Subject overview

Programme outline

Engineers are rarely in a position where their only focus is the engineering. From a very early stage in their careers, engineers need to manage progress and financially control projects within a professional environment. As engineers progress in their careers, they will undoubtedly become involved in increasingly complex projects. One aspect of this complexity may result from the technology or technology combinations; however, this will not be the only source.  Engineering projects often involve overseas collaboration, either as a result of supplier or project partner locations. As the number of suppliers and partners increase, so does the complexity of the project and the associated systems and processes.

This course aims to advance the academic and professional excellence for both newly qualified and practising engineers who wish to enhance their business and management knowledge and skills alongside their engineering specialism, with a view to a career in engineering management.

You combine the study of advanced topics in business, management and finance with further study in specialist engineering topics and the opportunity to undertake an advanced engineering project. Your studies will benefit from company visits, simulations, case studies and a guest lecture series featuring international speakers and industry leaders.

Depending on your prior qualifications, you follow one of three engineering pathways:

• Advanced Engineering pathway: you can choose to study a range of specialist modules, which do not require specific prior experience
• Advanced Mechanical Engineering pathway: you can choose to study advanced mechanical engineering modules and benefit from the excellent experimental and computational facilities in this area
• Communications pathway: you can choose to take modules from our highly successful digital communications MScs.

In each case, your MSc project addresses a real-life problem to which you apply the knowledge and skills acquired across your studies of business management and engineering.

A key emphasis of the course is the use of collaborative learning to enable you to reflect on, and learn from, your experiences. You will be able to integrate new knowledge with past experience and to apply such knowledge and experience to new situations. You will be engaged in a range of activities to help your learning process, which may include lectures, seminars, discussions, directed reading, role play, company visits, simulations and case studies. For many of the pathway-specific engineering modules, lectures are supplemented by small-group laboratory, computing and problem-solving sessions, where you can put to the test the knowledge you have acquired. 

We continue to develop and update our modules for 2013 entry to ensure you have the best student experience. In addition to the course structure below, you may find it helpful to refer to the 2012 modules tab.

Course structure

The course structure is composed of core modules in business and management topics along with a range of options depending on the pathway chosen, for example:

Autumn term: Accounting and Finance for Managers • Global Business • Management Innovation and Organisational Performance • plus one option module from List A.

Advanced Engineering pathway: a second option module from List A.
Advanced Mechanical Engineering pathway: one option module from List B.
Communications pathway: one option module from List C.

List A: Advanced Digital Signal Processing • Advanced Manufacturing Technologies • Cybernetics and Neural Networks • Sustainable Energy and the Environment – Supply.

List B: Advanced Thermofluids • Gas Turbine Cycles and Turbocharging • Mechanical Dynamics • Testing and Modelling for Auto Power Systems.

List C: Advanced Networks • Mobile Communications • RF Circuit Design.

Spring term: Managing Complex Projects and Systems • Strategic Management • plus one option module from List D.

Advanced Engineering pathway: a second option module from List D.
Advanced Mechanical Engineering pathway: one option module from List E.
Communications pathway: one option module from List F.

List D: Image Processing • Managing Intellectual Property • Satellite and Space Systems • Sustainable Energy and the Environment – Demand.

List E: Advanced Turbomachinery • Computational Fluid Dynamics • Finite Element Analysis • Heat Transfer Applications.

List F: Advanced Digital Communications • Advanced Electronic Systems • Advanced Microprocessor Systems • Fibre Optic Communications.

Spring and summer terms: Engineering Business Management Project.

Assessment

There is a range of assessment methods including unseen examinations, oral presentations, essays, briefing notes, laboratory logbooks and the representation of laboratory work in formal reports. Non-assessed, formative assignments – supported by the University’s virtual learning environment – provide a framework for effective learning and encourage you to take responsibility for your own learning. 

Entry requirements

UK entrance requirements

A first- or second-class undergraduate honours degree in engineering, mathematics or physics.

Overseas entrance requirements

Please refer to column B on the Overseas qualifications.

