Electronic and Electrical Engineering (Study Abroad)

This module introduces time and frequency domain representations of analogue circuits. It examines the principles of analogue integrated circuit and filter design, including linear network transfer functions.

The module will cover a wide range of topics, and will include a look at transistors and transistor circuits for integrated circuits, along with the fundamentals of linear continuous time filters. Additionally, students will gain an understanding of the design of passive and active circuits for synthesis of transfer functions, parasitics and filter precision.

Students will develop the ability to analyse circuits in the time and frequency domains, along with the ability to evaluate fundamental analogue circuit building blocks. They will also gain the knowledge required to describe the composition of active and passive filters.

Students will learn how to process signals using techniques such as Fourier transforms, sampling, discrete time and space domains, and digital filtering, putting their knowledge into practice in MATLAB software which equips students with comprehensive knowledge of digital code used in engineering environments.

This module develops students’ ability to analyse engineering problems by creating and designing solutions to meet real-world industry needs through a combination of critical thinking and hands-on practical skills.

Students will be equipped with a wide range of skills to determine the most appropriate sampling and filtering methods for processing signals whilst also developing their ability to write computer programmes for data analysis, creating recommendations and designing solutions.

The module involves students completing an individual project. They are responsible for the research, management and the design/practical element of the project. They will be assigned a project title and project supervisor who will guide and advise throughout the project. The module aims to give students an in-depth knowledge of a specific, specialist area of their subject. They will learn professional software, design or experimental skills consistent with subject.

Students can choose a specific area of development from a vast range of possible outcomes, and they will work towards their personal goal. Students can gain knowledge and understanding of scientific principles and methodology necessary to underpin their education in their engineering discipline, to enable appreciation of its scientific and engineering context, and to support their understanding of historical, current, and future developments and technologies.

Alternatively, students may choose to develop the ability to apply quantitative methods and computer software relevant to their engineering discipline, in order to solve engineering problems. There will also be an opportunity for students to learn and apply quantitative methods and computer software relevant to their engineering discipline, in order to solve engineering problems. Students can also develop an understanding of customer and user needs and the importance of considerations such as aesthetics, along with workshop and laboratory skills.

This module provides an introduction to integrated circuit engineering and integrated circuits, including key methods for their design, fabrication and testing. In this regard, the module will examine the principles of very large scale integrated circuit engineering and the digital design process. Among a vast range of topics, this module will address CMOS circuit engineering, and will focus on MOSFET short channel effects, switch model, digital design metrics and the design of logic elements.

Additionally, students will become familiar with arithmetic building blocks, memory elements classification, array structure and timing issues.

Students will develop the ability to analyse simple performance metrics and will derive circuits to implement simple functions, and will learn how to use an industrial tool to model, analyse and construct digital circuits.

This module introduces the fundamental components of optical communication and wireless systems and information theory, including the physical propagation of signals, electromagnetism and signal analysis. Students will learn the theory of using optoelectronics and radio waves for telecommunications, and will examine the main types of antenna and their properties. The module offers a rounded overview of optoelectronics, including optical communication systems, optical components and optical sources. A portion on wireless communications will introduce electromagnetic spectrum, elements of radio waves propagation, transmitter and receiver.

Students will also gain knowledge of link budget, types of wireless networks, and antennas, in addition to revisions of information theory and modulation. Additionally, students will discover access, and system case studies, which will discuss internet fibre cables backbone, radio and TV broadcasting.

In addition to this, students will gain the level of knowledge required to define the main optical components in a communication system. They will be able to explain the fundamentals of wireless systems, transmitters and receivers, and will carry out calculations on radio transmission antennas and coding. Ultimately, students will be able to explain the reasons for the design choices made in a variety of communications systems.

This module aims to equip students with comprehensive knowledge and understanding of power electronics and applications by learning methods of converting and inverting voltage signals and how to use them to drive electric motors. As electric vehicles and renewable sources of power are becoming increasingly important, the module will also cover applications in electric power utilities and renewable power, including wind and solar.

