Learning & assessment

Our approach

You will be taught by academics at the cutting edge of their field and, as all courses are industry orientated, you can be sure that what you learn is up-to-date with employers needs.

The field of electronic and electrical engineering is exceptionally dynamic and
technological change is rapid. Research led teaching is an important feature of our degrees, the syllabus is updated every year, with new techniques from our research activities directly influencing the content.

You will benefit from our integrated style of learning and teaching. Practical laboratory classes and project work allows you to gain hands-on experience investigating and applying material from your lectures and tutorials to real life work situations.

You will be assessed through both written examinations, held at the end of each semester, and through tests, coursework, laboratory reports, projects, and presentations.

Our personal tutorial system will help you to integrate quickly and settle down easily into university life. You will also be assigned to a tutorial group and you’ll have one-to-one time with your personal tutor. The School has excellent student support, student support teams are located close to where you work and study, ensuring personalised and direct contact.

A Project in every year of study
Our current students regularly cite that project work is one of the most satisfying and challenging aspects of their course. It is an excellent opportunity to explore and develop essential skills such as problem solving, communication skills and teamwork, all vital to help you succeed in your chosen career.

In your first year you will be involved in working in a team to design, build and test an autonomous robot or radio-controlled tank to steer around a track. The project ends in a competition to see which team has the fastest, longest running or most fun design. In your second year, the project focuses on programming and will include an iPhone application and a microcontroller based
embedded system design.

If you are an electronics student you can choose a project from any theme you like, whilst mechatronics students select a project from the Robotics theme and Music, Multimedia and Electronics take a music theme. A typical project might be to design a microcontroller-based music synthesiser, a hand held game, or a robotic arm using an embedded control system.

In the third year you will undertake either an individual project (BEng) students
or a group project (MEng) students that is in a specialist topic area related to your chosen degree.

In your fourth year (MEng) you will undertake an individual project.

The Group Design Project is a key requirement for the accreditation of the degree, and so required for Chartered Engineer status. As a team you will define the project requirements, divide the work and generate a detailed time plan of events and critical milestones. As well as being technically challenging, these MEng projects encourage team working skills and facilitate the development of a strong group identity.

Examples of some recent third and fourth year projects include:
• Car security systems
• Robotics for volcanic exploration
• Electronic guitar tuners
• Electronic golf scorecards
• Wireless Braille interpreters
• OFDM for 4G mobile communications
• Wireless personal property locators
• Mechatronic modelling of the spinal column
• Test equipment for tunnel radio propagation
• Applications of Terahertz time domain spectroscopy.

"Electronic Engineering gives you a good overall foundation and offers you a variety of career options when you graduate. Electronic Engineering gives undergraduates the ability to be innovative and creative in revolutionary
areas of Technology."
Daniel - Electronic Engineering

"I chose the course because it suits who I am and what I’m about. I have played the piano most of my life and I work quite closely with audio engineering on a weekly basis. I have a great passion for music and this course was everything I needed."
Chris - Music, Multimedia and Electronics