• Introduction to data networks: layered architectures, TCP/IP protocol architecture, OSI model, main functions of different layers, relationship between layers, etc.;
• Structure of wireless and mobile networks, including cellular networks, wireless local area networks, ad-hoc networks, and wireless sensor networks;
• Wireless multiple-access techniques, including randomised medium access (ALOHA and CSMA),  FDMA, TDMA, CDMA, SDMA;
• Wireless routing: routing optimisation and routing protocols.
• Queueing theory, delay modelling, etc.;
• Error-control with the emphasis on the various Automatic Repeat-reQuest (ARQ) protocols;
• Cellular wireless networks: architecture, frequency reuse, multiplexing, multiple-access, broadcast, power-control, handover, interference, examples of TDMA-, CDMA- and LTE-based cellular networks, etc.;
• Wireless resource-allocation;
• Wireless LANs: techniques, IEEE 802.11/IEEE 802.16 physical layer, MAC sublayer protocol and frame structure, etc.
• Network security: Overview of information-theoretic security, cryptography and physical-layer security, symmetric-key algorithms, public-key algorithms, digital signatures, authentication protocols, physical-layer security techniques.

Learning & teaching methods

Assessment methods

Referral Method: By examination

Learning & teaching methods

Students will given a list of key computer science articles to read through the semester.  There will be 2 or 3 contact sessions per week.  These will give students opportunities to discuss the material, to clarify any details they are unsure of, and consider the impact of the ideas presented both on the field of computer science and also how their applications have impacted individuals, organisations, and society.

During the course, students will be tested on their understanding of the directed reading.  Written feedback will be given on these short answer and multiple choice tests in the following week's classes, together with model answers.  In addition, a series of seminars or debates will be organised on a topic based on the directed reading, for example: which language is best for teaching students to program.  Students will be assessed on their participation and contributions to these sessions.  Generic verbal feedback will be given at the end of the discussion, and  written feedback at the end of the whole series.  Finally, students will in pairs develop and demonstrate an application, web app, or animation to explain and illustrate a key concept in computer science to an interested teenager. Verbal feedback on this artefact will be given immediately after the demonstration. 

Assessment methods

Referral Method: By set coursework assignment(s)

• Key concepts
• The importance of data-mining
• Real-world applications of data-mining (cyber-security, financial forecasting, trend prediction, etc)
• What is unstructured data
• Modalities of data
• Underlying techniques
• Inverted indexes
• Matrix factorisation
• Probabilistic graphical models
• Dimensionality reduction
• Modelling data
• Understanding Text
• Bags of Words
• TF-IDF
• Natural language processing
• POS Tagging
• Entity extraction
• Dealing with non-textual data
• Feature extraction techniques
• Bags of features
• Modern data indexing at scale
• Information retrieval models
• Efficient indexing (one-pass versus two-pass; updatable indexes)
• Index compression
• Ranking models
• Unimodal data mining
• Dimensionality reduction
• Topic modelling (techniques such as LSA, pLSA, LDA, NNMF)
• Clustering (Hierarchical agglomerative, Spectral)
• Multi-dimensional scaling
• Mining graphs and networks (hubs and authorities [PageRank/HITS], spectral methods, etc)
• Multimodal data mining
• Finding independent features (ICA, NNMF)
• Finding correlations and making predictions (CL-LSI, classifiers, etc.)
• Collaborative filtering and recommender systems

Learning & teaching methods

Assessment methods

Referral Method: By examination

• Mathematical proof
• Proof by case analysis, proof by contradiction.
• Induction and recursion.
• Universal properties.
• Sets, functions and relations
• Basic notation, representations and examples. Membership and subsets.
• Operations on sets: union, sum, intersection and complement.
• Pairs, tuples, cartesian products, powersets.
• Relations, equivalence relations and partial orders.
• Functions: injections, surjections, bijections.
• Cardinality, infinite sets.
• Logic
• Propositional logic. Logical connectives.
• Syntax and semantics.
• Natural deduction, soundness and completeness.
• Quantifiers and predicate logic.