Students will develop an understanding of scientific principles and methodology of power semiconductor devices, power electronic converters, dc/ac motor drives and the applications and needs for high power electronic switches/converters in the electric power utility industry.

On completion of this module, students will be equipped with industry knowledge to apply their skills to meet real world engineering needs with confidence and professional and ethical responsibility.

This module introduces the KL025Z board with ARM Cortex M0+ family of micro-controllers and supporting hardware and software. It provides several practical exercises for the understanding of the relevant function of the processors and one major application of the MCU for a control task. Students will gain hands-on experience in interfacing microcontrollers to signals and motor drives, and writing programs to achieve specific objectives in Assembler and in C++.

Additionally, students will be able to use web-based aids for programming MCUs, and will gain the knowledge required to choose a particular device, integrate it into a system, and write working programs. Students will gain an awareness of the implications of timing and memory constraints, and will develop an appreciation the benefit of simulators, debuggers and emulators.

Students are provided with the opportunity to experience live projects over a significant period of time, working in multidisciplinary groups and in a team project environment. They will bring specialist knowledge from their own degree disciplines for the benefit of developing a multidisciplinary solution to the project being undertaken.

The group projects are typically developed in partnership with industry collaborators or, are based on research activity within the School of Engineering. This ensures that they are at the cutting edge of research and/or have an industrial focus.

Students will develop the ability to critically analyse and evaluate a project brief, providing input based on their individual degree specialisation such as nuclear, mechanical or mechatronics. Students will implement a project management system for documenting and tracking, the system will require the agreement of time-constrained deliverables that can be changed over time. They will also create a fully justified design brief for a product, process or service that is underpinned by specialist knowledge, and takes account of a critical engineering analysis of the topic under consideration.

Additionally, students will produce a working prototype, product or process that takes account of and incorporates subject specific knowledge and is consistent with the commercial drivers of industrial stakeholders. They will also demonstrate the ability to collect, store, analyse and recall large sets of data or results that can be interpreted by all members of the multidisciplinary group. Finally, an understanding of issues such as health and safety, risk, ethics, environment, National/European/International standards and other regulatory frameworks that are subject specific will be developed and must be adhered to.

This module aims to familiarise students with the issues involved in starting up and running a company in a technological area, and to introduce the concept of entrepreneur as a transformational leader. Work placements will allow students to develop an appreciation of engineering problems within an industrial context.

Students will participate in a company-based problem solving or a design project, and will improve their understanding of a particular technological problem depending on the nature of their company placement. Additionally, students will gain a theoretical basis of operations management, strategy and strategic development, accounting, customer value and marketing, as well as managing human resources. The module will enhance students’ ability to carry out basic financial analysis for example, to forecast the company's future performance, and will provide them with a theoretical basis and practical experience of problem solving and teamwork. Finally, students will gain a theoretical basis and some experience of the Human Resources aspects of business.

For MEng Mechanical Engineering students, this module is core for those choosing to follow either the Design Pathway, the Energy & Resources Pathway or the Materials and Manufacturing Pathway.

This module introduces students to Master's level study. Students are provided with the initial skills and guidance to get started on their projects (individual for MSc and in teams for MEng) and they will be introduced to the Department's system for ordering components. MEng students will receive their team brief prior to meeting with their supervisor, during which they will gain a good understanding of the full scope of the project and will discuss approaches to the topic set. They will also organise themselves into suitable roles within their team, and will be able to use the Department's ordering system.

Students will be introduced to various aspects of team working such as methods, problems and pitfalls. They will also discover MATLAB and Simulink revision sessions, and will participate in information searching.

This course provides students with comprehensive knowledge and understanding of electrical power system control, modelling and simulation. It develops understanding of scientific principles and methodology of power control, load flow, transient performance and distribution generation systems. Finally, it provides the opportunity to students to use their knowledge and understanding to design inverters to connect PV panels / wind turbines to the grid.

