This is your chance to design and implement your own large-scale project of investigation, experimentation and analysis. Via a combination of meetings with your supervisor and delivered sessions on the areas you will need to function as a professional engineer, you will plan, design and implement your MSc project in an agreed area related to your course. Delivered sessions will assist you with project management, research techniques and allow you to evaluate the requirements for areas such as Health & Safety, ethics and your own personal development.

Your project will need to have practical and investigative elements, meaning you will have the opportunity to evaluate existing background, theories and knowledge as applied to a design problem or the development and improvement of new or existing processes and products. By using the wide-ranging skills, you have developed during your course you will be able to use practical measurement, design, implementation and above all, creativity, to devise and develop a solution based on sound engineering principles. It’s going to be an integrative project, that allows you to deploy, and extend, the range of skills and knowledge you have previously and concurrently developed in your chosen course.

100% Coursework comprising:

A 12,000 words Final Project Dissertation weighted at 70%, assessing learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, and 4. Meeting AHEP 4 Outcomes: M1, M2, M3, M4, M5 and M17

A 15-minute Presentation and Interview weighted at 30%, assessing learning outcome 5. Meeting AHEP 4 Outcome: M17

Formative guidance and feedback will be provided in meetings with the project supervisor.

Professional Body requirements mean that a minimum overall score of 50% is required to pass a module, with each element of assessment requiring a minimum mark of 40% unless otherwise stated.

This module will enable students to gain understanding, apply knowledge, analyse and evaluate problems and create solutions through a variety of activities, including;

- You are expected to meet with your tutor on a weekly basis. Prior to each meeting you should write a small informal report including a summary of work completed, questions you want to discuss with your tutor and work you have planned for next week. Your tutor will review the work completed and give advice on future work and technical aspects of your project.

- Individual and group tutorials with other experts within the department who will give advice on technical aspects of your project outside the skillset of your supervisor.

- Student Centred Learning to include laboratory work, research and report writing.

1. Apply appropriate professional engineering techniques to an independently planned Engineering project. (AHEP 4: M1, M2, M3, M5)

Application

2. Perform a detailed literature survey suitable to underpin a subsequent research-based project, demonstrating a critical awareness and evaluation of current research, contemporary problems and new insights at the forefront of the chosen engineering related discipline. (AHEP 4: M4)

Knowledge & Understanding

Learning

Enquiry

3. Process and analyse complex sets of results, often of incomplete data, demonstrating the ability to make sound judgements in the absence of that data. (AHEP 4: M1, M2, M3, M5)

Problem Solving

Analysis

4. Produce a major report conforming to a prescribed standard of referencing, clearly communicating the project work to an appropriate audience. (AHEP 4: M17)

Communication

Reflection

5. Present and defend the report and its findings clearly to a critical audience of specialist and non-specialist professional engineers. (AHEP 4: M17)

Communication

Reflection

Practical Laboratory and Workshop Facilities

PC Laboratories and Engineering Software dependant on Student’s individual project requirements

American Society of Mechanical Engineers, (2015) “Unwritten Laws of Ethics and Change in Engineering”, American Society of Mechanical Engineers

Braungart, M. and McDonough, W., (2009) “Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things”, Vintage

James, R., Rabins, M. J., Harris Jr., C., Pritchard, M., Englehardt, E., (2018) “Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases” Wadsworth Publishing Co.

Leong, E. C., Heah, C. L. H. and Ong, K. K. W., (2015) “Guide to Research Projects for Engineering Students: Planning, Writing and Presenting”, 1st Ed, CRC Press

Ridley, J., (2017) “Health and Safety in Brief”, 4th Ed, Routledge

Thomas, G. (2022) “How to Do Your Research Project: A Guide for Students”, 4rd Ed, SAGE Publications Ltd.

Thompson, R. and Thompson, M., (2013) “Sustainable Materials, Processes and Production (The Manufacturing Guides)”, Thames and Hudson Ltd

Wright, A. and Lawlor-Wright, T. (2018) “Project Success and Quality: Balancing the Iron Triangle”, Routledge, 1st Edition

This is your chance to design and implement your own large-scale project of investigation, experimentation and analysis. Your project will need to have practical and investigative elements, meaning you will have the opportunity to evaluate existing background, theories and knowledge as applied to a design problem or the development and improvement of new or existing processes and products. By using the wide-ranging skills, you have developed during your course you will be able to use practical measurement, design, implementation and above all, creativity, to devise and develop a solution based on sound engineering principles.