Mechanical Engineering with a Year in Industry BEng

Core modules:

Essential Mathematical Skills & Techniques

This module aims to reinforce students' previous knowledge and to develop new basic mathematical techniques needed to support the engineering subjects taken at levels 1 and 2. It also provides a foundation for the level 2 mathematics courses in the appropriate engineering department.

20 credits

Fundamental Engineering Science: Part 1

In conjunction with a similar module that runs in the Spring semester, this module will provide you with the fundamental knowledge and understanding that will underpin the rest of your mechanical engineering degree. This module focuses on statics, solid mechanics and manufacturing processes; you will learn about these topics from first principles and observe them as phenomena in the laboratory. You will then have the opportunity to apply them to a practical engineering problem in a separate, concurrent integrative project module.

20 credits

Autumn Integrative Project

This module will introduce you to what it means to be a professional engineer by supporting you through the process of tackling a typical, practical, engineering problem. Through a series of structured, timely activities you will integrate the fundamental knowledge, taught in a separate, concurrent module, with the skills and capabilities expected of modern engineers. In conjunction with a similar integrative project in the Spring semester, you will develop a holistic view of mechanical engineering that will provide a solid foundation for the rest of your degree, and your subsequent career, giving you the ability and confidence to address open-ended, engineering problems in a proficient and effective manner.

25 credits

Fundamental Engineering Science: Part 2

In conjunction with a similar module that runs in the Spring semester, this module will provide you with the fundamental knowledge and understanding that will underpin the rest of your mechanical engineering degree. This module focuses on dynamics, fluids, gases and thermofluids; you will learn about these topics from first principles and observe them as phenomena in the laboratory. You will then have the opportunity to apply them to a practical engineering problem in a separate, concurrent integrative project module.

15 credits

Spring Integrative Project

This module will provide you with further insight into what it means to be a professional engineer by supporting you through the process of tackling a typical, practical, engineering problem. Through a series of structured, timely activities you will integrate the fundamental knowledge, taught in a separate, concurrent module, with the skills and capabilities expected of modern engineers, building upon feed forward from a similar integrative project in the Autumn semester. In conjunction with the Autumn project, you will develop a holistic view of mechanical engineering that will provide a solid foundation for the rest of your degree, and your subsequent career, giving you the ability and confidence to address open-ended, engineering problems in a proficient and effective manner.

40 credits

Global Engineering Challenge Week

The Faculty-wide Global Engineering Challenge Week is a compulsory part of the first-year programme, and the project has been designed to develop student academic, transferable and employability skills as well as widen their horizons as global citizens. Working in multi-disciplinary groups of six, for a full week, all students in the Faculty choose from a number of projects arranged under a range of themes including Water, ICT, Waste Management and Energy with scenarios set in a developing country. Some projects are based on the Engineers Without Borders Challenge* and other projects have been suggested by an academic at the University of Makerere in Uganda (who is involved in developing solutions using IT systems for health, agriculture and resource problems in developing countries). Students are assessed on a number of aspects of being a professional engineer both by Faculty alumni and a number of local industrial engineers.*The EWB Challenge is a design program coordinated internationally by Engineers Without Borders Australia and delivered in Australian, New Zealand, British and Irish universities. It provides students with the opportunity to learn about design, teamwork and communication through real, inspiring, sustainable and cross-cultural development projects. By participating in the EWB Challenge students are presented with a fantastic opportunity to design creative solutions to problems identified by real EWB projects. Each year, the EWB Challenge design brief is based on a set of sustainable development projects identified by EWB with its community-based partner organisations. http://www.ewb-uk.org/ewbchallenge

Core modules:

Electric Circuits

This module introduces the concepts and analytical tools for interpreting and predicting the behaviour of combinations of passive circuit elements, resistance, capacitance and inductance driven by ideal voltage and/or current sources which may be ac or dc sources. The last few lectures will introduce the basics of electromechanical energy conversion. The ideas involved are important not only from the point of view of modelling the behaviour of real electronic circuits but also because many complicated processes in medicine, science and engineering are modelled by electronic circuit analogies.

10 credits

Engineering - You're Hired

The Faculty-wide Engineering - You're Hired Week is a compulsory part of the second year programme, and the week has been designed to develop student academic, transferable and employability skills. Working in multi-disciplinary groups of about six, students will work in interdisciplinary teams on a real world problem over an intensive week-long project.The projects are based on problems provided by industrial partners, and students will come up with ideas to solve them and proposals for a project to develop these ideas further.

