Computer Systems Engineering MEng

This module will help you develop the fundamental practical and professional skills that underpin electrical, electronic and mechatronic engineering. It will also help you develop the personal attributes essential in an engineer of any discipline. 

Five types of activities are used: —(1) lab-based activities to develop specific engineering skills and encourage the internalisation of theory;(2) an extended group project to develop an embedded system using the systems engineering approach. Students apply and develop technical and transferable skills simultaneously whilst working with partially open-ended problems; (3) address sustainability of the extended project using the UN's sustainable development goals; (4) programming skill lectures and laboratories to develop embedded programming abilities and support the extended project; and (5) a focussed, week-long, cross-faculty interdisciplinary design activity taken alongside students studying different engineering disciplines, addressing the ethical, social, economical and sustainability of solutions to engineering challenges of the 21st century. It will equip you with essential teamwork, design, problem-solving and communication skills. Particular attention will be paid to employability, sustainability, and inclusivity. Through real-life engineering projects, you will be introduced to tackling complex challenges.

The skills which you will develop include critical thinking, problem solving, adaptability in the face of unexpected challenges and professionalism. You will also develop the ability to use systems engineering approaches, to use specific pieces of hardware and software, to work effectively individually and in a group as an engineer, to approach challenges ethically and with a professional mindset, and to communicate effectively.

This module serves as an introduction to common system analysis tools and their application to simple mechatronic systems. 

You will study fundamental mathematics topics and be introduced to the first principles of modelling and system behaviour. You will focus predominantly on first-order linear systems. 

The tools you use in this module will be applied to a wide breadth of engineering applications.

This module is an extension of system analysis tools for application to high order, non-linear and discrete mechatronic and AI systems.

You will continue your study of fundamental, but slightly more advanced, mathematics topics. We will show you how to generalise and extend first-principles modelling and system behaviours to a broader range of systems. 

We will also introduce you to computer tools used in electrical, mechatronic and computer engineering.

This module provides a comprehensive foundation in the analysis of circuits and networks, essential for any aspiring electrical engineer. You will learn both direct current (DC) and alternating current (AC) circuits, equipping you with the tools and techniques necessary to understand and solve electrical circuits and networks.

You will learn to apply fundamental circuit theorems and analysis methods to determine voltage, current, and power in various circuit configurations. We will investigate the transient and steady-state responses of first and second-order circuits, both in the time and frequency domains, providing a deep understanding of circuit dynamics. 

The second half of the module will be dedicated to magnetic circuits, including the analysis of transformers, motors, and generators, crucial components in power systems and electromechanical devices. We will discuss the interaction between electrical circuits and magnetic circuits and introduce the idea of mutual coupling and transformers. Finally, you will gain insight into the structure and operation of electrical networks, providing context for the practical application of the principles learnt throughout the module.

This module provides a comprehensive introduction to the fundamental principles of both digital and analogue electronics, forming the foundations for further studies in electronic engineering. We will explore the building blocks of modern electronic systems, from the logic gates that underpin digital systems to the semiconductor devices that enable analogue signal processing.

In the digital domain, you will learn Boolean algebra, apply logic manipulation techniques, and design both combinational and sequential logic networks, understanding their application in practical logic circuits. Furthermore, you will be introduced to hardware description languages (HDLs) and learn to analyse and simulate digital components and structures.

Transitioning to analogue electronics, we will introduce semiconductor materials, exploring the behaviour of diodes and semiconductor transistors. You will learn to apply circuit analysis principles to predict the behaviour of semiconductor devices in circuits. You will gain an understanding on the use of the transistor as switches and develop your ability to design and analyse transistor-based circuits. Furthermore, we will introduce operational amplifiers (op-amps), exploring their versatile applications. The module will conclude with an overview of integrated circuit manufacturing, from semiconductor boules to packaged ICs.

