Undergraduate Engineering 2024-2025

This course provides an introduction to the design and analysis techniques used within electronic engineering, and to the major active components (diodes and transistors).  The course opens with a description of charges, the forces between charges and the concept of electric fields. The second part of the course deals with semiconductor devices, opening with fundamental properties of doped semiconductors.  

The aim of the course is to introduce basic concepts of electrical & electronics within a context of general engineering. The topics covered are kept at an elementary level with the aim of providing the foundational material for subsequent courses at levels 1 and 2. The course adopts the philosophy of application oriented teaching. During each topic the students will be provided with examples of day-to-day devices. Topics covered include dc circuit analysis, electronic amplifiers, digital circuits, optoelectronics, and ac theory.

The course is designed to introduce the students to different methods of communication in the process of interchanging ideas and information. Oral presentation and writing of technical reports are introduced. The importing data from web-based and library-based sources will be integrated through information retrieval and investigative skills training. Professional ethics are covered on plagiarism, copyright and intellectual property. Engineering drawing skills and knowledge of relevant British and International Standards will be developed through intensive training in the use of computer aided design and modelling package, SolidWorks. Standard drawing formats including 3D depiction of stand alone parts and assemblies are covered.  

This course is aimed at those students who want to build confidence and skills working in mathematics. This is applies to both those who need to build knowledge and those who simply wish to revise and strengthen their existing knowledge.

Mathematics is fundamental tool in Engineering. This course will help develop an understanding of the meaning of the abstract mathematics and this, in turn, helps to improve speed and accuracy working with mathematical notation. Topics covered are listed in the Course Description.

Engineering design depends on materials being shaped, finished and joined together. Design requirements define the performance required of the materials. What do engineers need to know about materials to choose and use them successfully? They need a perspective of the world of materials. They need understanding of material properties. They need methods and tools to select the right material for the job. This course will help you develop knowledge and skills required for the successful selection and use of engineering materials. 

The course presents fundamental mathematical ideas useful in the study of Engineering. A major focus of the course is on differential and integral calculus. Applications to Engineering problems involving rates of change and averaging processes are emphasized. Complex numbers are introduced and developed. The course provides the necessary mathematical background for other engineering courses in level 2.

Engineering Mechanics is concerned with the state of rest or motion of objects subject to the action of forces.  The topic is divided into two parts:  STATICS which considers the equilibrium of objects which are either at rest or move at a constant velocity, and DYNAMICS which deals with the motion and associated forces of accelerating bodies.  The former is particularly applied to beams and truss structures. The latter includes a range of applications, such as car suspension systems, motion of a racing car, missiles, vibration isolation systems, and so on.

This course provides students with the opportunity to refresh and extend their knowledge to analyse the mechanical behaviour of engineering materials and structures. In particular, mechanical properties of materials, and 2D and 3D stresses and strains are examined, the effects of internal imperfections on the performance of materials under loading, brittle fracture, fatigue and non-destructive testing are discussed. The structural analysis of beams and columns, deflection and buckling, as well as design applications are also considered in the course.

The fluid mechanics section of the course begins with the material properties of fluids. This is followed by studying fluid statics and principles of fluid motion. Bernoulli’s equation is used to explain the relationship between pressure and velocity. The final fluids section introduces the students to incompressible flow in pipelines.

The thermodynamics section presents: the gas laws, including Van Der Waals’ equation; the first law of thermodynamics with work done, heat supply, and the definitions of internal energy and enthalpy. The second law is introduced including entropy through the Carnot cycle.

A general engineering course that provides insight into the two main conservation principles, mass and energy. Processes are usually described through block diagrams. This language, common to many disciplines in engineering, helps the engineer to look at their processes with an analytical view. Degree of freedom analysis is addressed, emphasising its importance to solve a set of linear equations that model fundamental balances of mass. Practical examples of Energy balances are displayed, bringing Thermodynamics to a practical level. Heat Transfer is introduced. Process control is introduced, explaining basic control techniques and concepts, i.e sensors, feedback, control loops and PID controllers.

This course follows Engineering Mathematics 1 in introducing all the mathematical objects and techniques needed by engineers.  It  has three parts:

• Matrices: definitions, operations, inverse and determinant; application to systems of linear equations.

