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Electives

In the later years of a degree you choose some of your units. Here is every elective Zooky offers, by major. 57 electives so far, all ready to learn today.

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Mechanical Engineering

Year 4 · Semester 1 · choose 1 of 5

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Design Innovation and Product Development

    How a product idea becomes a business case: market size, concepts, cost, prototypes, user tests and launch timing.

    Prerequisites: Introduction to Engineering

    What you'll learn (9 topics)
    • Innovation strategy and markets
    • From needs to concepts
    • Design for cost and value
    • Architecture and platforms
    • Prototyping and test planning
    • User testing and usability
    • Development economics and time to market
    • IP and licensing
    • Lean validation and unit economics

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and HVAC

    How a building is heated and cooled: heating and cooling loads, supply air and coils, ducts, chilled water and the balance of a refrigeration plant.

    Prerequisites: Fluid Mechanics, Engineering Thermodynamics

    What you'll learn (10 topics)
    • Thermal comfort and design conditions
    • Heating load and degree-days
    • Cooling load and wall response
    • Supply air and coil selection
    • Duct design
    • Fans and air-system control
    • Chilled-water and hydronic systems
    • Refrigeration plant balance and sizing
    • Refrigerants and environmental impact
    • Part-load and seasonal energy

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Composite Materials and Mechanics

    From the fibre to the failing laminate: ply stiffness and strength, micromechanics, laminate theory, cure stress and progressive failure.

    Prerequisites: no set prerequisites

    What you'll learn (10 topics)
    • Lamina stress and strain
    • Micromechanics and constituents
    • Lamina strength and failure criteria
    • Laminate stiffness: A, B and D
    • Hygrothermal effects and cure stress
    • Laminate failure
    • Laminate families and design by ply fractions
    • Laminated beams and plates
    • Tubes and pressure vessels
    • Processing and testing

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Additive Manufacturing and Design for AM

    From the mesh to the qualified part: layers, orientation, laser and thermal history, defects, lattices, topology, cost and qualification.

    Prerequisites: Manufacturing, Engineering Materials

    What you'll learn (11 topics)
    • Process families and the digital chain
    • Build orientation and supports
    • Laser powder-bed fusion parameters
    • Thermal history and residual stress
    • Density, porosity and hot isostatic pressing
    • Lattice and cellular structures
    • Topology optimisation
    • Design rules and part consolidation
    • Build cost and the business case
    • Directed energy deposition and binder jetting
    • Post-processing and qualification

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Advanced Control and Optimisation

    Control run by a computer: sampling and the zero-order hold, z-domain stability, digital equivalents and the digital current loop, then state feedback, observers, LQR, the Kalman filter and LQG, predictive control with input limits, and Lyapunov analysis.

    Prerequisites: Mathematical Methods, Control Engineering, Multivariable Calculus

    What you'll learn (18 topics)
    • Stability margins and Nyquist
    • z-transform: ROC, transfer functions, stability and inversion
    • Sampling and the zero-order hold
    • Analysis in the z-domain
    • Lead and lag compensators
    • IIR filter design: the bilinear transform, Butterworth filters and notches
    • Digital equivalents and PID
    • The delay and the digital current loop
    • State-space models
    • Discrete state space
    • State feedback and pole placement
    • Observers and output feedback
    • Maxima, minima and saddle points
    • Linear quadratic regulation
    • The Kalman filter, linear and extended
    • Kalman filter and LQG
    • Model predictive control, a first look
    • Lyapunov analysis

Year 4 · Semester 2 · choose 1 of 5

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Computational Fluid Dynamics

    How a flow solver works and when to trust it: advection schemes, linear solvers, stability, pressure coupling, wall treatment and verification.

    Prerequisites: Fluid Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics 2

    What you'll learn (10 topics)
    • Governing equations and models
    • Finite-volume advection schemes
    • Linear solvers for CFD
    • Unsteady schemes and stability
    • Pressure-velocity coupling
    • RANS models and inlet conditions
    • Near-wall treatment
    • Meshing and mesh quality
    • Domain and boundary conditions
    • Verification, validation and convergence

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Renewable and Sustainable Energy Systems

    How to power a country without carbon: hydropower, biofuels, geothermal, hydrogen storage, energy audits and the plan that adds them up.

    Prerequisites: Applied Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics, Engineering Thermodynamics

    What you'll learn (10 topics)
    • Hydropower and penstocks
    • Biomass fuels and biofuels
    • Geothermal power
    • Tidal and wave energy
    • Concentrating solar power
    • Hydrogen energy storage
    • Storage cost and thermal storage
    • Energy audit and verification
    • Efficiency measures and leaks
    • Net-zero system planning

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Internal Combustion, Combustion and Automotive Engineering

    From the cylinder to the road: engine maps, heat release and knock, flames and fuels, road load and acceleration, handling and electric-vehicle range.

