Electronic and Information Engineering with a Year Abroad

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 years three and four.

The fourth year is spent abroad at a leading partner institution.

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 40% in each of the examined modules, and an average of 40% across 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 and Systems
• 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 55%. In addition you must average at least 55% in examinations, and in practical work.

There may be a minimum level of language ability specified for placements in particular universities abroad appropriate to their teaching language.

• 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.

You will choose eight modules in total, including 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 includes a six-month industrial placement (as an alternative to an internal project). The placement runs from April to September, allowing you to tackle significant industrial projects that help you 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

In your fourth year you will complete a year abroad at a leading partner institution.

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

Subject to satisfactory performance in the third year of your MEng, you can choose to complete your final year at a major engineering institution abroad.

On your year abroad you will complete modules, an individual project and a dissertation at your host institution.

Students have previously studied at the following leading institutions abroad:

• Ecole Polytecnique, France
• ETH Zurich, Switzerland
• KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
• KU Leuven, Belgium
• National University of Singapore
  
• ParisTech, France
• RWTH Aachen, Germany
• TU Delft, the Netherlands
• University of California, United States
• University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Italy