• Ordinary differential equations: 1st order (linear and separable), 2nd order with constant coefficients, forced oscillations and resonance.

• Functions of two variables: partial derivatives and extrema, the chain rule, the heat equation and the wave equation.

A general engineering course that provides an insight into the principles of engineering design process, computer programming in MATLAB and its application in parametric study and basic design optimisation, environmental ethics and sustainability in the context of design, and Computer Aided Design (CAD) using Solidworks.  The course also includes hands-on exercises on the manufacture of simple parts using a variety of machine tools and joining processes.

This course provides students with an integrated development of methods for modelling, analysing and designing systems comprising electrical and mechanical components. In doing so it intends to emphasise to the students the similarity in behaviour between electrical and mechanical systems. The course aims to give an introduction to both electrical machines, circuit and systems, transformers, and similar mechanical systems like gearbox, vibrating system and principles of dynamics,  and thus provide the foundation material for several courses at level 3 .

Electronics systems are discussed from basic concepts of digital logic to highlights of embedded microcontrollers. The journey begins with the elementary building blocks of Boolean algebra (logic gates and flip-flops) that are used to design combinatorial/sequential logic circuits, e.g. implementing a simple calculator or a temperature control circuit. The design of complex system is addressed introducing embedded microcontrollers, discussing their core components (e.g. timers, memory) and required programming operations.

Hands-on lab sessions (and relative assignments) include software-based simulations and hardware implementation of systems that allow students to test and deepen their understanding of the subject.

This course is an introduction to the formation mechanisms and controls on formation of the three major rock groups: igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary. The relationship between plate tectonics and the petrogenesis of igneous and metamorphic rocks, including types and styles of volcanic eruptions will be addressed. The formation and fill of sedimentary basins and their importance in the accumulation of hydrocarbons is an integral part of the course.

This course is aimed principally at students interested in civil engineering and its focus is to familiarise students with the fundamental concepts involved in soil mechanics and engineering geology. The first course in the civil engineering programme includes the importance of soil mechanics in structural design. The main emphasis is on understanding the main principles of soil mechanics through the introduction of laboratory tests commonly used to obtain the engineering properties of different types of soil such as sand and clay. Discussion of the consequences of some soil failures (such as in the case of the Tower of Pisa) is also introduced.

The major topic of this course is an introduction to modern methods of elastic structural analysis. In this topic, direct, energy and matrix methods are jointly used to solve, initially, problems of the deformation of simple beams. The theorem of virtual work is introduced in the context of beams and frameworks.

The rigid-plastic analysis of beams is then introduced along with the upper bound theorem and their importance to engineering design.

This course is an introduction to Structural Design using steel, concrete and composite steel/concrete.

The emphasis is on the design of individual components – the ‘Structural Elements’ – these being members in tension, compression, bending – in either steel or reinforced concrete – and in the bolted and welded connections between steel members.

There is an extensive laboratory exercise testing reinforced and un-reinforced concrete to destruction.

It should be noted that students are also required to do the separate course EA3720, half of which consists of a 9 week Steel Design exercise.

This course introduces the theory of dynamics and the vibration of single and multi-degree of freedom systems.

This course consists of two quite separate halves.  The first is a 9 week Civil Engineering Design activity, which runs concurrently with the associated course EG3519 (Design of Structural Elements).   Generally there will be two half days of timetabled sessions in each of those 9 weeks.  The second half of the course is a one-week residential Field Surveying and Hydrology field trip, which usually takes place in the first week of the Easter break.  There will be a charge to students to cover the specific transport, food and accommodation costs associated with that field trip.

The aim of the course is to provide students with a basic understanding and concepts of control systems. The course starts by introducing basic concepts of feedback control systems using a number of practical examples. Mathematical modelling of physical systems and representing them in block diagrams with transfer functions are presented. Basic control system response characteristics (stability, transient response, steady state response) and analysis and design procedures are introduced using first and second order systems. Analysis of control systems using Routh-Hurwitz criterion, root locus, and Bode plot methods are considered.