This module will give you the chance to apply the knowledge and skills you have acquired in your first year to engineering problems. The module has three elements: —(1) Project management approaches, taught mainly in lectures.(2) The Sheffield industrial project scheme (SHIPS) where you work on an industrial project in small groups, presenting a poster to industrial partners and your colleagues.(3) An extended design project where you apply project management and technical skills to model, design, implement and test an artefact. The list of available projects will vary from year to year, but will always encompass a range of topics from different aspects of electrical and electronic engineering.

As part of this module, you will also undertake a focussed, week-long, cross-faculty interdisciplinary design activity, aimed at equipping you with essential teamwork, design, problem-solving, and communication skills. In addition to a focus on employability, sustainability and inclusivity, you will apply more advanced engineering technical knowledge to industry-relevant, complex and interdisciplinary problems.

In this module, you will learn how to model, analyse, and design both control and communication systems. You will explore how signals are represented, transmitted, received, and affected by noise, and how to calculate key performance metrics. You will also be introduced to the foundations of radio-frequency circuit analysis which is the cornerstone of modern communication architectures.  

You will also study the role of feedback in shaping dynamic system behaviour, learning to analyse stability and performance, and design controllers using classical and modern methods. Throughout the module, you will apply these concepts to practical engineering problems, integrating modelling, analysis, and design. By the end, you will have the skills to evaluate system performance, design effective solutions, and apply your knowledge to real-world communication and control challenges. 

You will gain practical experience in applying theoretical concepts in the laboratory and reporting the experimental results.

This module introduces advanced mathematical methods used to solve core problems in electrical, electronic, and mechatronic engineering systems.

You will learn to use mathematical techniques to analyse signals, enabling the calculation of signal power and frequency response. You will also learn to model linear systems mathematically, decomposing them into characteristic modes to calculate time evolution, determine stability conditions, and implement noise reduction strategies.

You will gain foundational skills in regression, optimisation, and probability, enabling you to develop the machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms used in modern autonomous systems.

Finally, you will explore engineering problems in multiple dimensions through vector calculus—the natural language of fields and waves. This framework will enable you to design and analyse physical components such as transformers, transmission lines, waveguides, and semiconductor devices.

This module covers embedded and system engineering. Systems engineering is a structured process for transforming stakeholder needs into a complete system solution through requirements analysis, design, implementation, testing and deployment. Most systems today are embedded systems and are made up of both hardware and software, underpinned by digital electronics and microcontroller-based embedded hardware. In this module, you will learn digital electronics concepts in embedded hardware and follow a software engineering approach to use them in an engineering design within a project context. 

The use of object oriented programming will be introduced, and you will write computer programs for embedded hardware. You will also study the interface between hardware and software, including how digital input/output (I/O) and common peripherals are used to connect software to real devices, and how embedded architecture affects design decisions and performance.

You will work on an embedded systems project that ties in all the concepts learnt in the module. From the outset, you will be performing system engineering inclusively, by designing and developing embedded systems in a way that is accessible, equitable and responsive to the diverse needs of users, developers and environments.

In this module you will study the underlying physics of semiconductor devices, understand how they are designed and how careful design of semiconductors results in useful circuit elements. You will cover many types of semiconductor devices such as transistors (bipolar, field effect), diodes, light-emitting diodes, lasers, photodetectors and solar cells. We will also introduce you to opto-electronics. This knowledge will enable you, in future years, to learn how to design semiconductor devices for a wide range of applications.

You will also study the use of semiconductor devices in circuits. Common circuit building blocks, such as voltage and power amplifiers, oscillators and digital logic are all implemented using different versions of the same semiconductor devices. You will learn how to analyse these circuits and design your own. You will also see how the design decisions made in silicon affect the function of a device in a circuit.

In this module, you will learn to apply systematic strategies to solve computer-engineering problems. The module adopts two approaches. You will use traditional programming methods to learn a range of algorithmic techniques and to study the data structures needed to implement them. Second, you will study hardware description language, a form of language used to describe digital circuits, and then model and synthesise logic circuits to solve computer-engineering problems. You will learn about computer and embedded system organisation and how software  and automation engineering techniques are applied to the management of both hardware and software to manage design, testing and verification. Coursework will be used to bridge the gap between theory and practice by applying everything you've learned to a real-world AI project.