Teaching

A 20-credit first-year unit introducing the design and implementation of digital systems from first principles. Students progress through Boolean algebra, Karnaugh map minimisation, combinational and sequential logic (including state machines and flip-flops), standard digital components, switching circuit analysis, and the fundamentals of CPU operation.

A 40-credit first-year core unit covering the full range of abstraction from physical principles through to system-level performance. Topics span thermodynamics, energy conversion, active and passive devices, and linear/non-linear circuit analysis using both simulation and analytical methods.

A 15-credit MSc unit (EEEN60251) establishing the classical control foundations for the programme and extending them to applied industrial practice. Topics include feedback system modelling, stability analysis, continuous and discrete PID design in MATLAB, and industrial process control structures such as cascade control and feedforward strategies. Practical sessions use LabVIEW to implement and test controllers on simulated processes.

A 10-credit third-year elective addressing the engineering challenges that emerge when digital and analogue signals share a PCB at high frequencies. Topics include signal integrity (reflections, crosstalk, transmission line effects), controlled impedance routing and termination, mixed-signal partitioning and grounding strategies, and design-for-test techniques. Students apply these principles through practical PCB design case studies.

A 15-credit MSc unit (EEEN60241) covering the analysis and design of feedback control systems implemented digitally. The unit begins with the z-transform, discrete-time system analysis, and digital PID design before extending to Model Predictive Control (MPC): problem formulation, receding-horizon optimisation, and practical implementation for industrial process control. Laboratory work uses MATLAB and Simulink throughout.

A year-long 20-credit team project in which second-year students design and build an autonomous line-following buggy from scratch. The unit covers microcontroller programming, analogue and digital circuit design, sensor interfacing, Bluetooth communication, and chassis construction. Teams compete in a public race at the end of the year, assessed on both functionality and performance.

A two-unit sequence forming the classical and modern control backbone of the BEng programme. Control Systems I (Year 2, mandatory) covers mathematical modelling with Laplace transforms and transfer functions, feedback system analysis, Routh–Hurwitz stability, root locus, and frequency-domain design including Bode plots and PID tuning. Control Systems II (Year 3, optional) extends this into state-space methods: state-space modelling, controllability and observability, full-state feedback and observer design, and discrete-time digital control.

A 15-credit MSc unit (EEEN60252) introducing analysis and design methods for control systems where linearity cannot be assumed. Students study nonlinear phenomena such as limit cycles and multiple equilibria, apply phase-plane and describing function analysis, and use Lyapunov stability theory to reason about system behaviour. The adaptive control component covers model reference adaptive control (MRAC) and self-tuning regulators for systems with uncertain or time-varying parameters.