Program Overview

Virtual Prototyping for Vehicle Structures MSc

The MSc in Virtual Prototyping for Vehicle Structures is designed to provide students with advanced skills and tools needed to reshape vehicle design, focusing on advanced simulation, passive safety, and material characterization. This course is essential for CAE engineers and their teams to optimize design processes, minimize the need for physical prototypes, and deliver reliable, data-driven solutions that accelerate development and improve vehicle performance.

Overview

• Start date: October
• Duration: One year full-time
• Delivery: Taught modules 40%, Group project 20%, Individual research project 40%
• Qualification: MSc
• Study type: Full-time
• Campus: Cranfield campus

Course Details

The course comprises eight compulsory taught modules, assessed via a combination of written exams and individual coursework assignments, a group project, and an individual research project.

Course Delivery

• Taught modules: 40%
• Group project: 20%
• Individual research project: 40%

Group Project

Students undertake a substantial group project between October and March, focusing on designing and optimizing a particular vehicle system/assembly. This project prepares students for the project-based working environment within the majority of the automotive industry.

Individual Project

The individual research project is the largest single component of the course, taking place between April and August. It allows students to develop specialist skills in an area of their choice by taking the theory from the taught modules and joining it with practical application.

Modules

The following are the compulsory modules for this course:

1. Automotive Engineering Induction: Introduces the program, courses, and facilities available at Cranfield, covering team working, project management, and interpersonal skills.
2. Vehicle Design, Propulsion and Performance: Provides a deep understanding of vehicle propulsion options and driveline, supporting students in analyzing and predicting vehicle performance.
3. Experimental Mechanics: Introduces experimental techniques for analysis and characterization of various engineering materials, including full-field, non-contact optical methods.
4. Vehicle Passive Safety: Aims to provide an understanding of global and local buckling and the mechanisms involved in material failure, introducing testing methodology in crashworthiness.
5. Vehicle Dynamics: Provides a fundamental understanding of vehicle dynamics as applied to wheeled vehicles, introducing road vehicle ride and handling from requirements to analytical modeling and practical viewpoints.
6. NVH and Durability: Focuses on the simulation and testing protocols to be followed to design vehicle structures, with an emphasis on fatigue and NVH of structural components.
7. Vehicle Materials and Manufacturing: Provides an introduction to the selection and processing of materials for vehicle structures, emphasizing practical experience of the use of a range of materials for automotive structures.
8. Vehicle Structures: Aims to provide an introduction to the design and analysis of vehicle structures, with an emphasis on understanding and practical experience of the use of a range of materials in car structures.
9. Simulation of Composite Structures: Provides detailed understanding and practical experience of the use of composite materials in racing car structures, including materials selection, component design, manufacturing technology processing, and performance.

Elective Modules

One of the following modules needs to be taken as part of this course:

• Research Methods: Plans, conducts, and reports on an original, individual program of research within the field of Automotive Engineering/Automotive Mechatronics/Virtual Prototyping for Vehicle Structures.

Teaching Team

The course director for this program is Dr. Marzio Grasso, with other lecturers including Dr. Glenn Sherwood, Professor Efstathios Velenis, and Dr. Veronica Marchante Rodriguez.

Career

This MSc provides students with the necessary skills for a career in the CAE and structures departments of automotive and motorsport companies. Graduates can aspire to roles such as Structures Analyst, CAE Engineer, Structural Simulation Engineer, Vehicle Design Engineer, and Crash Safety Engineer.

Fees and Funding

• Home (Full-time): Ł13,005
• Overseas (Full-time): Ł29,025
• A non-refundable deposit is required for self-funded students.
• Various funding opportunities are available, including Masters Loan from Student Finance England, Commonwealth Scholarships, Chevening Scholarships, and more.

Entry Requirements

• A UK lower second-class undergraduate degree with honors, or equivalent international qualification, in engineering, mathematics, or an applied science subject.
• English language proficiency, with approved tests including IELTS, TOEFL, Cambridge Assessment English, and more, having specific score requirements for each test.