Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Mathematics is the fundamental language of engineering, allowing complex ideas to be described, formulated and developed. This module gives you a strong foundation of key mathematical techniques and methods required by most other modules in our engineering courses.

Topics covered include complex numbers, calculus, linear algebra, statistics and probability. Throughout the module, you’ll tackle real-world engineering problems. These include the study of mechanical and electrical systems, the use of complex numbers and linear algebra for the analysis of electrical circuits and the use of statistics and probability in the analysis of experimental data.

Electronics underpins all of modern life, from everyday household items to the most sophisticated supercomputers. It enables devices such as ultra-low power wearable health monitors through to megawatt wind turbines. 

You’ll begin your engineering journey by learning fundamental circuit analysis and fabrication skills. This will enable you to begin engineering project work right from your first year. 

You’ll also explore the vital and trusted role that engineers play in supporting and transforming society and infrastructure. You’ll do this by demonstrating your ability to consider societal issues essential to modern professional engineering.

Programming underpins all facets of modern life, from basic software applications to complex artificial intelligence systems. It enables everything from simple mobile apps to large-scale enterprise solutions. 

You'll embark on your programming journey here, mastering fundamental coding concepts and development skills. This foundation will empower you to dive into programming projects right from your first year through lectures, workshops and programming challenges. 

You’ll also examine the pivotal role of programmers in shaping and advancing society by exploring ethical and societal considerations essential to contemporary professional programming.

The success of an engineering product relies on the combination of careful mechanical design, strategic material selection, and a deep understanding of mechanics. These elements collectively shape the product's performance, durability, and overall effectiveness, highlighting their essential role in the development of any successful engineering solution.

You'll learn how to develop an engineering drawing of a product using a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) system and choose the best materials from a wide range of available engineering materials for your designed components.

This material selection process depends on the mechanical analysis of a component under various loading scenarios, which you will learn in this module. This knowledge will enable you to start developing an engineering project from your first year of study and practise it throughout your degree.

To bring your engineering education to life, you’ll do a project in each year of study. In the Stage 1 project, you’ll gain hands-on experience, allowing you to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world problems. This will enhance your understanding of engineering principles and concepts. 

Throughout this process, you will apply electronic and mechanical design skills and programming/software knowledge to describe and produce a physical solution in alignment with a technical specification. You are expected to acquire a foundational understanding of engineering hardware and software integration and verification. 

The module progresses through lectures, workshops, labs, and tutorials with supervision and technical guidance. It aims to provide you with hands-on and problem-solving skills in the concepts introduced in the Term 1 and Term 2 modules.

Electronic Engineers need a knowledge of both analogue and digital electronic circuits and electronic devices to effectively design future products.

This module introduces you to analysis and design techniques and electronic component properties. You’ll learn using circuit analysis software, commonly used in industry and practical work using industrial standard measurement equipment.

Engineers work in interdisciplinary teams to overcome the challenges of intelligent engineering systems. Smart engineering systems are not simple mechanical or electronic components, but the result of synergistic integration between mechanical engineering, electronics, computer science and control.

You’ll learn to apply this interdisciplinary approach to develop innovative solutions that would not be possible with a single-discipline focus. You’ll gain applied knowledge of sensors, actuators, and data acquisition techniques which are crucial to modern engineering. After mastering the foundational concepts, you’ll progress to cover transducers, mechanical components and modelling of mechatronic systems.

You’ll further explore microprocessors and data acquisition processes and become familiar with actuator functions within mechatronic systems. Practical sessions will complement your theoretical learning, allowing you to apply concepts in hands-on scenarios with real-world systems.

Microcomputer technology is widely used in the design and development of modern computer systems. Many of us use such applications every day, in devices such as smartphones, washing machines, microwaves and cars.

In this module, you’ll learn general principles of computer architecture and understand how the microprocessor executes instructions, interacts with hardware components and communicates with memory and I/O devices. The most common microprocessors and microcontrollers will be to compare their architectures and processing resources.

You’ll also learn a programming language that can be used on a number of microcontrollers and discover how to program and compile on a given microcontroller through a series of practical sessions. As part of a mini-project, you’ll then design and develop a microcontroller-based system using its I/O features and different communication protocols (such as RS232, SPI and I2C).

