The Institute of Applied Mechanics was established in 1984 by Professor Guitong Yang, a famous educator and scientist in mechanics. The Institute is the first batch of approved master’s degree authorization point in solid mechanics in China. In 1986, it was approved by the State Education Commission as a doctoral degree authorization point of solid mechanics, and it was the earliest engineering doctoral degree authorization point in Shanxi Province.

The current discipline platform of the Institute has the first level discipline doctorial program and postdoctoral mobile research station of solid mechanics, the Key Laboratory of Material Strength and Structural Impact of Shanxi Province and a high-performance computing simulation center. The staff in the Institute include 2 professors, 6 associate professors, 1 associate researcher, 13 lecturers, and 1 engineer, with all of them having doctoral degrees. Among the staff, there are 1 member of the "New Century Excellent Talents Program of the Ministry of Education", 1 member of the "Shanxi Province Young and Middle-aged Innovative Talents Support Program", 1 member of the "Shanxi Province's First Batch of Young Top Talents", 2 members of the "Support Plan for Outstanding Young Academic Leaders of Higher Education Institutions in Shanxi Province" and 1 member of the "Shanxi Provincial Academic and Technical Leader".

The Institute is one of the important bases for the research of elastoplastic dynamics, impact dynamics, and biomechanics in China. The main research directions include: (1) Elastoplastic dynamics, including dynamic constitutive relations of materials, elastoplastic dynamic response analysis of engineering structures, and mechanical problems in microelectronics packaging; (2) Biomechanics, including cell mechanics, tissue and organ mechanics, skeletal muscle constitutive equations, sports biomechanics, bone mechanics; (3) Nonlinear dynamics, including the study of nonlinear dynamic behavior characteristics and new physical phenomena of a variety of typical elastic-plastic and nonlinear structures; (4) Research on impact dynamics and dynamic behavior of protective structures, including dynamic problems in major equipment and other fields, impact mechanics behavior of ultra-light materials and its structure, human body injury and protection system in automobile collision and sports. The Institute is now undertaking 8 projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, 1 project from Shanxi Province "1331" Engineering Innovation Team, and 5 other provincial projects.