EEE126   General Skills   (10 credits)

Description

This is a general skills module which encompasses a range of professional development activities that will be useful throughout the remainder of your degree and career. These include practical skills in the laboratory, simulation skills for analysing circuits, communication skills and career development. You will learn to use the full range of industry standard laboratory equipment such as oscilloscopes, waveform generators and soldering workstations. A series of engaging exercises, both in the lab and using advanced simulation tools, are designed to build up your proficiency in practical engineering. You will use measurements to determine the mystery components in hidden boxes, practice soldering and fault-finding on printed circuit boards, and combine programming with circuits using microcontrollers to solve real world challenges. Many activities have short written tasks aligned to them, allowing focused practice at technical communications with rapid feedback from staff. In the personal tutorials programme, you will work through personal development activities in small groups, such as effective CV writing and communication skills. You will receive regular feedback on your personal development through skills audits aligned to the Sheffield Graduate Attributes. Some activities will be individual, such as researching your own employability strategy to get your dream engineering job, while others will be in teams, such as giving peer feedback on presentations and an exciting team-based robotics challenge. The module culminates in an independent construction project that will require all of your skills together - past projects have included creating audio speaker circuits (handling digital input signals right through to audible sound outputs) and infra-red remote controls. The combination of the two strands to the module will prepare you to work as a professional engineer throughout your degree programme and beyond.

Reading List