Power electronics is the study and application of electronic devices and circuits for efficient control and conversion of electrical power. This module gives you an overview of the fundamental principles of power electronic devices and their applications in various electrical systems.

First, we’ll introduce you to power semiconductor devices, including power diodes, thyristors, and insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), uncovering their unique characteristics and operational intricacies. This will then lead to rectifier circuits such as half-wave and full-wave rectifiers converting AC to DC power as well as exploring the intricacies of Buck, Boost, and Buck-Boost converters, and their role in transforming DC power.

You will then unravel the mysteries of inverter circuits for DC-AC conversion. Finally, you’ll explore the diverse landscape of power supplies, from linear to switch-mode designs, giving you insight into their design principles and practical implementation.

Power electronics forms the backbone of modern electrical systems, including renewable energy systems, electric vehicles, consumer electronics, industrial automation, and many more. Understanding power electronics will provide a strong foundation for working with these advanced technologies.

What are the principles and applications of various electrical machines that are commonly used in engineering and industrial settings?

Through theoretical lectures, workshops, and hands-on laboratory sessions, you’ll delve into the fundamental concepts underlying the functioning of electrical machines. These include motors, generators, and transformers, and you’ll also gain the knowledge and skills necessary to analyse, design, and optimise electrical machines for diverse engineering applications. 

This will prepare you for careers in electrical engineering, power systems, renewable energy and related fields.

Signal processing as well as control systems are vital to ensure stable, safe and optimal operation of many modern devices and systems such as drones, robots and other automated platforms. This module will provide you the underpinning concepts, knowledge and methodologies in signal processing and control theory to apply to systems from your engineering disciplines. The control systems part will include both continuous and discrete time systems. The signal processing part is focused on signals, sampling filters. and will cover both analogue and digital systems. Lecture materials, hands-on experiments, computer simulations and case studies are carefully designed to strengthen your learning experience.  

 After successfully completing this module, you will obtain fundamental and essential knowledge in signal processing and system control required for advanced engineering learning and future professional practice in related fields.

Teamwork lies at the heart of this module, seamlessly blending practical group projects with supporting lectures, emphasising the development of technical proficiency, transferable skills, sustainability, and security awareness. You will collaborate in teams to explore mechanical and electronic hardware, software development, entrepreneurship, and sustainable practices. Through hands-on project work, you will gain expertise in sensor data acquisition, programming, hardware design, understanding security protocols, and integrating sustainability principles. Additionally, you will address crucial topics such as innovation, financial management, intellectual property protection, and commercialisation strategies with a sustainable and security-oriented perspective. By merging technical knowledge with entrepreneurial insight, sustainability principles, and a focus on security, this module equips you with a comprehensive toolkit for navigating the complexities of modern innovation and enterprise securely and sustainably. 

This is an opportunity for independent study on a topic of your own choice. Working on the project is a major part of your final year of study, taking place in spring and summer terms. It’s a chance for you to conduct in-depth research on a subject that is relevant to your course, helping you to further develop essential skills. 

It will also challenge you to solve problems which involve the critical consideration of engineering and relevant legal, social, ethical and professional issues. It will enable you to develop and practise a professional approach to delivering written and oral presentations. You will be allocated a supervisor who will support you through weekly meetings and other communications.

To help you build the required knowledge and skills you’ll need for a successful engineering project, you’ll attend a series of lectures and workshops. These will cover topics such as design and production techniques; reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS), quality, safety and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC); as well as ethical, environmental and EDI (equality, diversity and inclusion) issues.

Programmable logic devices are an essential element of modern digital design. Unlike a microcontroller that is software programmable (but otherwise comprises a fixed set of hardware resources), programmable logic devices such as Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) entail re-programming of the hardware itself. As such they allow fast prototyping and flexibility in the hardware design of modern digital systems (ranging from telecoms to control systems) due to their ability to be reprogrammed in the field.

In this module, you'll learn to program in a hardware-description language (VHDL) to model and simulate digital electronic circuits. Through a series of practical sessions, you will learn the necessary electronic design automation tools and how they are used to compile and simulate VHDL code but also “synthesise” VHDL code for placement onto actual physical hardware. You'll also learn the fundamental operational principles of programmable logic devices, FPGAs and their main processing elements, and also how modern FPGAs are used to build system-on-chips (SoCs). You will be introduced to the concepts of boundary scan testing and learn about the JTAG protocol (IEEE standard 1149.1). You'll apply knowledge gained in mini projects that will involve designing complete digital systems implemented onto FPGA, deepening your understanding and building your experience.

