Electronic Communications and Computer Engineering MSc

The Holistic Engineering Design module is vital for future engineers as it equips them with the skills and mindset needed to address the complex and multifaceted challenges of the modern engineering landscape. It encourages students to consider ethical, environmental, and societal aspects of engineering design, making them well-prepared to create sustainable and innovative solutions in their future careers. This course fosters creativity, critical thinking, and effective communication, which are essential skills for successful engineers.

The Project Design and Development module equips students with the skills and knowledge needed to design, plan, and implement research projects – the module is essential for MSc students in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering that will commence their individual project in the summer. Students will learn about the importance of developing proposals, time plans and project management, as well as the necessity to adequately explain the context and backgrounds of projects through critiquing literature. Students will engage with their assigned project supervisors to aid in this module.

In this module a student will be assigned to an individual supervisor who will be a staff member in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. The student will carry out a practical, theoretical or simulation based project chosen from the current interests of the staff member concerned. The student will be expected to conduct a literature survey, undertake practical, theoretical or simulation work and write a dissertation on this work.

The module aims to give experience of completing a major investigation within the topic area of their MSc course, including planning the work to meet a final deadline and reporting on the work both in a structured written report (worth 80% of the module) and by an informal oral presentation (worth 20% of the module).

This module covers the development of advanced engineering software projects, spanning a range of application areas. Generic Topics to be discussed include: Large-scale software management, robust design and coding techniques, accurate and efficient numerical computing for technological simulations, parallel computing techniques applicable to several classes of parallel computer e.g. multicore, distributed and graphics processing unit (GPU) based systems, database design and implementation; distributed network based computing; hardware interfacing.

The principles, major algorithms, methods of implementation and applications of digital signal processing.

This module is an introduction to the principles and practice of instrumentation and measurement systems in an engineering context. The module will cover the generally applicable basic principles and then look at specific classes of instrument and associated electronics and signal processing methods. Topics covered include:

• Basic principles and instrument characteristics
• Measurement errors, basic statistics, noise and its control
• Dynamic characteristics of instruments
• Amplifiers, filters, ADCs and DACs
• Position, strain, pressure and motion sensors (resistive, capacitive, inductive, optical)
• Electronic and optical measurement instrumentation

The module introduces CMOS integrated circuit design and internal operating mechanisms of semiconductor electronics and opto-electronic devices.

Development and deployment of software for a variety of platforms ranging from the web an mobile devices through to large scale parallel computers.

This module provides an introduction to cybersecurity for electrical and electronic engineers. The area of cybersecurity is first introduced in the context of software application security, network security and data security and this is followed by more in-depth sessions focusing on each of these areas. Teaching through formal lectures, which contain traditional presentations alongside a number of demonstrations. Lectures are supported by practical laboratory sessions.

The technical topics covered are those that may be important in the development of typical electrical/electronic engineering systems or software. These include:

Vulnerable software – how poorly written software, particularly network accessible software, can cause serious security problems, methods based on overflow attacks and remote code execution style attacks that are used to exploit vulnerable software, and the techniques that are used to identify, protect against and prevent software vulnerabilities.

Network security – how software communicates across a network (IP addresses, ports and sockets) why networks pose a cybersecurity risk, the tools and techniques that are used to exploit them (packet sniffing, port scanning, network pivoting, webshells and wireless security attacks), and how networks can be secured.

Data security and encryption – the basic principles of encryption and its evolution through the computer age. The types of encryption method that are applied in modern software applications including symmetric and asymmetric methods, limitations of these methods and how appropriate methods can be selected for a given application. The reasons why encryption (classic encryption methods and modern algorithms) can be weak and/or compromised.

The module also addresses the impact that cybersecurity incidents has on society and business, and the ethics associated with certain branches of cybersecurity.

This module provides an introduction to artificial intelligence (AI) for engineers who are curious about AI. The module considers what AI is, what it is used for and why it is used in engineering. The module avoids the mathematics of the subject and instead focusses on the concepts and application of AI in the context of AI as an engineering tool.

The module introduces the core concepts of AI (what is meant by AI, machine learning and deep learning), supervised vs unsupervised learning and examples of AI applied in engineering. This is then followed by a closer look at supervised learning and the data source/type requirements of AI. The core concepts will be reinforced through a number of case studies arising out of the field of electrical and electronic engineering for example intelligent manufacturing, autonomous robotics, computer vision and energy optimisation.

The module will consider the challenges associated with current AI and explore issues related to ethics and bias.

Selected topics from the field of artificial intelligence with particular focus on the interface with electronic systems.

This module is an introduction to the operation of modern digital communication systems. Topics covered include:

• communication systems
• information content and channel capacity
• digital modulation techniques
• data compression techniques
• error-correcting and line coding techniques
• digital signal regeneration techniques
• system examples, telephone, digital television and CD technologies

Architectures for embedded systems; the operation of a microcontroller and its programming; assembly language directives and instructions; the interfacing of microcontrollers; embedded peripherals and interrupts; communications protocols used in embedded computing; introduction to larger scale embedded systems.

The module introduces both the syntax and application of HDL for the design of modern electronics. That would typically cover Xilinx, Mentor Graphics, and combinational and sequential circuits design.

To provide knowledge of the fundamentals of mobile communications and its application to real systems. Typical subjects might be 3rd and 4th generation systems, OFDM and MIMO and how 5th generation systems are likely to develop.

Optics and photonics technology is used widely in modern life, this module starts with the basics of light and how we can manipulate it with optical components, building up to a practical understanding of optical systems. It covers the design of optical systems and the types of sources and detectors that can be used. Applications cover material processing, bio-photonics and optical imaging.

This module introduced the main concepts related to optical devices, systems and networks. Topics typically include characteristics of optical fibres and a range of active and passive optical devices such as for example transmitters, detectors, amplifiers, multiplexers, filters and couplers.

This module gives and Introduction to fundamentals of robotics, and introduces students to: Direct Kinematics, Inverse Kinematics, Workspace analysis and specifying appropriate robotic manipulators for industrial processes.

This module covers a selection of topics where information is acquired from sensors and subsequently electronically processed. Applications will typically include, optical, acoustic, non-destructive evaluation, medical and bio-photonics.

This module introduces typical analytical, computational and experimental tools used in the study of Radio Frequency (RF) and high frequency devices and systems. This module will detail the fundamentals of electromagnetic wave propagation and typical RF devices such as antennas, antenna arrays, amplifiers, mixers and metal wave guides.

The ability to design and implement a complete IT system (networking and systems) for various size organisations.