If you have any questions about your qualifications after consulting our overseas qualifications table, contact the University.
E pg.enquiries@sussex.ac.uk

Related programmes

• Advanced Computer Science MSc
• Energy Policy for Sustainability MSc
• Human-Computer Interaction MSc
• Information Technology with Business and Management MSc
• Management of Information Technology MSc
• Managing Innovation and Projects MSc
• Technology and Innovation Management MSc

Fees and funding

Fees

Home UK/EU students: £5,500¹
Overseas students: £16,200²

¹ The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.
² The fee shown is for the academic year 2013.

Funding

The funding sources listed below are for the subject area you are viewing and may not apply to all degrees listed within it. Please check the description of the individual funding source to make sure it is relevant to your chosen degree.

Faculty interests

Specialist research areas in the Department of Engineering and Design

Research in the Department of Engineering and Design is organised into three main groups with several specialist sub-groups. For more detailed information, refer to the groups listed below and visit the Department of Engineering and Design: Research.

Biomedical Engineering Group

This group specialises in research into devices and computational techniques for medical and biological imaging and image processing, with a particular focus on cancer diagnosis and treatment. The activities are truly interdisciplinary and include collaborations with the School of Life Sciences at Sussex, clinical practitioners and companies in the medical device and medical imaging sectors.

Faculty research interests include:

Professor Chris Chatwin, Dr Phil Birch, Dr Rupert Young Image processing for medical diagnosis: computer-assisted diagnosis with Professor K Miles of the Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS). The research provides imaging biomarkers in cancerous tissue by wavelet filtering in an apparently normal contrast-enhanced CT image of the liver. We are currently extending the technique to 3D-texture analysis of the whole liver and lung. This research is the subject of a patent application and commercialisation of the software.

Dr David Li Finite-element analysis on waveguide devices; numerical modelling on optical communication devices; imaging and sensing systems; mixed-signal circuits, imaging processors, and firmware design.

Dr Constantino Carlos Reyes-Aldasoro Medical imaging analysis; tumour micro-vasculature, tracking and shape analysis; image reconstruction; numerical analysis; neutrophil tracking algorithm.

Dr Wei Wang Biomedical signal and image processing; 3D image analysis and visualisation, medical electronics, clinical applications in early-stage cancer detection and treatment, cell/molecular imaging.

Electrical and Electronic Engineering Group

Electrical and electronic research at Sussex is focused on advanced sensor technologies, mobile communications, and signal and image processing. The outcomes of its activities address important problems in areas including the health of the ageing population, safety and security, biometrics, advanced networking and mobile communications. The group has strong links with industry and Government agencies and works closely through the University with the Sussex Innovation Centre (SInC) to commercialise its research.

Projects are funded by a mix of UK Research Councils and agencies, industry and the European Union.

Research is conducted in three specialist sub-groups:

• Communications Research Group

• Industrial Informatics and Manufacturing Systems

• Sensor Technology Research Centre (STRC).

Electrical and electronic engineering is well resourced in terms of facilities including surface-mount circuit prototyping, a clean room with fabrication facilities, electromagnetically shielded rooms, dedicated embedded systems hardware and software, and dc-to-microwave test and measurement capability.

Communications Research Group

This group has expertise in the area of mobile and wireless communications focused on improving capacity, power and spectrum efficiency, reliability, quality of service, and low-complexity implementations. It promotes basic and applied research employing leading-edge communication technologies to meet the new emerging requirements and applications.

Work involves theoretical studies, simulations, and implementations using advanced software tools and digital hardware. The research impacts a number of important areas in the communications industry and practical systems in different sectors such as health, transport, energy, security and environment.

Faculty research interests include:

Dr Falah Ali Mobile communications: digital communication techniques, multiple access, multiple antenna/MIMO, channel coding, co-operative communications, distributed video coding.

Wireless networks: adhoc networks, wireless sensor networks, vehicular communications, real-time and high-reliability communications.

Embedded digital systems: advanced communication algorithms on embedded digital hardware, DSP and FPGA. Development of testbed demonstrators with integrated networks.

