The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) of East China Normal University was founded in January 2002. It was one of the first 35 model institutes of software in China and also the only one among the normal universities nationwide. The first dean was Professor He Jifeng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The discipline of Software Engineering, which the institute relied on, is one of the key disciplines of East China Normal University, and one of the “211 key disciplines” of the National Eleventh Five-Year Plan. As one of the key disciplines of the university’s double first-class construction, the discipline of software engineering was approved as a first-class discipline in Shanghai (Class B) in 2012, and ranked sixth in China and first in Shanghai in the discipline assessment results in the same year. The ranking was improved to A grade (top 5% in China) in the fourth round of discipline assessment by the Ministry of Education in 2016 and ranked fifth in China in the 2019 Best Chinese Subject Ranking of ShanghaiRanking. It elevated to the second place in the years 2020 and 2021.

SEI now has three departments (the Department of Software Science and Technology, the Department of Embedded Software and Intelligent Systems, and the Department of Cryptography and Network Security). It has a number of discipline bases such as National Engineering Research Center for Trustworthy Embedded Software, International Joint Research Center for Trustworthy Software, MOE Engineering Research Center of Software and Hardware Co-design and Application, MOE International Joint Lab of Trustworthy Software, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Trustworthy Computing, and Shanghai Trustworthy Industrial Internet Software Collaborative Innovation Center.

SEI has been developing rapidly in recent years. There is 1 innovative research group of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and 1 Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Moreover, 1 faculty member has been granted the China National Foundation for Distinguished Young Scientists, 2 faculty members were awarded with the Young Changjiang Scholar (Yangtze River Program) of China and 16 provincial and ministerial level talent program recipients such as Shanghai Leading Talents and Shuguang Scholars. The institute has also attracted more than 10 famous foreign scholars, including Turing Award winners, members of the European Academy of Sciences, and members of the American Academy of Sciences, to participate in the construction of the institute on a part-time basis.

SEI has built a high-end software talent cultivation model with international vision. Giving full play to the advantages of the discipline's faculty and focusing on cultivating high-end software talents with innovation capacity, and the ability of large system architecture design and trustworthy industrial control software development, the institute strives to provide intellectual support for the information field of the nation and Shanghai.

In accordance with student-centered, market-oriented strategy and innovation-driven development, the institute adheres to the ways of internationalized education, market-oriented operation and integration of industry, education and research, and aims to cultivate high-level, practical and interdisciplinary software talents with international vision.