This module focuses on design methods for distributed circuits. Students will develop an understanding of RF transmission line theory by considering impedance matching, S-parameters, and Smith charts, as well as RF measurements and detection. They will also explore high frequency circuit design, which includes RF amplifier and filter design, noise calculations, and applications of RF components.

There is a strong practical element to the module that involves students using Microwave Office to build and test a microwave amplifier. This provides students with practical skills in high frequency electronics and related fields.

In completing these tasks, students will develop an understanding of the impact, importance and application of high frequency electronics in the field of communications, remote control and wireless interface.

By the end of this module, students will be able to design RF circuits using analytical techniques and computational design software including filters and amplifiers; design impedance matching networks; and understand high frequency distributed circuits.

Pre-requisites of this module include BSc degree level understanding of AC Theory.

This module introduces students to the design and application of intelligent control systems, with a focus on modern algorithmic, computer aided design methods. Starting from the well known, proportional integral algorithm, essential concepts such as digital and optimal control are introduced using straight forward algebra and block diagrams. The module addresses the needs of students across the engineering discipline who would like to advance their knowledge of automatic control and optimisation, with practical worked examples from robotics, industrial process control and environmental systems, among other areas.

Students will gain an understanding of various hierarchical architectures of intelligent control and will be able to analyse and design discrete time models and digital control systems. Additionally, they will gain the necessary knowledge to design optimal model based control systems and identify mathematical models from engineering data. Students will also learn how to design and evaluate system performance for practical applications.

This module provides an understanding and the skills necessary for the interfacing and integrating of complex electro-mechanical computer control systems. Students will develop an awareness of future developments in interfacing technology. Students will gain an understanding of the principles of digital and analogue interfacing, and will be able to define and interpret interfacing requirements and device specifications.

Additionally, students will gain the level of knowledge required to design appropriate interface hardware, whilst resolving issues of signal amplitude, level shifting, polarity, impedance and drive, and using passive and active circuitry. They will also experience and resolve associated problems of power supply requirements, grounding and noise, and develop an awareness of EMC issues relating to the interface and external equipment. Finally, students will observe and understand the effect of timing and sample rate on typical input/output functions and control algorithms.

This module introduces students to the recent advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cutting-edge deep learning methods. Students will learn how to examine the technologies that apply to various aspects of engineering, such as searching and planning algorithms, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning, deep neural networks, convolution neural networks, recurrent neural networks, and generative adversarial network.

The module aims to equip students with key knowledge and understanding of their application in industrial robots, smart manufacturing, predictive maintenance, design optimisation and digital twin. Students will also learn how to implement the machine learning algorithms by practicing this in our labs, keeping the legal, social and ethical considerations in mind when applying machine learning technologies.

On successful completion of this module, students will be able to demonstrate the impact of emerging machine learning technologies by understanding the underlying principles of machine learning, typical algorithms, and deep learning methods. Students will be able to analyse real-world problems, such as design optimisation, manufacturing process optimisation, fault diagnosis and prognosis, and be able to design machine learning models to solve them.

This module addresses various topics concerning smart systems. Students will explore the principles of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and microfluidics in the context of system-on-chip and system-in-package technology, using optical and fluidic elements. Essentially, students will develop an understanding of scaling laws fabrication processes, metrology and inspection, in addition to specific technical information including the design of micro mechanics and bio-MEMS, packaging and integration technologies, microfluidics and embedded test strategies.

Practical sessions will explore the COMSOL based design of a fluidic system, in addition to electrostatic switch and microfluidic particles, Microfluidic technologies and bio-sensing will be introduced through lectures and core practical classes, with case studies and examples sourced from previous European projects, partners and assembly processes, to ensure an industrial focus.

On completion of this module, students will understand the use of nanocharacterisation tools and will be able to discuss various micro and nanofabrication tools available for making devices, equipped with a working knowledge of the fundamentals of microelectronics and their scaling laws in electrical, mechanics and assembly fields.