About the course

The MSc by Research in Engineering Science provides graduates with the opportunity to develop knowledge, understanding and expertise in their chosen field of engineering research, well beyond the level of a taught master’s degree, but without the requirement to complete as much novel research as a doctoral student. Students develop broad skills in relevant areas of mathematical and computational modelling, in the design and build of apparatus and software, and in data analytics and visualisation.

You will join your supervisor's research group and laboratory, and enjoy day-to-day contact with your supervisor, post-doctoral researchers, and other research students working on broadly similar research themes.

A key aspect of your research experience in the department will be exposure to the broad sweep of today's engineering research. The department’s research groups cluster into fields as apparently diverse as:

• biomedical, chemical and process engineering
• civil and offshore engineering
• electrical and opto-electronic engineering
• energy
• information, vision and control engineering
• solid mechanics and materials
• thermofluids and turbomachinery.

However, the department is committed to considering engineering as a unified subject, allowing interdisciplinary research to flourish.

In the first year, you will develop research skills in two ways. Firstly, you will read the current literature, often in reading groups, and attend research seminars, relevant lectures and training courses. Secondly, you will design and build apparatus, develop software, or both to address your own research topic. Often there is external involvement and you will develop your work in collaboration with researchers from industry and other research organisations.

As well as ongoing assessment by your supervisor, you will be required to write a report and give a presentation on your research at the end of the first year, and to present a detailed and coherent plan for the second and final phase in the second year of your master’s.

At the end of the second year, you will be required to submit a thesis which is read and examined viva voce by experts in the field, one from the department and one from elsewhere. The thesis is likely to result in the publication of one or more journal papers.