How can the dynamic behaviour of a mechanical mass-spring-damper system be similar to an electrical resistance-capacitance-inductance circuit? Motivated by this question, this course introduces the signals – systems framework that helps in describing the dynamic behaviour of systems for a variety of inputs (signals).  Useful analysis tools both in the frequency- and the time-domain are also introduced. In the later part of the course, these concepts will be used to understand basic signal processing in the form of both analogue and digital filter design.

C programming is presented with an introduction to methods for the design of well-structured and maintainable computer programs.  The course begins by introducing the syntax and semantics of the C programming language.  This includes the use of structures and of pointers with a view to a later introduction to the C++ language.  Techniques for producing easily maintained and modifiable code are emphasised.  An introduction to elementary data structures (lists, stacks and queues) is included.  Practical activity includes the use of basic software development tools (debugging techniques, version control).  The course concludes with an introduction to the C++ programming language.

The course studies the systems for the generation, transmission and use of electrical energy.  The per-unit notation system is introduced. Basic approaches in the three phase AC systems analysis are introduced.  Three-phase induction and synchronous machines are studied, and a simple equivalent circuit for the machine is derived and used to explore the operating limitations of each type of the machine.  Modern power conversion methods are discussed for conversion between AC and DC.  This discussion includes power electronic switches and the basic topology of rectifiers, DC-DC converters and inverters.  The advantages of switching conversion techniques over traditional circuits are highlighted.

A short course teaching fundamentals of digital communications engineering. The course focuses on remote control of equipment. It starts with asynchronous data, and use with a GPS device (to identify location and time), then studies the Digital Multiplex (DMX) control bus (a standard in the live entertainment industry) followed by the bi-directional Remote Device Management (RDM) protocol.  It concludes with the synchronous the Controller Area Network (CAN) for industrial/transport applications.

Teaching will be supported by demonstrations of equipment and practical laboratory exercises.  Accessible to students of computer science and electrical/electronic engineering.

This course provides design, analysis and control of digital systems (hardware/Software) through practical implementation. This course involves three practical design projects. Each project relates with practical applications encounters in our daily life. The course begins with a discussion of different sensors commonly employed by the industry. The hardware aspects are explained with specific reference to the task of interfacing sensors to a microcontroller; the operation and programming of integrated systems is implemented using C++ code. The elements of writing well-structured software are introduced. Sustainability, environmental issue and ethics considerations are studied for embedded system design.

Digital systems design principles;
HW implementation of Combinational logic;
Clocked sequential systems and Finite State Machines;
Design, implementation and testing of a synchronous system;
Applications of Digital Systems in communications and robotics.

Modern engineering analysis relies on a wide range of analytical mathematical methods and computational techniques in order to solve a wide range of problems. The aim of this course is to equip students with the necessary skills to quantitatively investigate engineering problems. Examples applying the methods taught to practical situations from across the full range of engineering disciplines will feature heavily in the course.

One of the roles of an engineer is to ensure that engineering components perform in service as intended and do not fracture or break into pieces.  However, we know that sometimes engineering components do fail in service.  Course examines how we determine the magnitude of stresses and level of deformation in engineering components and how these are used to appropriately select the material and dimensions for such component in order to avoid failure. Focus is on using stress analysis to design against failure, and therefore enable students to acquire some of the fundamental knowledge and skills required for engineering design.

The course focuses, initially, on the major groups of solid materials – metals, ceramics, polymers, and provides an introduction to materials selection. Strengthening mechanisms in these systems and the relationship between microstructure and mechanical properties are highlighted. The main failure and degradation processes of materials in service, fracture, fatigue, creep and corrosion, are considered. The major welding and adhesive bonding processes are introduced, and structural integrity of welded joints is examined. Finally, the course gives a comprehensive introduction to composite materials and motivation for their use in current structural applications. Manufacturing of different types of composites is reviewed.

This course introduces the theory of dynamics and the vibration of single and multi-degree of freedom systems, and dynamics of rotating and reciprocating machinery.

The course begins introducing thermodynamic properties and reviewing first and second laws. The material is then taken forward into application in a focused module on production of power from heat which includes: steam power plants; internal-combustion and gas-turbine engines. This is followed by a module on refrigeration and liquefaction. The course continues with a detailed discussion of the applications of thermodynamics to flow processes including: duct flow of compressible fluids in pipes and nozzles; turbines; compression processes. The course concludes with a module on psychrometry which includes: humidity data for air-water systems; humidification & dehumidification systems.

