Shanghai Polytechnic University is a key applied research university in Shanghai, which focuses on engineering, science, economics, management, literature, law, art and other disciplines. In July 2016, the school became a national defense Characteristic University jointly built by the State Bureau of Defense Science, Technology and Industry and the Shanghai Municipal People's Government. In 2018, the school became a pilot unit for the construction of "high-level local universities" in Shanghai.

The school's culture originated from the Shanghai University founded in 1906 and the German Medical School founded in 1907. The school integrates the beautiful campus of Hujiang University and the thought, vision and pattern of internationalization of education, as well as the development thinking of business in Hujiang. The school inherits the centuries-old tradition of engineering education since the German Medical School, nurtures a large number of patriotic young people and people with lofty ideals, nurtures a large number of academic elites, Engineering experts and social elites, and cultivates more than ten talents for the country and society. Wan Excellent Professional Talents enjoy the reputation of "Manufacturing Whampoa Military Academy" in China. The school inherits and develops the school motto of "Faith, righteousness, diligence and lofty ideological aspirations", and cultivates qualified citizens with intellectual aspirations by upholding the socialist core values.

There are more than 24,000 full-time students in the school, including 17,000 undergraduates and 7,500 graduate students. There are 15 colleges and 2 teaching departments, 56 undergraduate majors, 8 doctoral degree authorization points for first-level disciplines, 4 post-doctoral research workstations, 27 master degree authorization points for first-level disciplines and 11 master degree categories. Engineering and material disciplines rank among the top 1% of ESI in terms of discipline construction, with one peak discipline in Shanghai, four plateau disciplines in Shanghai, and one discipline participating in the construction of peak disciplines in Shanghai. In terms of personnel training platform, there are three national characteristic specialties, six pilot specialties of excellent engineer education training plan of Ministry of Education, one pilot specialty of comprehensive reform of specialty of Ministry of Education, three national experimental teaching demonstration centers, four national engineering education practice centers, two national virtual simulation experimental teaching centers, and one national continuing education base for professional and technical personnel. It has 51 provincial and ministerial platforms, including 1 National Engineering Research Center, 1 National Engineering Laboratory, 1 National Quality Supervision and Inspection Center, 1 National University Science Park, 1 National Technology Transfer Demonstration Organization and 26 provincial and ministerial research platforms.

The school vigorously implements the strategy of strengthening the school with talents. There are 1693 full-time teachers, including 742 senior professional titles teachers, 186 doctoral tutors, 72.3% of teaching and research personnel with doctoral degree, and 33.7% of teachers with more than one year overseas experience. The school has 8 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Engineering (including double appointments); 50 national-level talents such as the winner of the National Outstanding Youth Science Fund and the leader of the "Ten Thousands Plan"; 127 provincial and ministerial-level talents such as the leader of Shanghai and the leader of Shanghai's outstanding disciplines.

The school relies on, serves and leads the industry development for a long time. It is the backbone University of equipment manufacturing, medical equipment, publishing and printing industry. The disciplines of power engineering and engineering thermophysics, optical engineering, management science and engineering have been in the leading position in China for a long time. Relying on the deep industry foundation in the two fields of medical devices and publishing and printing, the disciplines urgently needed for the development of social economy and culture, such as biomedical engineering and digital communication, have been actively constructed. Along with the development of Engineering education, it has docked with major national and local strategies such as Made-in-China 2025, Civil-Military Integration and the construction of Shanghai Global Science and Technology Creation Center. The school focuses on health and military industry, interdisciplinary integration and collaborative innovation, forming terahertz photonics, new energy, material-added manufacturing, rehabilitation engineering, minimally invasive medical devices, complex system science, large data of system regulation and control, etc. Many characteristic frontier disciplines and frontier research directions; with the former Shanghai Institute of Industrial Automation Instruments, Shanghai Institute of Complete Design of Power Generation Equipment, Shanghai Institute of Electrical Appliances, Shanghai Cable Research Institute, Shanghai Material Research Institute, Shanghai Electric Tools Research Institute, Shanghai Industrial Boiler Research Institute and Shanghai Electric Group Central Research Institute, etc., we have built "machinery". Shanghai Research Institute of Industrial Common Technology and Shanghai Graduate School of Machinery Industry should strengthen the training of common technical research and innovative talents; build a military engineering research qualification system based on "three certificates of military industry". The three fields of optics, energy and control have been approved by the Bureau of National Defense Science, Technology and Industry as national defense characteristic disciplines.