Learning & teaching methods

Assessment methods

Referral Method: By examination

Mechanical Systems:

• One Degree of Freedom Systems Application of Laplace transform and state space methods to mechanical systems. Analysis of dynamic response and role of Damping (Viscous and Coulomb) Base Excitation, Displacement Transmissibility Vibration Isolation.
• Two Degree of Freedom Systems Modelling of two degree of freedom systems in state space form. Physical interpretation of solutions. Free Vibration and Normal Modes, Co-ordinate Coupling and Principal Co-ordinates, Forced Vibration, Damping, Impedance Matrix, Vibration Absorber. Decoupling using Modal Matrix.
• Multi Degree of Freedom Systems Orthogonality, Modal Space Matrix Methods, Approximate Frequency Analysis, e.g. Rayleigh’s, Dunkerley’s Methods Lagrange’s Equations
• Continuous Systems Vibration of Strings, Rods, Beams and derivation of equations of motion.
• Application of Rayleigh’s method to approximate natural frequencies. Vibration and Instrumentation, Transmissibility.

Three-phase:

• Unbalanced mesh and four-wire star circuits; unbalanced three-wire star circuits; solution by Millman's theorem, star-delta transform and graphical methods; symmetrical components and use in solving unbalanced systems; positive, negative and zero sequence networks; use of two-wattmeter method on balanced and unbalanced systems for kW and kVAr measurement.

State Space:

• Application of circuit and mechanical analogies.
• Need for state space method; definition of terms: state-variable, state-matrices, etc; consideration of the elements that store energy; formation of equations, in particular the formation of matrix equation in the form of X = A.X + B.E, nature of these terms.
• Solution of state space equations by Laplace transform methods; solution of simple circuit network problems.
• Solution of state equations in the time domain (linear-time invariant case): solution of the state differential equation (exponential of a matrix, its computation, forced- and free response in the state-space setting).

Laboratory Coursework:

3-phase Star and Mesh circuit relationships; Cantilever vibration experiment

Learning & teaching methods

Assessment methods

Referral Method: By examination

• Review of power circuits. (2 lectures)

• Three-phase systems, star and delta connections.
• Active, reactive, apparent, complex power. Power diagrams. Power factor.
• Phasor diagrams. Complex impedance, impedance triangle.

• 3 phase transformers. (6 lectures)

• Review of principles of operation; construction; review of equivalent circuit; open- circuit and short-circuit tests; regulation; three-phase connections; parallel operation; auto-transformer; introduction to 3rd harmonic phenomenon and unbalanced loading.

• Introduction to rotating machines. (3 hours)

• Underlying concepts and features of rotating machines; fundamental torque equation; rotating field principle; air-gap mmf and permeance; 3-phase windings; winding factors.

• Synchronous machines. (4 lectures)

• Generated emf; output equation; armature reaction; phasor diagram; synchronous reactance; equivalent circuit; open and short-circuit characteristics; regulation; load angle; synchronous machine on infinite busbars; effects of saturation; salient-pole machine; synchronising; synchronous motor; V curves; power factor correction.

• Polyphase induction motors. (5 lectures)

• Basic theory and construction of squirrel-cage and wound-rotor motors; equivalent circuit; measurement of equivalent circuit parameters; analysis of machine equations; speed/torque curves; circle diagram; starting performance; speed control; single-phase induction motor; deep bar effect in squirrel-cage induction motor.

• Direct current machine. (4 lectures)

• Review of construction; basic equations and steady-state characteristics; windings; field form and armature reaction; commutation and use of interpoles; starting and speed control.

• Single-phase ac motors. (2 lectures)

• Outline of shaded-pole, universal, permanent magnet, and reluctance machines with applications.

• Introduction to hierarchical design and CAD. (1 lecture)

• Numerical solution of large systems of equations. (4 lectures)

• The finite element method for virtual prototyping
• Analysis of errors; matrix and vector norms; condition numbers.
• Comparison of methods.

• The CAD environment (2 lectures)

• Pre- and post-processing, automatic and adaptive meshing, Design Environment, optimisation, future trends.

