Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Program Overview

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Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Overview

Electrical and Electronic Engineering is a broad and exciting engineering discipline that is concerned with the study and application of electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. The programme covers a wide spectrum of topics, from micro-electronic chip design and manufacturing to power generation and distribution.

Course Structure

The programme contains the following themes which may change due to technology and industry needs:

Stage 1

• Embedded Systems
• Mathematics
• Analogue & Digital Electronics
• Communications
• Computing
• Electrical Engineering

Stage 2

• Electric Circuits
• Analogue Circuit Design
• Professional Engineering Practice
• Mathematics
• Embedded Systems
• Digital Electronics
• Electrical Power
• Signals & Systems
• Control
• Communications Systems

Stage 3

• Individual Project
• Engineering Entrepreneurship
• Advanced Electronics
• Power Electronics
• Electrical Power & Energy
• High Frequency System Techniques
• Networks & Communication Protocols
• Control Systems Engineering
• Signal Processing
• Communications Systems Engineering
• Connected Health

Entry Requirements

• ABB including Mathematics and at least one from Physics (preferred), Biology, Chemistry, Technology and Design, Electronics, Further Mathematics or Double Award Life & Health Sciences.
• A maximum of one BTEC/OCR Single Award or AQA Extended Certificate will be accepted as part of an applicant's portfolio of qualifications with a Distinction* being equated to a grade A at A-level and a Distinction being equated to a grade B at A-level.

Tuition Fees

• Northern Ireland (NI): £4,855
• Republic of Ireland (ROI): £4,855
• England, Scotland or Wales (GB): £9,535
• EU Other: £26,600
• International: £26,600

Careers

• There is a shortage of electrical and electronic engineers, not only locally in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, but worldwide, so employment prospects are excellent.
• The employment rate for graduates of this degree from Queen's (2013) was 100% (percentage employed in a graduate level job within 6 months of graduating).

Modules

Fundamentals of Electric Circuits

• Complex Arithmetic
• Linear Algebra
• Differentiation
• Differential Equations
• Integration
• Sequences and Series
• Function Approximation

Signals and Communications

• Linear Time Invariant Systems
• Transformations of independent variables
• Properties of systems
• Linear-time invariant (LTI) systems
• Convolution and impulse response
• Basic signal capture, analysis and manipulation in software
• Practical measurement skills of RF time domain and frequency domain

Digital Systems

• Number systems (Binary, Octal, Hexadecimal)
• Basic Gates in digital systems
• Combinational logic design
• Karnaugh maps (k-maps)
• Digital circuit minimisation via Boolean Algebra
• Digital circuit minimisation via Quine-McCluskey
• Sequential logic design
• Flip-flops
• Timing considerations
• Digital hardware technologies
• Multiple outputs and ROMs
• Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technology
• Digital Counters
• Finite State Machines
• Computer architecture fundamentals
• Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)
• Verilog Hardware description Language (HDL)

Electrical Engineering

• History of Electrical Science
• Electrostatics and Electromagnetism
• Capacitance and Inductance
• International Unit System
• Analogue instruments
• Digital instruments
• Electric Power (Active, Reactive, Apparent)
• Alternating Voltage and Current (Phasors, Analysis of simple circuits)
• Energy resources and electrical generation
• Economic and safety aspects of power supply systems
• Practical transformers (Efficiency, Regulation)
• Transmission of electricity (Voltage regulation)

Embedded Systems

• Introduction to Computer Programming using Python
• Introduction to Embedded Systems Programming using Arduino C
• Introduction to Microcontroller Electronics
• Introduction to Printed Circuit Board Design

Mathematics 1

• Complex Arithmetic
• Linear Algebra
• Differentiation
• Differential Equations
• Integration
• Sequences and Series
• Function Approximation

Mathematics

• Periodic functions, Fourier series and Fourier coefficients
• Vector/matrix notations and operations
• Fundamental theorem of linear systems, solving linear systems
• Orthogonality, eigenvalues, eigenvectors, eigendecomposition, and QR decomposition
• Multivariate functions, partial derivatives, chain rule
• Multivariate integration
• Multivariate optimisation: unconstrained optimisation and constrained optimisation
• Basic Probability Concepts and Common Probability Distributions
• Sampling, Parameter Estimation, Statistical Inference

Employability Skills and Placement Preparation

• Introduction to placement requirements
• CV building
• Local, national and international options
• Interview skills
• Assessment centres
• Placement approval
• Health and safety and wellbeing

Embedded Systems 2

• Introduction to Microcontrollers for Embedded Systems
• Interfacing Sensors for Microcontrollers
• Design Project for Microcontroller based Hardware

Electronics and Circuits

• System Equation
• Linear circuits
• Circuit Theorems and Methods of Circuit Analysis
• Two-port networks
• Laplace transform in circuit analysis
• SPICE simulation software (LTspice, Qucs-spice)

Communications

• Fundamentals on Electromagnetics
• Waves
• Radiation - Fundamentals on Antennas
• Antennas
• Antenna arrays
• Information Theory
• Noise
• Basedband
• Error detection
• Passband