Mathematics for Engineering Modelling

To further extend the student's understanding, developed in Level 1, of a variety of mathematical techniques and the application of these techniques in modelling engineering problems

10 credits

Computational and Numerical Methods

This module consolidates previous mathematical knowledge and develops new mathematical and numerical techniques relevant to Mechanical Engineering

10 credits

Dynamics of Structures and Machines

The aim of this module is to help students understand the fundamental concepts governing the dynamics of structures and machines. It covers two principal areas: structural vibration and rigid body mechanics. In structural vibration, the single degree of freedom model is used to study the free response and forced vibration of systems subjected to steady state, impulse and arbitrary loading. Aspects of rigid body mechanics include the analysis of common two-dimensional mechanisms and the dynamics of rigid rotors, including gyroscopic precession.

10 credits

Mechanics of Deformable Solids

The module continues the process begun in the first year of providing the essential knowledge, understanding and skills associated with the mechanics of deformable solids which students require to become competent Chartered Mechanical Engineers. The module covers analysis of mechanical components under stress and application of different methods to evaluate stress state and deformation of deformable solids.

10 credits

Heat Transfer

Heat transfer mechanisms are introduced. Heat conduction, convection and radiation are studied in this order. Techniques for analysing heat transfer problems are then covered. Two applications, heat exchangers and fins are analysed in detail. At the end of the module, students should be able to:1. State the fundamental processes of heat transfer and apply them to real world systems.2. Understand how heat is transferred by conduction, convection and radiation.3. Solve a variety of fundamental and applied heat transfer problems.

10 credits

Design of Engineering Components

The module develops both the knowledge and awareness of the student in terms of being able to make decisions based on limited data and include both ethical and economic considerations. Practical worked examples are developed which show how basic mechanical theory can be adapted and applied to `industrial' design situations. Assessment includes a 'design audit' in which a device is dismantled and each component analysed for design functionality. This exercise enables the student to develop their CAD skills.

10 credits

Materials Processing

The course provides an introduction to materials processing for Mechanical Engineers and places particular emphasis on the relationships between processing, microstructure and properties that are essential to defining and understanding the behaviour of a material under service conditions. The course covers all of the common classes of engineering material - Ceramics, Polymers, Composites and Metals - and students will, through the use of practical examples and case studies, learn about the strong dependence of final functional and structural properties on the processing route selected for processing and manufacture.

10 credits

Fluids Engineering

The module is designed to consolidate and extend the students' understanding of basic fluid flow properties, fluid flows and applying analysis techniques to solve engineering fluids problems. The module will cover the use of both integral control volume and differential analysis techniques. These will be applied to a range of simple engineering fluid systems;Newtonian laminar analysis will be applied to internal flows. The boundary layer will be introduced and related to the concepts of drag and heat transfer. The concepts of compressible nozzle flow, choking and shock waves will be covered. Sub-sonic and sonic compressible flow will be introduced. Students will also be introduced to the computational fluid dynamics using FLUENT and given hands-on experience.

10 credits

Design of Structures, Machines and Systems

The course brings together analytical, computational and empirical approaches to the design and optimisation of structures and systems. A specific design is used as a thematic project in which the functional analysis and eventual synthesis are brought together. The task is such that no optimal solution is readily available. This enables the student to develop their skill in formulating analytical and computational models and evaluating them so as to develop an optimal design solution.

10 credits

Managing Engineering Projects and Teams

The module is designed to introduce you to one of the key skills needed in your study and work. You will learn why projects are a key feature of engineering environments. You will also be introduced to the fundamentals of project management concepts and its terminologies. In addition, you will learn how to plan a project and deliver it for its successful completion. It will introduce project management topics such as planning, scoping, scheduling, resources, cost and constraints. Additionally, you will develop an awareness of the importance of people for successful project delivery in practice, including stakeholders and team dynamics.

