By the 5^th  national economic and social development plan, the Royal Thai government had emphasized a policy to bring accessibility on higher education into the outer region and rural area. In the year 1980, the ministry of higher education proposed to the government for the establishment of 5 new regional universities.

In 1988, the Royal Thai government, led by General Chatichai Choonhavan at that time, has issued a resolution to appoint a committee to establish “Suranaree University” in the area of Nakhon Ratchasima province with Prof. Dr. Vichit Srisaarn as the chair of committee. Within one year, the Chatichai government submitted the “Suranaree University of Technology” bill to Thai parliament.

On July 27^th, 1990, His Majesty the King signed the Suranaree University of Technology bill and the university became legitimated.

As specified in the Suranaree University of Technology (SUT) act, The Center for Scientific and Technological Equipment (CSTE) is one of the original units of SUT in the rank of Institute and Center.

From the beginning, CSTE has operated under SUT’s policy on “Centralized Service, Coordinated Mission” to service laboratory courses, support research and development projects of faculty and research staffs, provide academic service to government and private sectors, and perform other missions assigned by the university.

The first batch of CSTE staffs (4 persons) started working on November 2^nd, 1992 at a temporary office in Bangkok. After the infrastructure construction has been completed, the CSTE office in SUT was put in operation on May 13^th, 1992. Assoc. Prof. Virulh  Mangclawiraj was appointed to be the first director of CSTE. The following batch of staffs continued to join the force on setting up of new offices and laboratories to support the operation of the first SUT academic year. Basic science laboratories were the first group of laboratories to be in service. Within one year, Engineering, Agricultural technology and Analytical laboratories were in operation. In the beginning phase, there were six facility buildings (F1-F6) in CSTE.

• 1999, CSTE has expanded the academic services and open new laboratories to support the new programs in Engineering and Public Health.
• 2000, Funded by a soft loan money from World Bank, new equipment for Science and Engineering programs were acquired.
• 2003, CSTE started a new project on laboratory quality control, more expansion on offices and laboratories areas (F7 & F8).
• 2006, The Chalermprakiet building (F9) was open for the pre-clinic laboratory courses and new health science equipment was added to support the Medical program.
• 2008, CSTE became an accredited laboratory, first ISO/IEC 17025 certified for the Water Analysis laboratory.
• 2011, The government’s DPL project has provided funding for SUT and CSTE to acquire new equipment for Medical and Health Science programs, including some new analytical equipment. From the SUT rector, Prof. Dr. Prasart Suebka’s initiative, F1, F6 and F10 building were refurnished to support the program.
• 2013, Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn has laid the foundation stone in the ground breaking ceremony of new engineering, metrology, analytical and CSTE office building (F11).

As of present, CSTE has 145 staffs, who are responsible for more than 19,000 items of equipment, more than 300 laboratories in 11 facility buildings with the total lab area of more than 100,000 square meters. The center is sufficiently capable of supporting the university’s academic of student, faculty members and researchers from science, engineering, agricultural technology, social technology, medical and nursing programs and outside users for more than 19,000 users per year

CSTE is an ISO/IEC 17025 certified laboratory for 15 testing parameters and continue to improve.