent youth, 1 national teaching master of the Ten Thousand People Plan, 1 national teaching master, and 2 teaching masters of Shaanxi Province. In recent years, it has won 2 national scientific and technological progress awards, 14 provincial and ministerial level scientific and technological awards, 4 national teaching achievement awards, and 3 provincial and ministerial level teaching awards. The discipline is one of the key disciplines in the "211 Project" of Northwest University, and has achieved B+ rating in the fourth round of national discipline evaluation, ranking 10.3% nationwide.