10 credits

Finance and Law for Engineers

The module is designed to introduce engineering students to some of the key financial and legal issues that engineers are likely to encounter in their working environment. The module will draw directly on practical issues of budgeting, raising finance, assessing financial risks and making financial decisions in the context of engineering projects and/or product development. At the same time the module will develop students¿ understanding of the legal aspects of entering into contracts for the development and delivery of engineering projects and products and an awareness of environmental regulation, data protection and intellectual property rights. Through a series of parallel running lectures in the two disciplines, the module will provide a working knowledge of the two areas and how they impinge on engineering practice. There will be a heavy emphasis on group working, report writing and presentation as part of the assessment supplemented by online exercises and an individual portfolio.

10 credits

Core modules:

Year in Industry

The course enables students to spend their third year of a BEng or fourth year (normally) of an MEng working in a `course relevant' role in industry. Students will work on either a single project or a series of projects with industrial and commercial constraints. This provides them with wide ranging experiences and opportunities that put their academic studies into context and improve their professional skills.  Students will also benefit from experiencingthe culture in industry, making contacts, and the placement will support them in their preparation for subsequent employment.The Year in Industry does not count towards the overall degree classification but must be passed in order to qualify for the with Year in Industry addition to their Degree Certificate.

120 credits

Core modules:

Integrity of Materials and Components

This module brings together knowledge gained of engineering science aspects of stress, deformation analysis, and material strength, and to apply them to engineering components. The module will broaden students' perspectives by introducing the 3D nature of stress, plastic analysis, fracture response and tribology. Practical aspects will be introduced by case studies.

10 credits

Advanced Engineering Thermodynamic Cycles

The course will consolidate and expand upon the fundamental and general background to Thermofluids engineering developed during first and second year courses. This will be achieved through the study of more realistic systems, machines, devices as well as their application.To introduce students to more realistic energy conversion and power production processes. Use of irreversibility to analyse plant. Introduction of reheat and heat recovery as methods of achieving improved efficiency. To look at total energy use by means of combined gas and steam and combined heat and power cycles and understand some of the environmental issues. A variety of refrigeration cycles will also be illustrated as well as the Otto and Diesel cycles.

10 credits

Manufacturing Systems

The aim of this module is to enable students to understand the concepts and practices used by modern manufacturing organisations.The course starts with lectures on current trends in manufacturing processes (in particular high-speed machining and additive manufacturing). Students are then introduced to ways of designing and evaluating a manufacturing system as well as the relevant theories, concepts and methodologies of controlling and managing a manufacturing shop floor.

10 credits

The Professional Responsibility of Engineers

Most engineers will agree that what makes them `tick¿ is the challenge of solving problems. Many will also openly say that their passion and aspiration is to use their skills to make a positive change to the world. The dilemma, however, is that what is good for some may not be so for others. What is a solution in one area, in one culture, in one industry could be a challenge and even a disaster in another.Relevant professional bodies such as the Institute of Mechanical Engineering, the Engineering Council and the Royal Academy of Engineering are in agreement about what it means to be a professional engineer: someone trained as such, who ensures their competence whilst acting with integrity and rigour and who puts the public good above all priorities, whilst listening and actively communicating relevant information to all stakeholders.The guidelines otherwise known as codes of conduct help us follow ethical courses of action. But are these guidelines enough?Professional Responsibilities of the Engineer (PRE) is a core module due to its significance on our professional careers. Engineers are expected not only to understand their ethical responsibilities (ABET, 2000) but also to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global and societal context (Kerkert 1999).In your degree, we train you to be technically able, curious, creative and ambitious professionals. We are also responsible to prepare you, however, to enter a complex world, where every decision, every action can and will bring about change. Will it be the right change? We should all hope so.During this course we will aim to equip each of you with the frameworks and tools that you can refer back to, in order to help you reach the best morally justifiable decisions. But the world is very complex to familiarise oneself with all possible courses of action. Therefore, you will also share your view points with the public and in return be exposed to other ideas and feedback and ultimately, inform your final decision.This learning technique is an explicit attempt to disrupt that process and invite a wider conversation for students, most of whom will go on to be practitioners responsible of engineering the future. Dr Bev Gibbs.

10 credits

Investigative Project

Each student will undertake an individual research project, which is often industrially-focussed, under the guidance of a member of academic staff. The students select a number of potential projects from a list provided by academic staff members. The project will permit the student to demonstrate their planning and organisational skills, to show initiative and also to display the technical skills that they have developed over the preceding years of study. The technical components of a project may be experimental, theoretical, analytical or design-based and most projects will require proficiency in a number of these. Assessment of the module is based upon conduct throughout the project, submission of a thesis and the ability to present the findings of the project at a colloquium and viva.

