It was founded in February 1942 by Zaporizhie Automechanical Institute (which was evacuated to Siberia because of World War II).

Altai State University is named after Ivan Polzunov, the inventor of the two-cylinder steam engine for use in the mining industry.

University facilities include seven academic buildings, hostels, a scientific library, a computing center, a publishing house, student clubs, a theater (the Kaleidoscope Student Theatre [3]), a preventive clinic, as well as a skiing lodge, a private Olympiyskiy swimming pool,[4] and a sports and rest camp.

Altai State Technical University annually co-hosts Russian semi-finals of the international competitive programming team contest ICPC.

AltSTU teams from students of the specialty "Software Engineering" (Faculty of Information Technology), as a result of selection, reached the final of this championship and won prizes: In January 2019, a Biysk Technological Institute (AltSTU branch) project to develop physical principles of ultrasonic drilling of the surface of extraterrestrial objects to detect water and ice won a collaboration grant from RFBR and National Natural Science Foundation of China.