Industrial Informatics and Manufacturing Systems

Research in this group is focused on digital image processing; computer vision; optical computing, holography and communication; optical metrology; network and control theory. These activities find application in a wide range of strategically important areas including product security, biometrics, automated face recognition, event detection and traffic monitoring. As an example, mobile-phone hardware and software has been developed to allow the phone to scan and recognise human irises using novel algorithms that have been patented and commercialised.

Faculty research interests include:

Professor Chris Chatwin Advanced manufacturing: manufacturing and enterprise simulation and modelling, integrated total quality management. Fibre-optic communications. Security and surveillance systems: machine vision and image-processing, neural networks, mobile image acquisition, biometrics.

Dr Phil Birch Fibre-optic communications: photo-refractive holography, holographic optical memory, four-wave mixing, spatial light modulators, dynamic light-shaping elements, optical pattern recognition, optical filtering, electro-optic systems design.
Machine vision and image-processing: Wiener filtering, foveating systems, mobile image acquisition, autonomous mobile robots, biometrics.

Dr Tai Yang Networks and control systems for power generation control applications and in-vehicle control systems, control of hybrid and electrical vehicles, wind power generation and energy storage.

Dr Rupert Young Advanced manufacturing, fibre-optic communications, photo-refractive holography, holographic optical memory, four-wave mixing, spatial light modulators, dynamic light-shaping elements, optical pattern recognition, optical filtering, and electro-optic systems design.
Machine vision and image-processing: neural networks, Wiener filtering, foveating systems, mobile image acquisition, biometrics.

Sensor Technology Research Centre (STRC)

The STRC is a world-leading centre focusing on electric and magnetic sensor technologies and their applications. The focus is on the acquisition of weak electrical signals in challenging environments.

It has pioneered a new class of device with generic measurement capability, the Electric Potential Sensor (EPS). This has attracted considerable attention, winning a number of prestigious awards and gaining wide publicity in the technical press. The first generation of EPSs has been licensed to industrial partners and is now being marketed as an integrated circuit device.

Research activity includes the fundamentals of sensor operation, modelling of measurement scenarios and application specific projects. These applications are very broad and include electrophysiological monitoring, such as cardiac imaging and wireless linked electroencephalogram arrays, muscle and eye signal detection for human-machine interfacing and assistive technologies, security, forensics, geophysical measurements in collaboration with the British Geological Survey, materials characterisation for the semiconductor industry, and electric field detection of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signals.

The Centre is well resourced with electro-magnetically shielded rooms, cryogenic facilities, clean rooms, electron beam lithography fabrication, electronic systems spanning dc-to-the-millimetre waves; and surface-mount fabrication facilities.

Faculty research interests include:

Dr Ahmet Aydin Non-invasive sensors, electric field sensors for geophysical measurements, electric field detection of NMR signals.

Dr Helen Prance Electric field sensors for assisted living, human-machine interfaces, remote detection of life signs and nuclear resonance detection.

Professor Robert Prance Sensors for electric and magnetic field imaging, charge fingerprint imaging, non-destructive testing of materials, and low-noise instrumentation.

Mechanical Engineering Group

This group provides cutting-edge research in engineering systems aimed at improving energy efficiency, reliability, and safe and cost-effective operation. The group has attracted research grants from, and formed collaborations with, a variety of local, national and international public and industrial sources including SEEDA, EPSRC, Royal Society, British Council, European Commission, General Electric, Jaguar Landrover and SKF.

Research is conducted in three specialist sub-groups:

• Dynamics and Automotive Engineering (DAE)

• Thermo-Fluid Mechanics Research Centre (TFMRC)

• Tribology.

Dynamics and Automotive Engineering Group (DAE)

DAE is known internationally for its high-quality automotive research and fundamental work in dynamics and control. The group has a broad range of interests such as the convergence of control, non-linear dynamics, and signal-processing activities applied mainly to automotive engineering.

Facilities include two engine-test cells, an engine-test laboratory, a full range of emissions measurement equipment, calibration equipment for engine control, and laser-based vibration measurement hardware. The primary focus is now directed towards CO₂ reduction in transport through energy conversion efficiency improvements in engines, and through ‘light-weighting’ and drag-reduction technologies. For dynamics and automotive engineering this means reducing vehicle CO₂ emissions (well-to-wheels) by improving powertrain and vehicle efficiencies particularly of internal combustion (IC) engines in conventional and hybrid electric vehicles, and by better understanding vehicle noise emissions to allow weight reduction.