• Case Studies: (3 lectures)

• Wind turbines
• Electrical and hybrid vehicles
• Maglev and conventional trains

Learning & teaching methods

Assessment methods

Referral Method: By examination, with the original coursework mark being carried forward

Recursive Techniques recursion on numbers, lists, trees, graphs.

• Procedural Abstraction
• procedures as arguments
• procedures as return values
• Objects
• structures
• closures
• streams and delayed evaluation
• Metalinguistic Abstraction
• Environment model
• evaluation
• metacircular evaluators
• Functional programming techniques in object oriented languages

Learning & teaching methods

Assessment methods

Referral Method: By examination

•  The development of individual practical skills through completion of a simple build and test exercise, incorporating soldering, circuit construction and the manufacture of a container.

•  Groups of students are required to undertake a design, build and test project against a predefined specification. The project assessment includes a competitive trial, individual log books, group reports and quality assessment of the designed system.

•  Small group exercise on programming of an industrial robot to perform a series of predefined tasks.

•  The groups will have seminars on project management and principles of design to support the activities.

Learning & teaching methods

Assessment methods

Referral Method: By examination

The Drive Environment: Robotic and machine tool applications; introduction to position and speed control systems; dynamics and load characteristics; power transmission; Environmental factors; determination of speed and torque requirements; motion profiles; Installation considerations.

Devices: Review of diodes, thyristors, bipolar junction transistors, MOSFETs; IGBTs; basic characteristics of all devices; drive requirements; thermal management; protectio

Converters: Two and six pulse circuits; derivation of operating equations; overlap and its effect on output waveforms

Inverters: Three-phase inverters; dc link inverter; forced-commutation thyristor circuits

Specification of Drive Systems: Mechanical transmission elements; gears; leadscrews, belts etc.; sizing algorithms.

Position and Velocity Transducers: Specifications; analogue versus digital; review of available linear and rotary systems.

Servo Drive Systems: Consideration of specific drives and their operating characteristics including brushed d.c. series motor drives, brushless d.c. motor drives, and vector-controlled a.c. motor drives.

Controllers: Integration into the drive package; networking.

Power Supplies: Linear and switched mode power supplies; practical characteristics and analysis of step-up and step-down switched mode power supplies

Learning & teaching methods

Assessment methods

Referral Method: By examination

•  Dielectric material (16)

o    Polarization mechanisms at the microscopic and macroscopic levels; frequency dependence of polarization; dipole moments; complex permittivity; Arrhenius equation; electronic polarization; Clausius-Mosotti relationship; Maxwell-Wagner interfacial polarisation; dipolar polairsation; Debye equations; Cole-Cole plot.

o    Electrical conduction mechanisms; charge injection mechanisms; space charge limited current; hopping conduction process

o     Electret materials, triboelectric series.

o    Piezo-electricity; ferro-electricity; pyro-electricity

•  High temperature superconductivity (4)

o    Historical development of superconducting materials

o    Engineering materials at low temperature; economic benefits; properties of HT_c superconductors, Type I and Type II superconductors; Meissner effect, Critical current density; Cooper pairs, BSC theory.

•  Superconducting Applications (4)

o    Josephson junction and flux quantization

o    Principle of SQUID operation

o    Power apparatus; cables and current limiter; energy storage systems.

•  Metallurgy and magnetic materials (12)

o    Importance of phase constitution and crystal orientation in conducting and magnetic materials. Conducting alloy systems and structure;

o    Soft magnetic materials; iron-silicon alloys; recrystallisation, grain orientated material and properties; iron-nickel alloys, importance of ordering and magnetic annealing; soft ferrites and garnets; powder metallurgy and principles of sintering; magnetic properties, uses and economic factors of magnetic sheet steel.

o    Hard magnetic materials; alnico alloys, fine particle magnets; rare earth alloys; barium ferrites, production and uses; comparison of ferrites and alnico alloys.

o    Storage and recording

Learning & teaching methods

Assessment methods

Referral Method: By examination