The institution owes its foundation to the vision of the Maharajah of Travancore, Sree Chitra Tirunal Balarama Varma.

Maj. T. H. Mathewman was appointed as the first principal of the college with Vastuvidya Kushala Sri, Balakrishna Rao and Prof. D. L. Deshpande on the faculty.

The college had an intake of 21 students each for the Degree courses in Civil, Mechanical and Electrical branches of Engineering, under the then Travancore University.

With the establishment of the Directorate of Technical Education in the late 1950s, the college administration came under the direct control of the government.

The college was established on 3 July 1939 as a part of the erstwhile University of Travancore, Kerala, India.

The college campus is situated in Kulathoor near Sreekariyam, 13 km from Thiruvananthapuram Central (railway station).

[3] Regular BTech admissions to this college are based on All Kerala Engineering Entrance Examination.

There is Lateral Entry Scheme to admit diploma holders to the second year/third semester of the BTech courses to acquire a degree in engineering based on a state-level entrance examination.

The college is constantly top ranked due to its rich alumni support and heritage.

There was a proposal to convert CET to a Centre of Excellence, upgrading it to 'Kerala Institute of Technology (KIT)', so that a technical university can grow around it,[5] but the plan was later dropped to form a new separate single university for all engineering colleges in the state, named KTU.

The department of Chemistry of College of Engineering Trivandrum is also an approved research centre under University of Kerala.

Opportunities exist for candidates to do full-time as well as part-time research in the college with registration under APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University.

The admission to Ph.D degree is through entrance test & interview conducted by APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University once a year.

The fellowships for this Ph.D, limited in number is paid by either the APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University or Department of Higher Education, Government of Kerala.

College of Engineering, Trivandrum is also an approved Minor Centre under AICTE QIP (Quality Improvement Programme) providing opportunities to faculty members of the degree-level engineering institutions to improve their qualification by offering admissions to Master's and Ph.D. degree Programme.

[21] SAE INDIA CET regularly holds educative sessions on automotive technology- from bicycles and skateboards to trains and rockets.

In 2000, it hosted the Student Professional Awareness Conference (SPAC 2000) in Technopark with many notable speakers from the Information Technology domain.

One affinity group called IEEE Women in Engineering is running under this Student Branch and six societies.

The Innovation & Entrepreneurship Development Cell (IEDC) is a fully functioning student body registered under the Technology Business Incubator (TBI) of the College of Engineering Trivandrum.

NSS cet is now capable of conducting even more than 25 programmes a year in midst of a busy academic schedule.

Last year[clarification needed] NSS even came up with an alumni section, a rare thing for an organisation in college.

In addition to it activities within the college, Innovation Centre CET hosts EUREKA, a statewide project competition annually.

CET QC conducts weekly informal sessions and other regular quizzing events in college.

One of the most awaited annual quizzing event, Eroteme, is conducted by the QC and attended by quizzers in and out of the state.

CETALKS is the original in- house talk show of College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram.