New MEng courses for CEIS engineers

The School has run very successful undergraduate Bachelor of Engineering programmes in these subjects for over 25 years; these graduates are in high demand regionally and nationally.  The MEng follows the same syllabus as these programmes, with the addition of a final year, extending and deepening the students’ knowledge and skills at Masters level.

Throughout the programme, students are challenged with real-world briefs, some being carried out for local organisations.  Projects that students have assisted with in the past include: 

• Adapting a boat with a local charity to enable disabled people to sail independently.
• Looked at aesthetics and optimised design for a vehicle mounted access platform, focusing on the safety cage, product identity and lifting boom for a local manufacturing company. 
• Providing  design and manufacturing expertise to a local designer to allow the creation of the River Arch sculpture.
• Designed and manufactured a solar cooker for a local charity operating in Tanzania.
• Breast cancer detection using microwave imaging.
• Development of a GPS automated hovercraft with landmine detection and Bluetooth communications.
• Design of a microwave antenna element for solar power satellite applications.
• Design and development of an electronic Braille reading system.

Working with the same equipment that can be found in professional engineering firms, students gain hands-on experience of producing 3D and CAD files, prototypes and scale models using a variety of materials.  The School has operational wind turbines and photovoltaic panels, which students are able to interact with for both mechanical and electrical components.

Maintaining good industrial links is very important to the programme team, who hold regular employer liaison boards, as well as providing consultancy, to ensure that the programme keeps pace with the skill sets that employers need.  Knowledge Transfer Partnerships have been particularly successful in this area.  The projects employ a recent graduate who, working together with the University and employer, provide innovative solutions to the organisation.  The academic partner is able to apply their research to the organisation and the project is valuable experience for the graduate.  

A big advantage of the integrated MEng programme is that students may currently apply for funding for the full programme from Student Finance England, paying the fees back after they graduate and secure employment.  To meet the academic requirements of CEng status, students would otherwise have to apply for a self-funded Masters programme after graduating from their undergraduate degree.

The MEng is favoured by employers and is well respected by professional bodies.  Those students currently progressing well on the BEng programmes will be given the opportunity to transfer on to the new MEng programmes.