The rapid development of fields such as aerospace exploration, insitu medical diagnosis, and consumer electronics has created an urgent need for high-performance and miniaturized optical imaging systems. Computational optics imaging technology, through the co-design of optical systems and image reconstruction algorithms, shifts the task of compensating for some of the image degradation caused by aberrations from the front-end optical hardware to the back-end computational processing, thereby significantly reducing the size, weight and cost of the system while maintaining imaging performance. This article systematically reviews recent advances in lightweight and simplified computational optical imaging achieved by the Computational Optics Group at the Institute of Precision Optical Engineering, Tongji University. The reviewed topics cover computational imaging system design, image reconstruction, and hardware-aware algorithm optimization for edge deployment. Particular emphasis is placed on three representative prototypes, including a single-lens infrared computational imaging system, an all-aluminum off-axis three-mirror freeform computational imaging prototype with relaxed manufacturing tolerances, and a neural array meta-imaging system. This review can provide a reference for the engineering implementation and performance evaluation of lightweight and simplified computational optical imaging technology.