Aimed at students interested in mechanical engineering and aims to equip students with the skills and knowledge required to take a design requirement/concept to a fully implemented product.  It will provide an overview of a multi-stage design methodology followed by procedures for the detailed design of various mechanical elements including gears, shaft and bearings.  These procedures will include design to resist fatigue failure and will be taught using an example product.  The course will include aspects of sustainability and choice of method for manufacture. Assessed through a series of group design exercises.

This course aims to introduce students to the concept of the petroleum system, demonstrating how all the elements are necessary for a conventional accumulation of hydrocarbons. It will deal particularly with the petroleum geology aspects of exploration and show how explorationists make predictions of hydrocarbon volumes in frontier areas. The course looks in detail at reservoir characterisations and the factors that influence the performance of hydrocarbon and geothermal reservoirs.

The process of drilling an oil and gas well will be outlined. We will look at the surface equipment, downhole technologies and associated safety issues. Drilling fluids, casing and cementing the well, directional drilling etc. will be investigated

This course presents an introduction to the theories that govern the flow of oil and gas through a reservoir rock. The mechanisms that drive the fluid flow through the reservoir and that control hydrocarbon production are described and discussed. Some ways of increasing hydrocarbon production are introduced. The course is intended for students on the honours petroleum engineering degree program and students will require a strong engineering, or physics background (to level 3) and a good grasp of engineering mathematics at level 3 (or equivalent).

This course provides experience of working in a team by carrying out a practical well engineering design.

The design will draw on theories and concepts from courses previously and/or currently being studied by the student. This course may be accompanied by lectures from practising engineers on professional aspects of petroleum engineering design and practice. Students will be encouraged to attend relevant local meetings of professional engineering societies and institutions.

This course introduces students to the fundamentals of well fluid and reservoir testing and the implications for reservoir characterisation. The theory of reservoir pressure testing is introduced, testing methods examined and some of the standard analysis techniques are explored using both “hand calculations” and industry standard software.

The course aims to give a thorough treatment of the real PVT behaviour exhibited by multicomponent, multiphase systems by giving candidates the knowledge required to determine: a) the heat and/or work required to bring about a given change of state; b) the change of state resulting from a transfer of energy in the form of heat and/or work, or as a result of a chemical reaction. To build on the knowledge of process simulation gained in Level 2 and emphasize the importance of selecting an appropriate fluid package.

This course focuses on applied momentum, heat, and mass transport in engineering problems.  It demonstrates how fundamental design equations can be derived for a wide range of real engineering problems (e.g. nuclear fuel rods, coal combustion, radiation shielding, electrical heaters, toothpaste etc).  This course makes it clear that engineering is the art of applying mathematics to the real world and develops the tools required to tackle a wide range of challenges.

The analytical results of transport phenomena are demonstrated in simple systems before discussing more complex systems, such as multiphase flow, which require the use of semi-empirical correlations to solve.

Starting from previously attained knowledge and understanding of equilibrium, kinetics, thermochemistry and material and energy balancing on reactive processes, the course sets about developing skills in the design and sizing of industrial chemical reactors.  Batch and continuous reactors of different types are covered with design equations being derived from fist principles for a variety of systems with different degrees of complexity.  The course focuses on homogeneous reactions, design for single and parallel reactions, reactor modelling for non-ideal flow, temperature and pressure effects and chemical reaction process safety.  Other elements of chemical reaction engineering are introduced.

This course covers the fundamental concepts of equilibrium and rate-based analysis of separation processes, and gives examples of relevant separation processes. It introduces the concept and analysis of a unit operation as applied to separation processes and demonstrates the analysis of relevant separation processes by applying mass and energy balance methods.

Chemical Engineering Design takes the learning from the first two and a half years of the degree and ties it together whilst formally introducing student to the overall process of chemical engineering design.

Employability and professional attributes are embedded in the course with design engineers (students) being line managed.  Professional attributes such as time management, project management, communication and team working are developed through the course. Within the course, design engineers will also significantly develop

This course aims to develop students? ability in process simulation, broadly, in two areas: 1) the use of commercially available steady-state process simulation engines; 2) the development of process models and simulations from first principles using other applications such as Matlab, MathCad and Excel. In achieving these aims, the course will allow students to further develop their skillset in Process Thermodynamics, Process Analysis and Chemical Engineering Computer Applications.