Faculty research interests include:

Dr Julian Dunne Engineering dynamics. Nonlinear system modelling and analysis; optimal control; vehicle, engine and rotor dynamics; noise, vibration and harshness applications in automotive and aerospace engineering.

Dr Zhijin Peng Automotive systems. Internal combustion (IC) engine combustion, performance and emissions control, fuel injection and heat transfer, homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combustion, gasoline-lean and stratification combustion.

Dr Yevgen Petrov Modelling, numerical methods, analysis and optimisation of forced and self-excited vibration of jointed structures with friction, gaps and other nonlinear interactions at contact interfaces.

Dr William Wang Machine condition monitoring, digital signal processing techniques, vibrational analysis and structural dynamics, wavelets and neural networks, measurement fault diagnosis.

Dr Zhiyin Yang Large-eddy simulation; flow stability and transition; turbulent combustion; two phase flow; gas turbine combustion system; heat transfer; turbine machinery flow.

Thermo-Fluid Mechanics Research Centre (TFMRC)

The Thermo-Fluid Mechanics Research Centre is a dedicated research laboratory specialising in flow and heat transfer, and has substantial experimental and computational facilities. It has a proven track record in research, particularly in relation to gas turbine engines, and has attracted significant funding over previous years from industry, the European Commission and the EPSRC to conduct cutting-edge research on a wide range of engineering problems.

The Centre has a significant experimental research infrastructure including a number of high-pressure air supplies such as the Rolls-Royce DART engine-driven compressor. It also hosts the DANTEC Centre of Excellence in Non-Invasive Instrumentation and has an array of state-of the-art flow instrumentation including laser anemometry, particle imaging velocimetry (PIV), phase Doppler anemometry (PDA) and hot wire anemometry.

The Centre has expertise in temperature measurements including thermal imaging and liquid crystal measurements, as well as an in-house computational fluid dynamics code, SURF, which is an unstructured general-purpose compressible flow and aeroelasticity solver.

Current experimental projects funded by General Electric are focused on internal air systems of gas turbine engines. A major computational research project, funded by the European Commission, is H2-IGCC, which aims at developing low-emission gas turbine technology using hydrogen-rich Syngas. Research funded by the EPSRC and industry aims at the development of new technologies for waste heat recovery using organic rankine cycle.

Faculty research interests include:

Dr Vasudevan Kanjirakkad Experimental aerodynamics/heat transfer, turbomachinery aerodynamics, rotating disc and swirling flows, turbulence and boundary layer transition, flow instrumentation, sustainable energy.

Dr Christopher Long Experimental heat transfer and fluid-flow measurements, turbulence, application of optically based measurements, and sustainable and renewable energy.

Professor Naser Sayma Computational fluid dynamics, turbomachinery performance, unstructured grid generation, parallel computing, and sustainable and renewable energy.

Dr Hao Xia Computational fluid dynamics, computational aeroacoustics, large-eddy simulation, turbomachinery heat transfer, level set method.

Tribology

Tribological research is at the forefront of the efforts to address the demands of the advances in material science, manufacturing, technology and the needs for better products, improved human life, and contributing to energy savings and a cleaner environment.

The group researches areas including lubrication, dynamics of lubricated contacts, mechanical transmissions, contact mechanics and numerical modelling of lubricated contacts.

Our experimental facilities include a PCS instruments optical interferometry test rig of EHD film measurement, an optical interferometry rig with a high-speed imaging system for dynamic testing of liquid films, impedance/gain-phase analyser, and a range of viscometers.

Research collaborations span both academic institutions and industry including Imperial College, UK; Kyodo Yushi and Kyushu University, Japan; SKF R&D, Netherlands; and Wroclaw University of Technology, Romania.

Faculty research interests include:

Dr Romeo Glovnea Tribology, fundamentals of lubrication, experimental techniques in thin-film lubrication, mechanical transmissions (CVTs), contact mechanics.

