Programs in engineering and computer science have a long and distinguished history at Syracuse University. As early as 1877, courses in civil engineering were available to students through the College of Liberal Arts; electrical engineering followed in 1897, and mechanical engineering in 1900. The university, together with the vision and financial support of the noted industrialist Lyman Cornelius Smith, established a college dedicated solely to the instruction of young men and women in various areas of applied science in 1901. Programs in industrial (1911), chemical (1914), and aeronautical (aerospace) engineering (1927) were added to respond to societal demand. The College of Applied Science became the College of Engineering in 1952.

Syracuse University became the second institution in the country to offer degrees in computer engineering when it established programs in this new discipline in 1971. Programs in environmental engineering were also started that year. In 1985, programs were established in manufacturing engineering and engineering physics. The Center for Advanced Technology in Computer Applications and Software Engineering was created in 1984. The Northeast Parallel Architectures Center, an interdisciplinary center for high-performance computing, followed in 1987, and the Center for Hypersonics, supported by NASA to focus on studies in air and space travel, was created in 1993. Interdisciplinary programs in computer and information science were established at Syracuse University in 1966, and the separate School of Computer and Information Science was created in 1976. In 1992, the College of Engineering and the School of Computer and Information Science were combined to create the united L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science. The name then changed to the College of Engineering and Computer Science.