The School of Information Science and Technology (SIST) of Sun Yat-sen University was initially founded in January 1996, and was reorganized in July 1997. Up until now, it consists of four departments/research centers, including the Department of Computer Science, the Department of Electronic and Communications Engineering, the Institute of Computer Software Research, and the Institute of Computer Applications.

There are 128 full-time faculty members in SIST, including 28 Doctoral supervisors, 72 Master's supervisors, 31 professors, 46 associate professors and 41 lecturers. There are 3982 full-time students, including 128 Doctor Candidates, 959 Master Candidates, and 2895 undergraduate students.

SIST has 7 undergraduate teaching units and 15 laboratories, which are equipped with constantly updated modern equipment and appliances. There are 5000 sets of equipment altogether, with the total value of 38,000,000 RMB, including 10 of them with the individual value of more than 100,000 RMB.

In 2001, SIST was authorized to establish the "Software Technology Key Laboratory" of the Department of Education of Guangdong Province.

In 2004, SIST was authorized to establish the "Information Security Key Laboratory" of Guangdong Province.

SIST emphasizes the improvement of qualities among faculty members. Since 2000, it has employed 88 highly qualified specialists and scholars, and 16 of them were brought in according to the "Hundred People Project", including Prof. Yuanping Zhou from Motorola, Prof. Jiwu Huang, Prof. Kaile Su, Prof. Yong Tang, Prof. Zhi Yang, Prof. Xianhua Dai, Prof. Guoli Wang, Prof. Hongzhou Tan, Prof. Xiao Ma and Prof. Xiaola Lin. These distinguished scholars have already played a key role in the development of various disciplines in SIST.

SIST has also invited Prof. Yu Sun (a specialist in communications technologies and Fellow of the Chinese Academy of Engineering), Prof. Renhong Wang and Prof. Dongxu Qi (both are experts in computer graphics), and Prof. Yumin Wang (an expert in information security) to work in the School for some time, so as to strengthen the research power and consolidate the research team.

SIST takes an active part in the activities of academic communication, and regularly organizes high-level lectures. It has employed a number of experts as guest professors from the renowned enterprises within and outside China. Besides, it has established the relationship of scholarly exchange with a number of academic institutions such as London University, the University of Massachusetts, the First University of Paris, the University of Tsukuba and the University of Sydney.

SIST is well positioned to face the challenge of the era of knowledge economy.