Helsinki University of Technology is the leading institute of engineering education and research in Finland. Situated on a campus in Otaniemi (Espoo), some 10 km west of the city of Helsinki, it consists of twelve departments, eleven research institutes and ten separate institutions. The faculties contain approximately 90 laboratories with about 10000 undergraduate and 2500 graduate students.

The Materials Physics Laboratory is one of the seven laboratories of the Department of Engineering Physics and Mathematics. The number of undergraduate students enrolled at the department is about 800. The laboratory was established essentially in its present form in 1973.