Course extends the basic stiffness method of analysis developed in the pre-requisite courses. Fundamental principles of the stiffness method of analysis, with automatic assembly of the stiffness matrix for rigid jointed plane frames and space structures, are presented in some detail. Elastic instability of frames, and the design of continuous steel beams and portal frames using plastic methods will be undertaken. Analysis of flat plates and slabs using yield line theory, and an introduction to shells also covered. The course concludes with a brief outline of the finite element method of analysis, with computer-based applications forming an important practical component.

This course will deal with various aspects related to:

• Surface Waters: sources of water pollution and their impact on aqueous environment and public health, water quality and water supply, wastewater treatments;
• Soil and Groundwater: groundwater flow, groundwaters contamination, contaminants' subsurface transport mechanisms, sustainable land-groundwater management;
• Solid Wastes: sources of solid wastes, characterisation and treatment of solid waste, integrated solid waste management;
• Air Pollution and Control: air pollutants and sources, air pollution meteorology, pollutant dispersion in the air, air pollution control.

It aims to equip students with the main concepts of foundation design where the concepts of pile foundations, retaining walls and slope stability are explored.  The course gives a student adequate tools to understand the design approaches associated with different types of soil.  Geotechnical standard code, Eurocode 7 is introduced and discussed.  In addition principles of ground water flow and the main problems related to its sustainable management are discussed.  This course aims for a student to reach an adequate level in soil mechanics and foundation engineering as the basis for the training of a professional civil or structural engineer.

The course develops topics in hydraulics of interest to civil engineers.  It demonstrates the link between well-developed theoretical studies and their practical application in river, environmental, offshore and coastal engineering.  The course begins with water wave theory with particular application to coastal and offshore engineering.  This is followed by consideration of boundary layer development over a flat plate and curved surfaces, leading to boundary layer separation and forces on immersed bodies.  These topics are also part of the EM40JJ Fluid Dynamics course.  The second part of the course is mainly concerned with the analysis of open channel and river flows and sediment transport.  The mechanics of open channel flow are first addressed, mainly focussed on steady, rapidly and gradually varied flow problems applied to artificial and natural channels.  This is followed by consideration of fundamental aspects of sediment transport, including threshold criteria and the calculation of bed load and suspended load transport.

This course is a follow-on course to the Level 3 Course on Design of Structural Elements (EA3519) (and to some extent the Level 3 Civil Engineering Design (EA3720)).  It covers four main areas:

a)       Design of Industrial Buildings in Structural Steelwork

b)       Design of steel-framed multi-storey buildings

c)        Design of domestic buildings using masonry and timber

d)       Design of pre-stressed concrete

The course is a variant of the existing EA40JE course, to be made available only to students on the Graduate Apprenticeship in BEng in Civil Engineering, and forms part of the Level 4 Honours Programme.  The variation covers the same Learning Outcomes, content and assessment as the existing EA40JE course, which is being taught in the same half session as this variant.  What changes is that the delivery model is a blended model, whatever the state of Covid Lockdown.

The course is a variant of the existing EA40JF course, to be made available onlyto students on the Graduate Apprenticeship in BEng in Civil Engineering, and forms part of the Level 4 Honours Programme.  The variation covers the same Learning Outcomes, content and assessment as the existing EA40JF course, which is being taught in the same half session as this variant.  What changes is that the delivery model is a blended model, whatever the state of Covid Lockdown.

The course is designed to provide the student with the opportunity to carry out a project in an approved European institution by pursuing a substantial and realistic exercise in the practice of engineering at or near a professional level, and to further enhance the student's critical and communication skills.

This course is a concentrated design and reporting exercise which requires application of project management and team liaison skills in addition to technical design ability. Specific exercises will include interdisciplinary aspects and will relate to design requirements arising from the professional activities of the School of Engineering or its industrial contacts. Written and oral presentations form part of the course.

The course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to carry out a project in an approved European institution by pursuing a substantial and realistic exercise in the practice of engineering at or near a professional level, and to further enhance the student's critical and communication skills.

