The Mechanics discipline at Hefei University of Technology was established in the 1950s. In 1981 and 1986, it obtained the authority to confer Master's degrees in Solid Mechanics and Engineering Mechanics, respectively. In 2000, it gained the authority to confer a Ph.D. in Engineering Mechanics. In 2002, it was recognized as a key discipline in Anhui Province, and in 2003, it was designated as the Engineering Mechanics Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center in Anhui Province. In 2011 and 2018, it was approved to offer Master's and Ph.D. programs in the primary field of Mechanics.

This discipline boasts a robust faculty with over 30 full-time teachers, including 7 professors, 19 associate professors, and 8 lecturers. Among them, there are 8 Ph.D. supervisors and 24 Master's supervisors. Nearly 40% of the teachers have overseas experience. The faculty is composed of prominent talents, including one recipient of the National Thousand Youth Talents Plan, one recipient of the Ministry of Education's Huo Yingdong Young Teachers Award, one national model teacher, one model of teacher ethics, one Anhui Provincial Teaching Master, one Anhui Provincial Labor Competition Advanced Individual, and four Huangshan Young Scholars at Hefei University of Technology.

The Mechanics discipline offers a comprehensive system for undergraduate, Master's, and Ph.D. degree programs. It has consistently adhered to the fundamental mission of moral education and aims to cultivate advanced engineering and technical professionals with a solid foundation in mechanics, computational and experimental skills, and outstanding comprehensive qualities and innovative spirit. The focus is on training advanced researchers working in design and mechanics analysis for industries such as aerospace, machinery manufacturing, civil engineering, and new materials.

Over the years, this discipline has educated thousands of undergraduate students and hundreds of Master's and Ph.D. students, with a 100% employment rate. Many graduates have been granted national scholarships for studying abroad, and a large number have achieved qualifications such as National Senior Engineer, Registered Engineer, Constructor, and Supervision Engineer, playing significant roles in China's manufacturing industry and major engineering projects. Some alumni currently hold teaching or researcher positions at various universities and research institutions, and their ethical, intellectual, and professional capabilities are highly recognized by employers.

The Mechanics discipline has an Applied Mechanics Research Institute and a range of specialized mechanics laboratories, including those for material mechanics performance testing, high-performance impact testing, high-performance computational simulation, and structural dynamics testing. The discipline has consistently emphasized the integration and interdisciplinary research between fundamental mechanics theory and various engineering fields, such as civil engineering, mechanical engineering, materials science, and transportation. This has led to the development of distinctive research directions, including theoretical and computational mechanics, elastic wave theory and experiments, intelligent materials and interdisciplinary mechanics, and research in fluid and gas combustion safety. Significant research achievements have been made in areas such as elastic wave propagation theory and simulation methods, boundary element method theory and applications, structural reliability analysis and optimization, intelligent materials, and structural mechanics, reaching international recognition.

Both the teaching and research accomplishments of this discipline have received extensive recognition and praise from peers in China and abroad. In recent years, they have received one first prize and five second prizes for teaching achievements in Anhui Province, as well as two provincial awards for scientific and technological progress and five industry association awards. Over the past five years, they have led over 30 projects funded by national and provincial natural science foundations, one key research and development program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and over 80 research projects commissioned by enterprises. The total research funding received amounts to over 20 million RMB. The discipline has published more than 230 high-quality papers in international and domestic core journals and has been granted numerous invention and utility model patents.

Key research directions include:

1. Theoretical and Engineering Applications of Computational Mechanics

2. Elastic Wave Theory and Experiments

3. Intelligent Materials and Interdisciplinary Mechanics

4. Research on Fluid and Gas Combustion Safety

- Director: Xiaobao Li

- Branch Secretary: Zongjun Hu,