The school vigorously promotes the competitiveness of science and technology and actively serves the national innovation driving strategy. In the past three years, the school has won two second-class awards of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, 57 provincial and ministerial science and technology awards, one military science and technology progress, 269 national scientific research projects, 63 highly cited essays and 902 authorized invention patents. Schools have strong technology transfer ability. The National University Science Park ranks sixth in the country, the Technology Transfer Center ranks seventh in the country, and the research funds and invention patents rank fifty for a long time.

The school carries forward the tradition of relying on the combination of industry, production, education and research, and takes morality as the foundation to cultivate engineering, innovative and internationalized high-quality talents with strong foundation and practice. The school is the Ministry of Education's "Higher Education and Training Plan for Excellent Engineers". It continuously implements the concept of "docking industries, reforming majors and guiding employment". Undergraduate education emphasizes "strong foundation, wide caliber and strong practice", and postgraduate education emphasizes "interdisciplinary, innovative and sticking to industries". With Nanjing University of Technology and Zhejiang University of Technology, the "Yangtze River Delta Higher Engineering Education Alliance" and the Shanghai Institute of Industrial Automation Instruments, the "Shanghai Institute of Intelligent Manufacturing Engineers" were built. The school was awarded excellent in the evaluation of undergraduate teaching level in 2004, and successfully completed the evaluation of undergraduate teaching level in 2017. The school continued to promote professional international certification and Chinese engineering education certification. In 2013, it was the first one in China to pass the ASIIN certification of German engineering professional authority certification by purely native specialty. There were eight specialties in the school that passed international certification, five specialties that passed the certification of Chinese engineering education, and one specialty that passed the professional certification of the Ministry of Housing and Construction Industry Association.

The school has established the core position of innovation and entrepreneurship education in the training of Engineering talents, established a comprehensive and comprehensive innovation and entrepreneurship education system of "classroom teaching-innovation experiment-project training-business incubation". It has taken the lead in opening entrepreneurship experimental classes and the second major of entrepreneurship management in China. As one of the first four acceptance points of Shanghai University Students'Science and Technology Venture Fund, it has nurtured a total of 146. The project, with a survival rate of nearly 62.3%, has won a large number of students'innovative entrepreneurship achievements and national awards, and has created a large number of outstanding student entrepreneurs. The school is a "national college students'innovation and entrepreneurship training plan implementation university", "national talent training model innovation experimental area", "national innovation and entrepreneurship training demonstration base", "national deepening innovation and entrepreneurship education reform demonstration university", "national innovation and entrepreneurship typical experience university".

The school is one of the earliest international cooperative universities in China. It has two Sino-foreign cooperative institutions, the Sino-British International College and the Sino-German International College. With the United States, Britain, Germany, Canada, Japan, Australia, Ireland and other 20 countries and regions, more than 120 institutions of higher learning have established cooperative relations, with more than 1000 students studying abroad and more than 500 students with academic qualifications. In cooperation with ASIIN, the China-EU Higher Education Research Center was established to study the methods and standards of professional accreditation of higher education by independent international third-party accreditation institutions. In the field of e-commerce, he participated in the drafting of UN documents on Online Dispute resolution. The school vigorously introduces international innovative resources and innovative forces, builds international laboratories, establishes the Shanghai Institute of Artificial Intelligence in conjunction with MIT and Hamburg University in Germany, builds the Terahertz International Joint Laboratory with Moscow University, and promotes the construction of the International Laboratory of Intelligent Manufacturing with the IPK, IPA and IKTS Institute of German Industry 4.0 Incubator. The overseas academician team was introduced to start the construction of the large aircraft augmentation manufacturing project, and the joint research center of advanced manufacturing technology was established with Coventry University, UK, and the "China Peripheral Economic Research Center" was established. The school has transformed the excellent historical buildings into the Shanghai-Jiang International Cultural Park, which has become a new landmark for international cultural exchanges.

During the important strategic opportunity period of building "first-class universities and first-class disciplines" in China and local high-level universities in Shanghai, Shanghai University of Technology is building optical engineering, system science, power engineering, engineering thermophysics, mechanical engineering and biology on the carrier of three major international laboratories and a characteristic platform of system management in the future: optics, intelligent manufacturing, medical equipment and rehabilitation engineering. Five first-class disciplines of medical engineering. The school will seize the opportunity, reform and innovation, speed up the construction of high-level universities, promote the development of connotation, and strive to build the school into a first-class university of science and engineering with remarkable characteristics.