Research interests in the School of Business, Management and Economics

The research interests of selected faculty are briefly described below. For more details, visit the Department of Business and Management, the Department of Economics, the Department of Mathematics, and SPRU – Science and Technology Policy Research.

Professor Carol Alexander Mathematical finance, financial econometrics, market risk analysis.

Mike Barrow Public-sector economics, local government, efficiency and value for money.

Lisa Blatch Delivers the Negotiation module on the MSc in Global Supply Chain and Logistics Management.

Dr Odul Bozkurt International human resource management.

Dr Ioanna Chini Social study of ICT, ICT policy.

Professor Ian Davidson Financial markets and instruments, application of quantum mechanics.

Dr Des Doran Supply chain management, modularisation, service operations.

Dr Bertram Düring Applied and financial mathematics.

Rob Eastwood Demographic change and economic development.

Dr Sonja Fagernas Development economics.

Professor John Forker Financial accounting and reporting, earnings quality, equity pricing.

Dr Kevin Grant IT/IS strategic alignment.

Dr Bruce Hearn Emerging financial markets of Asia and Africa.

Dr Michael Hopkins Biomedical innovation systems, for products (eg drugs) or services (eg diagnostic testing).

Dr Surendranath Jory Mergers and acquisitions.

Dr Norifumi Kawai Internationalisation of Asian firms, strategic human resource management.

Dr Marv Khammash Interactive marketing, consumer behaviour, marketing communication.

Dr Andreas Kornelakis Globalisation and models of capitalism, outsourcing, training policies.

Dr Omar Lakkis Numerical analysis and scientific computing.

Dr Rebecca Liu New product development.

Dr Michelle Luke Self/identity, attitudes and values, positive psychology and risk perception. 

Dr Anotida Madzvamuse Bio-membranes.

Professor Emmanuel Mamatzakis Banking and finance, forecasting, public finance.

Dr Monica Masucci Strategy and entrepreneurship.

Professor Roman Matousek Bank efficiency, microeconomics of banking, monetary policy.

Professor Martin Meyer Emergent technologies, technology transfer.

Royston Morgan Consultant who delivers the Outsourcing module on the MSc in Global Supply Chain and Logistics Management. 

Dr Piera Morlacchi New technological, organisational and institutional forms.

Dr Mike Osborne Applications in economic theory.

Dr Dimitra Petrakaki Implications of technology in organisational change.

Dr Matias Ramirez Relationship between labour mobility, knowledge flows.

Professor Barry Reilly Applied econometrics.

Dr Vikrant Shirodkar International business, strategy.

Dr Josh Siepel Development of the venture capital sectors in the US and the UK.

Professor David Storey OBE The economic environment in which small firms operate.

Professor Roger Strange Corporate governance and FDI decisions.

Professor Mike Sumner Macroeconomics and public finance.

Richard Sykes Working for a range of clients in the public and private sectors.

Dr Qi Tang Mathematical and statistical modelling of financial, corporate and technological risks.

Dr Shqiponja Telhaj Economics of education.

Professor Joe Tidd Innovation strategy.

Dr David Twigg Technology, operations and innovation management.

Dr Joana Vassilopoulou Organisational behaviour, employment studies.

Dr Jie Wen Banking and finance.

Dr Mirela Xheneti Entrepreneurship in post-communist countries.

Dr Biao Yang Logistics and supply chain management, service operations management, mass customisation.

Dr Yong Yang International business, applied economics, technology outsourcing.

Dr Xiaoxiang Zhang Corporate governance, corporate finance, information efficiency.

Careers and profiles

There is strong demand from engineering-based companies and organisations for their technical specialists to be proficient in project management, to be aware of and understand the global business environment and to be capable of achieving leadership management positions.

The continued demand for highly qualified engineers worldwide means that – with a combination of technical, business and management knowledge you will have gained from this course – employment opportunities will be available in a wide range of sectors including transportation, manufacturing, energy-supply and sustainable-energy industries, telecommunications, electronics, automotive, and control.

The combination of subjects combined with the project ensures that on successful completion of this course doctoral study is also an option.

School and contacts