30 credits

Control Engineering for Mechanical Engineers

This module aims to introduce the student to the key components which are used to implement feedback control of a physical process: sensors, actuators and controllers. The student is introduced to these elements through the language of classical control systems modelling. Emphasis will be placed on electrical, mechanical and electro-mechanical systems but reference will be made to the much wider applicability of the techniques. An introduction to dynamic system modelling will also be included. Analysis methods (based upon the characteristic equation and the Bode diagram) will be used to demonstrate how performance can be defined, analysed, predicted, and designed.

10 credits

Integrated Design Skills

The module aims to integrate the design and mechanical elements of the students' engineering learning of the previous two years by studying the integration of these components to design an automated solution to an engineering problem.

10 credits

Optional modules:

Robotic Systems

Robotics is having an increasing impact on society and the way we live. From advanced manufacturing to unmanned aerial systems and driverless cars this exciting area is presenting increasing technological challenges. This unit provides students with the advanced knowledge and understanding to apply control and systems engineering concepts to the field of robotics. The unit covers the theoretical foundations of manipulators and mobile robots, and reviews robotic systems with reference to their applications. The unit further covers advanced techniques in autonomous vehicles and swarm robotics.

10 credits

Mathematics (Computational Methods)

This module introduces some important numerical methods for solving partial differential equations such as the heat conduction equation which arise in engineering and develops methods for optimisation problems. It also gives an introduction to splines as a tool in design for curve fitting and surface approximation. Optimization techniques including numerical techniques, dynamic programming and integer programming are studied. This module is designed for mechanical engineers.

10 credits

Advanced Mechanics of Solids

The module provides an introduction of advanced analytical techniques used for study of deformable solids, a general knowledge of the techniques employed and skills to perform analysis for selected solid components and structures. It aims to provide students with the following: the skills and confidence to perform advanced analysis of solid components and structures; the knowledge of selected advanced analysis techniques employed on the more common components and structures; and an understanding of the behaviour of solids under two or three dimensional stress fields, and the limitations imposed by assumptions and boundary conditions.

10 credits

Finite Element Techniques

The module aims to give students a thorough knowledge and understanding of the principles of the Finite Element Method, an understanding of the various modelling strategies within the method, an appreciation of its scope of application, and the ability to interpret the results of a finite element calculation. Theoretical foundations of the method in the context of linear elastic structural analysis will be covered, as well as practical aspects of its implementation. The assessment is by coursework only, comprising two assignments. Lectures will be supplemented by surgeries and computer laboratory sessions, which will provide opportunities for further exploring key concepts and for obtaining support for assignment work.

10 credits

Renewable Energy

The module provides an introduction to some alternative energy technologies with emphasis on solar and wind energy. It aims to provide students with a fundamental appreciation of the potential and usable energy obtainable from the sun and wind; a general knowledge of wind turbine aerodynamics, wind turbine systems, photovoltaics and domestic photovoltaic systems.

10 credits

Computational Fluid Dynamics

The module introduces fundamental concepts of Computational Fluid Dynamics from the governing physical principles to their mathematical definition, approximation and numerical solution, with a particular focus on experimental and theoretical validation. The course explains the typical steps for a robust use of CFD analysis to predict the behaviour of complex fluid flows encountered in typical engineering applications, including turbulent flows. Students will consolidate their understanding by performing and critically assessing the results of a CFD analysis of a typical and industrially relevant fluid problem.

10 credits

Structural Vibration

In this module we will explore how structures vibrate and how we can model them in order to understand and optimise their behaviour. We will look at how to model systems/structures mathematically as multi-degree of freedom systems and as continuous systems. The module will link theoretical models with experimental modal analysis, where knowledge of the system is derived from measurements (such as accelerations). You will explore the world of dynamics through lectures and dedicated reading. The theoretical learning will be supported by two laboratory experiments to be carried out in groups.

10 credits

Aero Propulsion

This module provides students with an understanding of principles of operation of gas turbines, pulse-jets, RAM-jets and solid and liquid fuelled rocket engines as applied to aero propulsion. The understanding is built upon fundamental thermodynamic and fluid mechanic analyses of components and systems for each propulsion method. Methods for improving efficiencies and increasing specific work output of components are also introduced as well as an introduction to combustion, losses and efficiencies.

10 credits