Course description
Course overview
Electrical and electronic engineering at City has a long-standing tradition of excellence. The course provides a sound foundation for people wishing to pursue a career in electrical engineering, communications, control systems, robotics or senor systems, through a diverse range of theoretical skills and practical experience, presented in the context of real applications and design experience.
Course content
Year 1 and Year 2
The fundamental principles of engineering and applied physics that underpin the design of electrical and electronic equipment are studied in the first two years and are common to all courses in electrical and electronic engineering.
This provides the background and tools for more in-depth study or specialisation in the final year.
The first two years of the course include modules fundamental to all branches of engineering while providing an essential insight into process engineering, design and computing, as well as providing specialised Electrical and Electronic Engineering courses. The fundamental modules will cover topics such as:
• Mathematics
• Engineering science
• Computer technology and programming
• Circuit theory
• Analogue and digital electronics
• Signals and systems
In addition to this, engineers require managerial skills, the ability to communicate effectively, a good measure of human understanding and an awareness of the economic, environmental and social implications of their activity. Our modules are designed to provide excellent training in all these areas.
Between your second and final years of the BEng, you can opt to do an industrial placement. Another option is to spend a year studying in North America or in Europe.
Final year
The electronic and engineering degree course offers a choice of options in the final year in addition to compulsory core modules. This enables students to tailor their final year studies to their own interests and/or career aspirations. The prerequisites for all final year options will have been satisfied through study in the previous years.
It is clearly important that each student should select the set of options that will be most conducive to serious and enjoyable study in the final year. If this is done it is a common observation that students graduate from one or more class with better than predicted results.
In addition to core electrical and electronic engineering courses such as:
• Signal processing
• Real time and embedded systems
• Systems engineering and design
You will have the opportunity to choose from a wide range of advanced specialist topics, such as:
• Control systems design
• Digital image processing
• Optoelectronics
• Linear and non-linear systems
• Optimisation and optimal control
• Optical communications
In the final year of the course all students are required to undertake a project. This is often associated with the design, construction and costing of an electrical device to satisfy a given specification, or it may be a more fundamental investigation connected with one of our research groups interests. Students are thus given an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to utilise the theoretical and practical knowledge they have gained on the course. When engaged on projects students usually work alone, normally working the equivalent of more than one day per week in the laboratory. Recent student projects include the design of advanced process control systems, image-based lane following in autonomous vehicle navigation, neural networks for financial time series forecasting and optical fibres instrumentation.
Teaching and assessment
Teaching
The course is mainly taught by staff from the School of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences. The course also includes lectures from consultants and experts from the industrial sector who explain how technologies are currently being used in industry to solve real world problems. The course is taught in formal lectures, seminars and tutorials, supplemented by an engineering applications course, involving laboratory and group projects.
Assessment
The course is assessed through examinations, coursework and laboratory reports. The final degree mark is based on one third of the second year and two thirds of the third year.
Professional placement and study abroad
Placement year (optional)
Students are strongly encouraged to seek placements after their second year through the industrial placement officer. The placement will give students the opportunity to learn more about industry, take on graduate level responsibilities and in some cases work as part of a multinational work force. Students will receive a salary and many go on to be re-employed by their placement company when they graduate.