Want to learn the fundamentals of how power systems create and distribute energy? This module covers the concept of power generation and transmission using interconnected grid systems, overhead and underground power transmission and distribution systems.

You’ll learn the fundamentals of designing, operating, and analysing modern electrical power transmission and distribution networks. You’ll do this by concentrating on models and techniques used to describe and analyse the behaviour of such systems as well as the specification of major equipment used in such systems. You’ll then consider the stability of power grids and identify the techniques for their protection.

What sources of renewable energy are there? How are technological developments improving electrical generation and meeting the global rise in demand for clean energy?

After exploring the impact of fossil fuels on our environment, you’ll get an overview of various renewable energy sources and their associated challenges and opportunities. We’ll then focus on some major sources – like solar energy and wind power technologies – in more detail.

You’ll also briefly look at other renewable energy sources such as wave and tidal, hydropower and geothermal and get a brief overview of energy storage. By the end of the module, you’ll have a strong sense of which technologies are being proposed to meet the world's growing demand for green energy.

Image analysis techniques give computers the power to enhance, interpret and understand visual inputs. These techniques are integral to many applications such as autonomous vehicles, medical diagnosis, document processing, biometric security and surveillance. 

You’ll learn the principles of image analysis techniques alongside their practical applications. Starting from basic image formation and acquisition, you’ll learn core image processing techniques such as how to filter noise, how to extract object outlines, how to identify regions of interest in an image (segmentation), and about image feature descriptors. 

You’ll also explore various supervised and unsupervised classification techniques (including neural networks) for object recognition. You’ll discover several real-world applications of image analysis and learn through lab-based exercises and a mini-project.

Embedded systems in conjunction with the Internet of Things (IoT) are used to create systems that can sense in real-time different aspects of their environment, collect and transmit information for a vast number of applications including smart cities, smart agriculture and smart factories (Industry 4.0). This information can then be used to transform the day-to-day operation of our cities and businesses making them more efficient and less wasteful of resources.

This module introduces the theory and practice of employing computers as the control and organisational centre of embedded systems and examines time-critical systems. You'll also cover design aspects of embedded systems and IoT through practical work, including real-time operating systems and microcomputer programming.

You will learn how to use the internal peripherals of a microcontroller by working directly at the hardware register level and as such gain a good understanding of the interactions between software and hardware. Many practical applications of embedded systems require real-time operation under strict deadlines (e.g., in factory automation). As such, the module also covers the concepts of real-time operating systems and features that are essential for time-critical operation. IoT can be used as the backbone communication infrastructure in embedded applications and the skills and knowledge you develop will be crucial in your future career.

In today's interconnected world, cyber security is not just important – it is essential. From businesses to schools, homes, personal devices, and even vehicles, everything is connected! This module dives deep into the fascinating realm where cyber security – including general topics and specialist areas such as cryptography – take centre stage.

Get ready to explore how these fields shape the modern technology landscape, from fundamental security principles to the intricate dance between risk management, cybercrime, usable security and professional aspects. You'll unravel the mysteries of ciphers, delve into the world of symmetric and asymmetric cryptography, and even take a critical look at cyber-attacks. You'll also examine their social and technical dimensions and explore effective risk treatment measures. This includes robust security controls and the use of upcoming mechanisms such as cyber insurance.

The knowledge you will gain on this module provides a strong foundation to guide and inform security efforts within an organisation. Prepare to embark on a journey where every click, every byte, and every line of code matters – and where you knowledge can make a real difference.

Building on the material from Stage 1, in this module you will delve further into electronic engineering topics covering the principles and operation of essential electronic components and systems. You will learn about different passive and active electronic components (e.g., passive and active filters) focusing on both theoretical and practical aspects pertaining to the design of modern analogue and digital systems including frequency response characteristics, power-consumption and noise. You will learn about modern digital Integrated Circuit (IC) design at the circuit, chip/silicon and board level, through an introduction to the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) and Complementary MOS (CMOS) logic. You will also learn the principles of microwave technology, including the design of microwave filters and transmission lines. The module proceeds via a sequence of lectures supported by example classes, exercises and workshops designed to give practical experience of the concepts introduced in the lectures.