Electronic and Electrical Engineering with Placement Year BEng Hons

Program Overview

This IET-accredited BEng program in Engineering provides a comprehensive foundation in engineering science, design, and management. Students gain hands-on experience through projects and industry placements, preparing them for careers in diverse sectors such as defense, power generation, and telecommunications. The program emphasizes transferable skills in problem-solving, project management, and decision-making, ensuring graduates are highly sought after in technical roles.

Program Outline

Outline:

Year 1

• Fundamentals of Engineering Applications: Introduces applications of engineering science to build functionality across all engineering disciplines, covering topics like manufacturing, design, sensing, data conversion, and data processing.
Students will complete a group project using CAD tools to analyze, design, capture, manufacture, and test engineering components.
• Fundamentals of Engineering Science: Covers fundamental engineering science concepts relevant to chemical, mechanical, nuclear, and electrical/electronic systems.
Students will learn about heat, energy transfer, radiation, fluid mechanics, forces, kinetics, impedance, and atomic level behavior. They will apply these principles to investigate real-world challenges.
• Numerical and Analytical Methods in Engineering: Introduces numerical and analytical methods relevant to engineering disciplines.
Covers complex numbers, calculus, differential equations, vectors, matrices, and transforms. Teaches the use of MATLAB and Excel for solving mathematical problems and generating graphs and statistics. Introduces basic programming concepts for implementing algorithms. Laboratory work involves visualizing mathematical solutions, processing data, and implementing algorithms on embedded processors or personal computers.

Year 2

• Business Development Project: Introduces various aspects of business development, encouraging creativity, entrepreneurial flair, and innovation.
Through practical sessions, students will demonstrate their progress through idea generation, peer presentations, elevator pitches, and formal presentations. Features external guest speakers who have achieved success in their own business endeavors.
• Digital Electronics: Introduces digital logic design targeting programmable logic devices, particularly FPGAs.
Covers design steps like simulation, optimization, and floorplanning. Uses VHDL as the programming language and Xilinx ISE 10.1 or Mentor Graphics ModelSim as the target FPGA development environment. Focuses on developing skills in digital logic design programming, development, implementation, and debugging.
• Electrical Circuits and Power Systems: Explores electrical circuits and power systems, including circuit theory, electrical circuit laws, phasor analysis, and three-phase circuits.
Covers the basics of electric power systems, including generation, transmission, distribution, utilization, stability, protection, and electrical safety.
• Electromagnetics & RF Engineering: Covers RF engineering, AC circuit analysis, complex representation of waves and transmission lines, and RF data transmission and receiver architectures.
Explores electrostatics, including electric charge, electric field, electric flux density, electrostatic potential, inverse square law of force, dielectric polarisation, and permittivity, capacitance, energy storage, parasitic capacitance, and electric screening.
• Engineering Analysis: Introduces numerate aspects of engineering and provides a broad range of mathematical methods for data and signal analysis.
Covers calculus for analyzing trigonometric, non-linear, polynomial, and exponential functions. Explores multivariable functions with relation to engineering on three-dimensional Cartesian axes. Introduces Laplace transforms, integration, and substitution to solve differential equations. Discusses Fourier and Laplace transformations to analyze systems in the time and frequency domain. Covers numerical methods for solving equations, integrals, and linear approximations. Uses matrix representations of coefficients and arrays in software for manipulations. Implements least squares analysis to assess data consistency. Utilizes software packages like Excel for multivariable analysis and graphical representation.
• Engineering Projects: Introduces engineering project management and applies concepts to a group project, aiming to develop a functional electro-mechanical machine (e.g., a line-following robot).
Students will learn to describe mechanical/electrical systems at the block diagram level, identify power and signal flows, and write performance or functional specifications. They will also learn to integrate functional requirements with maintainability, safety, manufacturability, environmental impact, and regulatory compliance. Covers interface management, including spatial, mass, environment, control, failure modes, and energy. Discusses project lifecycle management, including specification, design, manufacture, commissioning, maintenance, modification, and disposal. Applies principles of system validation using analysis, sample testing, type testing, commissioning, system tests, and acceptance.
• Instrumentation and Control: Enhances students' understanding of system dynamics and feedback by providing tools for the analysis of linear single degree freedom systems.
Covers using appropriate instrumentation for feedback and data-logging purposes. Enables students to interface devices like memory, digital I/O, and analog I/O to a microprocessor or microcontroller. Teaches programming these devices in C and/or Assembler.
• Power Engineering: Covers heat transfer and estimation of heat transfer rates, sizing simple parallel and contra flow heat exchangers, and estimating temperature distributions within 1-D or rotationally symmetric systems with steady heat flow.
Develops the ability to size cooling fins and set up appropriate boundary conditions for 3-D heat conduction problems solved numerically using software packages. Estimates the time for a thermal system to reach a steady state. Analyzes the starting, speed, and torque control methods used on induction motors and calculates the performance of single-phase induction motors.