Signals and Control

• Continuous Time (CT) and Discrete Time (DT) signals
• Transformations to signal independent variables
• Building blocks for signal analysis
• CT and DT systems
• Linear Time-Invariant (LTI) systems
• Fourier analysis
• Sampling theory
• Z-transform
• Control: dynamical systems, Laplace transform, Taylor’s theorem, state space representation, linear dynamical systems, BIBO stability, PID controllers

Electrical Power Engineering 2

• Electrical machine fundamentals
• The DC machine
• The induction machine
• Other machines
• Three-phase quantities
• Per-Unit System
• Synchronous Generation
• Transmission Lines
• Load Flow Analysis
• Symmetrical Components

Digital Systems

• Technologies
• Hardware Description Language
• Multiple-output Circuits
• Sequential Circuits
• Fault Detection/Design for Testability

Engineering Entrepreneurship

• Introduction to enterprise
• Student example pitches
• Overview of startup process
• Intellectual property overview
• Funding opportunities
• Business consultancy approaches
• Importance of branding

Project 3

• The project is normally an investigation or design study of various branches of electrical and electronic engineering

Digital Audio Effects

• Introduction to digital audio processing
• Standard processing units such as filters, delays, modulators, compressors, and limiters
• Design, implement, and demonstrate an effect chain
• Advanced method of approach within one of the following more areas; analogue effects emulation, physical modelling, spatial audio, and spectral processing

Power Electronics and Motor Drives

• Introduction on power electronics
• Power semiconductor devices
• Review of electrical and magnetic circuit concepts
• Switched RLC circuits and diode rectifier
• DC/DC converters
• DC power supplies and DC drives
• Pulse width modulated (PWM) Inverters
• Thyristor circuits
• Controlled rectifier
• AC voltage controllers
• AC power supplies and AC motor drives

Advanced Electronics

• Review device physics and small signal analysis
• Common second order effects
• Different transistor configurations and amplifier classes
• Differential pairs with active load
• Feed-back circuits
• Frequency response and gain-bandwidth product
• Filter design
• Basic noise analysis

Control Systems Engineering

• PRELIMINARIES
• CONTROLLER DESIGN
• IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES
• MATLAB and Simulink tutorials for computer assisted control system design (CACSD)

Signal Processing and Communications

• Discrete-time (DT) signals
• Fourier analysis
• Discrete linear filters and adaptive filtering
• Laplace transform
• Stochastic signal processing and multipath fading channels
• Digital modulation and demodulation
• Channel coding
• OFDM
• Using signal processing to analyse the performance of communications systems

Connected Health

• The evolution of Connected Health
• How fundamental electronics can be used to transduce medical markers from the human body
• Personal health data networks (IEEE 11073)
• Electronic patient records, Digital Health Records, Data management (security, privacy)
• Medical electronics and sensors
• Body sensors and personal area networks
• Biologically inspired sensing and data harvesting

High Frequency System Techniques

• Noise Theory
• Antenna and Front-End Techniques
• Non Linear Circuits and Systems Qualification
• Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) System
• Transmission Line (TL) Theory
• Microwave & RF Circuit Design Techniques
• Impedance Matching Techniques
• Two Port Parameters and Amplifier Design

Electrical Power and Energy

• Modelling of a Synchronous Generator and Introduction to Parks Transform
• Steady-State Operation (Phasor Diagrams)
• Dynamic Operation (modelling dynamics and introduction to AVR)
• System Stability and Control (linearized model, and design of PSS)
• Design of AVR (Pure control Theory)
• Transmission line parameters form first principles
• Overcurrent protection
• Fault analysis & fault level
• Embedded Generation
• DC Transmission

Networks and Communications Protocols

• Overview of OSI layers
• Error detection and correction, Cyclic Redundancy Checking
• Forward error control, Viterbi coding/decoding
• Layer 2 principles
• Queuing theory principles
• MAC Layer
• TCP/IP (Congestion control)
• Principles of physical layer
• PHY aspects of cellular and mobile radio systems
• High spectrally-efficient techniques for cellular systems

Assessment

• Coursework
• Examination
• Practical

Credits

• 20 credits per module

Teaching Period

• Full Year

Duration

• 24 weeks

Pre-requisite

• No

Core/Optional

• Core/Optional

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the fundamental concepts and techniques pertaining to electrical and electronic engineering
• Analyse and design simple feedback control systems to meet given performance specifications
• Understand the basic concepts used in the generic design of modern wireless communications systems
• Interpretation and application of design figures of merit as specified on component and sub-assembly manufacturer data sheets
• Experience of making an overall top level communications systems design to a constrained specification with particular reference to a microwave system
• Interpretation of manufacturers microwave amplifier data sheets and extraction of relevant electrical performance metrics
• Experience of impedance matching circuit design using Smith charts, and concepts used for performance optimisation of distributed circuit matching elements
• Practical experience in obtaining the geometrical dimensions and creating the physical layout of microstrip components and circuits

Skills

• Problem solving
• Numeric
• Improving Own Learning and Performance
• Information and Communication Technology
• Assimilation of error correction and control techniques, OSI layers, protocols of communications and networks, queuing theory
• Ability to solve mathematical and conceptual questions individually
• Ability to meet specific deadlines
• Ability to simulate mobile systems in MATLAB
• Presentation of technical engineering information clearly and concisely in written form