Program Overview

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The modern world depends upon electronics, from mobile phones and digital broadcasting, to GPS navigation and robotics; and it is electronic engineering which has driven these inventions and more. This is a subject where you can exercise your imagination, using skills from both traditional communications and digital systems to resolve existing problems, and to create new products. On our course, you cover a wide spectrum of topics to help you become an electronics designer:

• Mathematical skills and software tools for problem-solving in engineering
• Wireless Communication technology
• The building blocks of complex digital systems
• Analogue systems and circuit techniques
• Computer simulations

Our School is a community of scholars leading the way in technological research and development. Today’s electronic engineers are creative people who are focused and committed, yet restless and experimental. We are home to many of the world’s top engineers, and our work is driven by creativity and imagination as well as technical excellence. You graduate as a creative, experimental, and focused engineer ready to explore further how electronics can impact the people and world around you. Programming at Essex Teaching someone to programme is about opening a door. In your first year at Essex you will study a module that introduces you to programming using C. We assess your ability to think in a programmatic way in the very first week of term and if you require additional support, we offer classes which will boost your skills and confidence with programming.

Professional accreditation

Accredited by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) on behalf of the Engineering Council for the purposes of fully meeting the academic requirement for registration as an Incorporated Engineer and partially meeting the academic requirement for registration as a Chartered Engineer. Why we're great.

• 94% of our School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering graduates are in employment or further study (Graduate Outcomes 2023).
• Become part of the next generation of industry professionals and academic researchers to help drive the economy, and push the frontiers of knowledge.
• We are ranked 6th in the UK for research power in computer science (Times Higher Education research power measure, Research Excellence Framework 2021).

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Study abroad

Your education extends beyond the university campus. We support you in expanding your education through offering the opportunity to spend a year or a term studying abroad at one of our partner universities. The four-year version of our degree allows you to spend the third year abroad or employed on a placement abroad, while otherwise remaining identical to the three-year course. Studying abroad allows you to experience other cultures and languages, to broaden your degree socially and academically, and to demonstrate to employers that you are mature, adaptable, and organised.

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Placement year

Alternatively, you can spend your third year on a placement with an external organisation, as part of one of our placement year degrees . The learning outcomes associated with this programme focus on using the specialist technical skills acquired in the first two years of the course and developing communications skills with customers. Students are provided with support to secure a placement. Recent placements undertaken by our students have been with ARM, Microsoft, Intel, Nestlé, British Aerospace, and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, as well a range of SME software and hardware companies.

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Our expert staff

We have been one of the leading electronics departments in the country throughout our history, and in recent years, our prolific research staff have contributed to some major breakthroughs. We invented the world's first telephone based system for deaf people to communicate with each other in 1981, with cameras and display devices that were able to work within the limited telephone bandwidth. Our academics have also invented a streamlined protocol system for worldwide high speed optical communications.

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Specialist facilities

• We have six laboratories that are exclusively for computer science and electronic engineering students. Three are open 24/7, and you have free access to the labs except when there is a scheduled practical class in progress
• All computers are dual boot Windows 10 and Linux. Apple Mac Computers are dual boot MacOS and Windows 10
• Software includes Java, Prolog, C++, Perl, Mysql, Matlab, DB2, Microsoft Office, Visual Studio, and Project
• Students have access to CAD tools and simulators for chip design (Xilinx) and computer networks (OMNet++)
• We also have specialist facilities for research into areas including non-invasive brain-computer interfaces, intelligent environments, robotics, optoelectronics, video, RF and MW, printed circuit milling, and semiconductors.

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Your future

Demand for electronics and telecommunications engineers is high; the IT and engineering sectors are growing at a rate that outstrips the supply of fresh talent. The profession offers a range of careers from design and development to marketing, management, production engineering and applications engineering. Graduates also find employment in other disciplines because of the highly numerate nature of the subject. Our department has a large pool of external contacts, ranging from companies providing robots for the media industry, through vehicle diagnostics, to electronic system design and circuit design and manufacture, who work with us and our students to provide advice, placements and eventually graduate opportunities. Read more about computer science and electronic engineering career destinations here. Our recent graduates have gone on to work for a wide range of high-profile companies including:

• National Instruments
• Circad Design Ltd
• The McClaren Formula One Team
• B&W Group
• BT
• IBM
• Visa
• Google

We also work with our University's Student Development Team to help you find out about further work experience, internships, placements, and voluntary opportunities.