Changchun University of Science and Technology, formerly known as Changchun College of Optics and Fine Mechanics, was founded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1958 and is the first institution of higher learning in New China to train optical professionals. After more than 60 years of construction and development, the school has now become a provincial key university with distinctive optoelectronic characteristics and national defense characteristics, and is a joint construction institution of Jilin Province, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense and Changchun City, enjoying the reputation of "the cradle of China's optical talents".

Wang Daheng, the founder of "two bombs and one star" and an academician of the two academies, is the founder and the first president of the school. Gong Zutong, the first optical glass developer in China, Wang Zhijiang, the first laser developer in China, Xue Mingqiu, the developer of China's first high-precision theodolite, and 16 other academicians have taught or studied in the school, accumulating a rigorous and realistic learning atmosphere for the school. The school has successively been subordinate to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Defense Science and Technology Commission, the Ministry of Five Machinery, the State Machinery Industry Commission, the Ministry of Machinery and Electronics Industry, and the China North Industries Corporation. In 2002, it was renamed Changchun University of Science and Technology; In 2004, it was identified as a provincial key university. In 2009, the only state-level optical science and technology museum in China, the Changchun China Optical Science and Technology Museum, was approved for construction and was built and managed by the school. In 2010, it was approved by the Ministry of Education as a project institution of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization University. In 2012, it was selected as a "Basic Capacity Building Project for Colleges and Universities in the Midwest". In 2017, it was selected into the first batch of "Discipline Innovation and Introduction Plan for Colleges and Universities" of the Ministry of Education and the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs. In 2020, it was selected as the construction project of "Jilin Province Characteristic High-level Applied Research University" as Category A.