Engineering

Teaching is provided through a mixture of lectures, practicals, projects and supervisions, and in Year 1 you can typically expect around 22 hours of teaching each week.

The broad foundation of the first two years (Part I) gives you an understanding of the basic principles of a wide range of subjects, together with an appreciation of the external pressures under which these ideas are likely to be applied.

In Year 1, you take four papers and sit a three-hour written exam in each:

• Mechanical Engineering
• Structures and Materials
• Electrical and Information Engineering
• Mathematical Methods

You also undertake several coursework activities and projects, on topics including structural design, product design, presentation skills, drawing, laboratory experiments and computer programming.

You study eight papers on core subjects at a more advanced level:

• Mechanics
• Structures
• Materials
• Thermofluid Mechanics
• Electrical Engineering
• Information Engineering
• Mathematical Methods
• Business Economics

In the third term, you select two topics from seven engineering disciplines plus a language option. These topics emphasise engineering design and introduce the more specialised work of the third year.

Coursework includes laboratory experiments and computing exercises. Several experiments are linked around the common theme of earthquake-resistant structures. A highlight of the year is the compulsory integrated design project where you work in teams to design and build robot vehicles which are then tested against each other.

Professional specialisation begins in earnest and you study 10 papers from an extensive portfolio, from which a core is associated with one of the following disciplines:

• Aerospace and Aerothermal Engineering
• Bioengineering
• Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering
• Electrical and Electronic Engineering
• Electrical and Information Sciences
• Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
• Information and Computer Engineering
• Instrumentation and Control
• Mechanical Engineering

Alternatively, you can choose (General) Engineering, in which there are fewer restrictions on paper combinations.

In the final term, you choose two from a variety of design and computer-based projects, projects in a foreign language or a surveying project. A few students graduate after three years with the BA Honours degree.

Progression to Part IIB is dependent on achievement in Parts IB and IIA, and successful completion of Part IIB leads to the BA and MEng degrees.

In Part IIB, further specialisation is possible and you select eight papers from nearly 100 options which vary each year. These papers benefit from the Department’s research and are taught by experts in the particular field. As a result you graduate with a Masters-level appreciation of theory and practice in your chosen area.

A major project occupies about half of your time throughout the final year. Many projects are associated with current Department research and have direct industrial input and application. Recent projects include:

• super-tall timber high-rise design
• nanotubes and graphene for polymer optoelectronics
• a fitness predictor for racing cyclists
• use of thorium in a PRISM reactor
• whole-system design of tidal turbines
• remarkably shaped structures
• preliminary design of a solar electric vehicle
• strategy development for fuel restricted F1 races
• medical imaging and 3D computer graphics
• the aerodynamics of power kites