Electronic and Information Engineering

Modules shown are for the current academic year, and are subject to change depending on your year of entry.

You will study core modules in years one and two, before selecting optional modules in the third and fourth years.

Some of the core modules are delivered jointly with students on the Electrical and Electronic Engineering courses, others are specifically designed for Electronic and Information Engineering students, and some are taught by the Department of Computing.

In the first year, you follow twelve core modules, supported by study groups and experiments in electrical and computer laboratories.

You will learn how to program in C and become familiar with software design, programming concepts and tool use – skills that will transfer to any programming language/environment that you encounter.

You will take part in a group project that allows you to perform image and video processing on a configurable hardware board. There is no processor, only a Field Programmable Gate Array. This will enable you to carry out high performance parallel processing by essentially building your own processor designed to process your own algorithm and design a game. Your project is assessed by report and demonstration.

In order to pass the first year, you must achieve at least 40% in each of the examined modules, and an average of 40% across your practical work.

• Analysis of Circuits
• Digital Electronics 1
• Introduction to Signals and Communications
• Software Engineering 1: Introduction to Computing
• Software Engineering 1: Algorithms and Data Structures
• Introduction to Computer Architecture
• Mathematics I (E-stream and I-stream)
• User-centred Information Systems
• Professional Engineering
• Computing Lab
• Electronics Lab
• Group Design Project

In the second year, you continue with the common programme of study within Electronic and Information Engineering, taking 14 core modules.

Your second year project is a four-day IBM Computer Architecture Workshop, run by staff from IBM and Imperial. This will give you the opportunity to apply your understanding of systems architecture, databases, middleware, operating systems and network hardware and software to a real IT systems challenge.

In order to pass the second year, you must achieve at least 40% in each of the examined modules, except Mathematics II where the pass mark is 50%. In addition you must average at least 50% in examinations, and 40% in practical work.

• Databases
• Computer Networks and Distributed Systems
• Digital Electronics II
• Communication Systems
• Signals and Linear Systems
• Mathematics II
• Algorithms and Complexity
• Software Engineering 2: Object-oriented Software Engineering
• Computer Architecture II
• Language Processors
• Feedback Systems
• Computing Lab
• Electronics Lab
• Architecture Workshop

In the third year you start to design your degree course to fit your interests and skills, in consultation with your personal tutor, by choosing advanced subjects from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and the Department of Computing.

The year begins with a choice of modules, before beginning a six-month industrial placement.

You will choose eight modules in total, at least one from both Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Computing, and one module in humanities or business.

In order to pass the third year, you must achieve an average of 40% across the academic year.

The third year of our MEng degree is structured to include a six-month industrial placement as part of your degree (as an alternative to an internal project). The placement runs from April to September, allowing you to tackle significant industrial projects that help develop skills in solving real engineering problems, and provide invaluable experience of engineering as it is really practiced.

The industrial placement is supervised by a member of staff from the company you will be working for and a member of staff from the Department. It must be related to your degree in technical, business or commercial content. Departmental staff will help you set and agree objectives for your placement, which is assessed by a written and oral report.

Students have previously enjoyed placement opportunities with:

• Altera
• Bang & Olufsen
• Dialog Semiconductors
• Goldman Sachs
• IBM
• Ocado Technology

As an alternative to the placement, you can do a group project (6-8 people) during the summer term. The group acts as a technical consultant to a brief provided by an industrial client. The project will involve the specification, design, implementation and testing of a pre-production prototype of a new product or technical solution.

• Communication Systems
• Digital System Design
• VHDL and Logic Synthesis
• Digital Signal Processing
• Advanced Signal Processing
• Control Engineering
• Mathematics for Signals and Systems
• Artificial Intelligence
• Communication Networks
• Real-time Digital Signal Processing

• Advanced Databases
• Computer Vision
• Graphics
• Custom Computing
• Robotics
• Simulation and Modelling
• Introduction to Bioinformatics
• Operations Research
• Concurrent Programming

You will also choose to do one of the following, as part of your eight choices:

• Imperial Horizons
• Business for Professional Engineers and Scientists

The fourth year continues to encourage students to specialise by choosing modules to suit interests and skills.

In the fourth year you will undertake an individual project and select seven modules.

In order to pass the fourth year and graduate with an honours degree, you must acheive at least 40% across the academic year and at least 40% in the group project/industrial placement, module average and individual project.

The project provides you with the opportunity to demonstrate independence and originality, to plan and organise a large project over a long period, and to put into practice some of the techniques you have learnt throughout the course. It should be the most satisfying and inspiring piece of work in your degree.

You will choose a total of seven modules, with one humanities or business-related module, and at least one choice from electrical and electronic engineering, and another from computing.

There are 30 optional modules available, and the list below gives an idea of what will be available:

• Coding Theory
• Communication Theory
• Computation and Networks
• Digital Signalling Processing and Imaging
• Embedded, Linear, and Discrete Systems
• Information Theory
• Integrated Circuit Design
• Optical and Wireless Communications
• Stability and Sustainability of Systems
• Robotics

• Network and Web Security
• Advanced Computer Architecture
• Machine Learning
• Advanced Computer Graphics
• Computational Neurodynamics
• Computational Finance
• Parallel Algorithms
• Performance Analysis
• Complexity
• Argumentation and Multi-agent Systems
• Software Engineering for Industry
• Computing for Optimal Decisions
• Intelligent Data and Probabilistic Inference

You may choose an additional engineering or computing module from below, to total eight module choices.

You will also choose to do one of the following, as part of your seven choices:

• Imperial Horizons
• Business for Professional Engineers and Scientists