The predecessor of the Engineering Practice and Innovation Center of Beihang University was the Machinery Plant of Beihang University, established in 1954. In 1999, it was formally reorganized as the Engineering Training Center, and in 2024 it was renamed the Engineering Practice and Innovation Center. The Center has been recognized as "National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center" of the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, "Designated Internship Base for Colleges and Universities" of Beijing, "Open and Shared Engineering Practice and Innovation Base" of the Shahe Higher Education Park, "Popular Science Education Base on Mechanical Manufacturing and Instrumentation" of the China Instrument and Control Society, "Science and Technology Education Experience Base of the City of Science Museums" of Beijing, "Youth Science Popularization and Education Base" of the Beijing Education System Committee for the Wellbeing of the Next Generation, "Science Popularization and Education Base" of the Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and "Labor Education Base" of the university. The internship facilities, located entirely at the Shahe Campus, cover over 15,000 square meters and can accommodate over 600 students daily. They provide a first-class experimental teaching environment for engineering ability training and engineering practice innovation.

The Center is fully open to all the departments of Beihang and universities in the Shahe Higher Education Park. It carries the foundational and systematic education responsibility of cultivating students' engineering literacy, practical competence, and innovative potential. The center has established an interdisciplinary basic engineering training platform in mechanical, electrical, and control engineering for all university departments. A progressive engineering innovation practice teaching system has been constructed, comprising four levels: fundamental engineering awareness, basic engineering practice, cutting-edge technology exploration, and comprehensive innovation training.

With the support of the Beijing Municipality, Changping District and the Shahe Higher Education Park Management Committee, the Center has jointly built "Beidou," "Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(UAV)," "Robotics," "5G," "Artificial Intelligence" and other university-enterprise joint laboratories, and has cooperated in developing multiple engineering innovation courses, promoting the sharing of regional teaching resources and the coordinated development of industry, education and research.

Since 2023, in response to the "Manufacturing Powerhouse" strategy, the Center has taken intelligent manufacturing as the lead, built a smart manufacturing factory and three major platforms of intelligent processing, detection and assembly, and central control, continuously promoting the digital transformation and upgrading of engineering training.