The course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to carry out a project in an approved European institution by pursuing a substantial and realistic exercise in the practice of engineering at or near a professional level, and to further enhance the student's critical and communication skills.

This course covers several advanced topics in the dynamics of structural and mechanical systems. The aims of the course are to develop analytical approaches to rigid body and flexible continuous systems with a view to the prediction and understanding of the behaviour of engineering components in a dynamic environment, to familiarise the students with the concept of nonlinearity and analyse and interpret the nonlinear dynamic behaviour of engineering systems and structures.

This course provides a detailed overview of oil and gas field development from discovery to abandonment with particular focus on the decisions made prior to first production. The roles of uncertainties, economics considerations, safety and environmental impact on the design choices are explored.

Separation processes are essential to many industries including pharmaceutical and chemical industries, e.g. once the drug molecules are synthesised in a reactor they need to be separated in pure form from other by-products before they can be used.  This course adds breadth to students' curriculum in the core area of separation processes. Familiarises students with particulate solids and characterisation. Further, provides a broad knowledge and understanding of physical separation processes including filtration, sedimentation, centrifugation. By the end students should have a knowledge and understanding of an ability to analyse design a wide variety of physical separation unit operations

This course follows on from the Level 3 Design of Structural Elements course and the Level 4 Advanced Structural Design course, extending the earlier concepts into areas relevant to Offshore Structural Design. The course aim is to introduce the student to some specialised fields of conceptual structural engineering design in an offshore context, and to develop confidence in these areas.  The course divides into current main topics of offshore structures and involves hand calculations with the aid of spreadsheets and advanced computational modelling for accurate loading, analysis and design.

This course covers both continuous-time and discrete-time (Digital) state-space control of linear systems. It then extends these concepts to nonlinear system modelling and control.

The course aims to provide understanding of main principles and techniques underpinning computational fluid dynamics (CFD) combining numerical methods with practical experience using appropriate software. The course develops a foundation for understanding, developing and analysing successful simulations of fluid flows applicable to a broad range of applications.

Students will examine the societal grand challenges of water, food, medicine and energy (electricity and heat) to thread together the themes of environment, sustainability and ethics.

The course also aims to provide graduates with a versatile framework for evaluating and developing business models which should prove invaluable for both potential entrepreneurs and future senior executives.

The need for understanding dynamics in modern structural engineering arises from the fact that structures are often subjected to dynamic loads such as waves, wind, earthquake, blast and impacts. The structural engineer must therefore be able to understand and quantify dynamic loads and their effects. This course reviews the fundamentals of structural dynamics and explains more advanced concepts and methods (including analytical and numerical), as well as their applications to practical design and analysis problems. The theoretical concepts are illustrated by worked examples and numerous tutorial problems and assignments will enable students to gain confidence in their use.

Ever wondered how Excel is able to draw an optimal line through a set of points?  This course looks at how typical engineering problems that cannot be described mathematically (or are difficult to do so) can be solved so that the optimal solution is found.  The course contains a range of examples to show how the techniques are applied to real world problems in different engineering disciplines.  The course will show how to develop computational algorithms from scratch, with a fundamental understanding of how the algorithms function, both mathematically and then in real time on a computer.

Real-life contemporary engineering projects and challenges invariably require inputs from, and collaboration amongst, multiple disciplines. Furthermore, legal and economic aspects, as well as safety, team work and project management must also be successfully navigated through. This course enables students to immerse themselves in a realistic, multidisciplinary, multifaceted and complex team design project that will draw on their previous specialist learning and also enable gaining and practicing new skills of direct relevance to their professional career.

Advanced materials underpin many industry sectors and are viewed as one of the key enabling technologies that can help address environmental, economic and social challenges the society is facing. Lightweight materials such as composites applied to vehicles, structures and devices can help reduce energy consumption and emissions, and increase energy efficiency. The aim of this course is introduce students to the mechanical behaviour of composite materials and the design of structures made of composites.

This course introduces the water cycle and the need for wastewater treatment. Biological wastewater treatment is covered in detail with focus on: activated sludge process for carbon and nitrogen removal and anaerobic digestion. Air pollution control is also covered in detail.  The course focuses on process design based on mass balance, heat balances and kinetics.