Undergraduate prospectus 2020

Entry requirements

Modules - what you study and when

The modules listed below are examples from the last academic year. There may be some changes before you start your course. For the very latest module information, check with the department direct.

Course information on Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering website

First year

Core modules:

Second year

Core modules:

Third year

Core modules:

Optional modules:

The content of our courses is reviewed annually to make sure it's up-to-date and relevant. Individual modules are occasionally updated or withdrawn. This is in response to discoveries through our world-leading research; funding changes; professional accreditation requirements; student or employer feedback; outcomes of reviews; and variations in staff or student numbers.

In the event of any change we'll consult and inform students in good time and take reasonable steps to minimise disruption.

Learning and assessment

These figures give an indication of how you'll learn and be assessed. They're a combined average of all the years of the course. The learning and assessment percentages could vary depending on the modules you choose.

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering

We are the only department in the UK dedicated to Control and Systems Engineering.

We are home to the Rolls-Royce University Technology Centre and have research contracts with major institutions like the European Space Agency, as well as our many academic and industrial partners. These connections mean our teaching is based on the latest thinking.

Our facilities include a robotics, real-time systems, and control and power systems laboratory, as well as a state-of-the-art electronics and control lab in the Diamond (pictured).

Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering website

What our graduates do

Our courses prepare you for a career where you'll apply your creative problem-solving skills and your understanding of engineering principles to the real world, while working in multidisciplinary teams. These transferable skills can be applied in many sectors across the breadth of engineering and beyond.

During your degree you'll have plenty of opportunities to enhance your employability. You can choose to go on a placement in industry, either during the summer or as a year in industry. Or you could consider studying abroad, either for a full year, or as part of a summer school. 

We also have extracurricular projects where you can work with other engineering and science students to design and build rockets, submersible robots, autonomous payloads for satellites, rovers and more. You could also take part in a scheme for undergraduates where you work on research projects with academics over the summer period.

Graduates from all of our courses are highly employable and work all over the world for companies such as Arup, Rolls-Royce, Boeing, Jaguar Land Rover, Thales and IBM. They go on to become professional engineers in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, power generation and sustainable energy.

You can expect an above-average starting salary of £27,900 per annum (DLHE, 2017).

Student profile

"When I looked into other universities, I found there was nowhere else that had its own dedicated systems and control department. Sheffield is the only one in the UK...I really enjoy being an engineering student, because I get to find out how things work, how systems work and how things are put together...I used to enjoy it when I was really little, and now I get to go on and do it as my career."

Rachael Rix
Automatic Control and Systems Engineering

All our courses are accredited by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the Institute of Measurement and Control.