Year 3 (Optional Placement Year)

• Placement Year Work-Based Learning: Provides students with graduate-level work experience in an industry or sector of their choice.
Opportunity to gain experience and connections for future careers. Supported by the Careers and Placements Team throughout the placement.

Year 4

• Analogue Electronics: Introduces time and frequency domain representations of analogue circuits, the principles of analogue integrated circuit and filter design, and linear network transfer functions.
Covers transistors and transistor circuits for integrated circuits, linear continuous-time filters, design of passive and active circuits for synthesis of transfer functions, parasitics, and filter precision.
• Digital Signal Processing: Teaches digital signal processing techniques such as Fourier transforms, sampling, discrete time and space domains, digital filtering, using MATLAB software.
• Engineering Management: Covers the role of management in modern industry, manufacturing systems, project financial appraisal, manufacturing systems and project financial appraisal.
Discusses aspects of law, human resource management, industrial organization, and project costing. Outlines company finance and reporting, environmental reporting, quality and safety management.
• Individual BEng Project: Students will manage a research project in their chosen specialization, gaining in-depth knowledge and relevant skills.
• Integrated Circuit Engineering: Introduces integrated circuit engineering, design, fabrication, and testing.
Covers VLSI engineering, the digital design process, CMOS circuit engineering, MOSFET short channel effects, switch model, digital design metrics, and the design of logic elements. Includes arithmetic building blocks, memory elements classification, array structure, and timing issues.
• Optoelectronics and Wireless Communications: Introduces the fundamental components of optical communication and wireless systems, information theory, and signal propagation.
Covers the theory of using optoelectronics and radio waves for telecommunications, types of antennas and their properties, optical communication systems, optical components, and optical sources. Discusses wireless communications, electromagnetic spectrum, radio wave propagation, transmitters, receivers, link budget, types of wireless networks, access, and system case studies.

Careers:

The program prepares graduates for careers in various sectors, including:

• Defence
• Power generation
• Automotive
• Telecoms
• Utilities
Graduates will have a broad range of subject-specific skills, including CAD design, understanding electrical circuits, power systems, and much more. This in-depth knowledge will make them sought-after employees in various technical roles. The transferable skills they develop will be valuable in any career path, including the ability to think creatively, solve problems, manage projects, apply practical and technical knowledge, and be confident in decision making.

Other:

• The program is accredited by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) on behalf of the Engineering Council for the purposes of fully meeting the academic requirement for registration as an Incorporated Engineer and partly meeting the academic requirement for registration as a Chartered Engineer.
• It provides a sound foundation in crucial aspects of the design and manufacture of future systems in the medical, environmental, energy, transport, communications, and ICT markets.
• The program is delivered by world-class academics and shaped by their outstanding research output.
• Students will gain hands-on experience with modern facilities and an array of high-quality equipment in the state-of-the-art engineering building.
• Graduates from Lancaster Engineering degrees are well-paid, with a median starting salary of £29,000 (HESA Graduate Outcomes Survey 2023).
• Lancaster University is a member of the UK Electronics Skills Foundation (UKESF).
• The UKESF Scholarship Scheme connects undergraduates to leading employers in the electronics sector and provides an annual bursary, paid summer work placements, and a paid-for residential workshop.
• Students may also choose to pursue further study and seek a career in academia.

Tuition Fees and Payment Information:

Home £9,250 International £28,675