    Prerequisites: no set prerequisites

    What you'll learn (10 topics)
    • Engine maps and part load
    • Heat release, spark timing and knock
    • Flames, fuels and mixtures
    • Emission indices and formation
    • Aftertreatment
    • Road load and acceleration
    • Braking and load transfer
    • Steady-state handling
    • Electric-vehicle energy and range
    • Hybrid energy management

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Machine Learning and Vision

    Learning from data and honest evaluation, linear and logistic models, classifiers, PCA and clustering, neural networks and backpropagation, 2-D image filtering, segmentation, convolutional networks, deep learning for signals, and squeezing a model onto a microcontroller.

    Prerequisites: Embedded Systems, Multivariable Calculus, Mathematical Methods

    What you'll learn (22 topics)
    • Events and probability
    • Point estimation: moments, maximum likelihood, bias and variance
    • Learning from data and evaluation
    • Least-squares regression
    • Gradient and directional derivatives
    • Linear and logistic models
    • Detection in noise: matched filter and bit error rate
    • Bayes, neighbour and tree classifiers
    • Joint distributions and correlation
    • Eigenvalues and eigenvectors
    • Features, PCA and clustering
    • The multivariable chain rule
    • Neural networks and backpropagation
    • Discrete convolution and impulse copies
    • Image filtering and edges
    • Thresholding, morphology and segmentation
    • Convolutional networks
    • Windowing and spectral estimation
    • Deep learning for signals
    • Low-power design: duty cycling, battery life, CMOS power and sleep break-even
    • Real-time basics: polling, utilisation, response time and state machines
    • Models on microcontrollers

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Manufacturing Systems and Industry 4.0

    Production planning and MRP, scheduling, lean, factory physics, line balancing, PLCs and flexible systems, industrial IoT and analytics, and supply chain and sustainable production.

    Prerequisites: no set prerequisites

    What you'll learn (8 topics)
    • Production planning and MRP
    • Scheduling and sequencing
    • Lean manufacturing
    • Factory physics and layout
    • Line balancing and automation
    • Cells, flexible systems and PLCs
    • Industrial IoT and analytics
    • Supply chain and sustainable production

Civil Engineering

Year 4 · Semester 1 · choose 1 of 6

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Bridge Engineering

    How bridges carry traffic: forms, loads, load sharing, prestressed and composite girders, bearings, cables and assessment.

    Prerequisites: Solid Mechanics, Structural Analysis, Reinforced Concrete Design

    What you'll learn (11 topics)
    • Bridge forms and load paths
    • Bridge loads and combinations
    • Moving loads and load envelopes
    • Load distribution between girders
    • Prestressed concrete girders
    • Composite steel and concrete girders
    • Bearings, movements and expansion joints
    • Cable-supported bridges: cables, stays and towers
    • Bridge assessment: rating, deterioration and fatigue
    • Continuous spans
    • Abutments and piers

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Advanced and Prestressed Concrete

    How prestress lets concrete span farther: stresses, losses, deflection, strength, shear, composite beams, anchorage zones, continuous beams and slabs.

    Prerequisites: Reinforced Concrete Design, Solid Mechanics, Structural Steel Design

    What you'll learn (11 topics)
    • Prestress principles and service stresses
    • Immediate losses: elastic shortening, friction and slip
    • Time-dependent losses and the effective prestress
    • Load balancing, cracking and deflection
    • Flexural strength by strain compatibility
    • Shear in prestressed beams
    • Designing a beam and composite action
    • Strut-and-tie models and anchorage zones
    • Continuous members and prestressed slabs
    • Precast prestressed elements
    • Durability, assessment and rehabilitation

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Flood, Catchment and Urban Water

    Flood estimation and urban water beyond the core: curve-number runoff, synthetic unit hydrographs, catchment models, flood frequency, compound channels, routing, flood damage, street drainage and sewer hydraulics.

    Prerequisites: Fluid Mechanics, Hydraulics and Hydrology, Environmental Engineering and Water Quality

    What you'll learn (14 topics)
    • Curve-number runoff
    • Synthetic unit hydrographs
    • Conceptual catchment models
    • Flood frequency with weighted skew
    • Compound channels and floodplains
    • Flood routing with Muskingum–Cunge
    • Flood damage and benefit–cost
    • Street drainage and inlets
    • Sewer hydraulics and the hydraulic grade line
    • Stormwater quality and pollutant loads
    • Treatment trains and water-sensitive design
    • Two-dimensional flood modelling
    • Joint probability and compound flooding
    • River sediment transport

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Transport Planning and Traffic Modelling

    Transport demand and traffic models beyond the core: trip generation, doubly constrained gravity, nested logit mode choice, equilibrium assignment, cell transmission queues, car-following simulation and validation, pricing and accessibility.

    Prerequisites: Transport Systems and Traffic Engineering

    What you'll learn (24 topics)
    • Transport modes and system planning
    • Travel demand forecasting and network assignment
    • Transport networks
    • Planning and approvals
    • Trip generation and balancing
    • Regression and correlation: fit, inference and prediction
    • Doubly constrained gravity and calibration
    • Iterative methods: Jacobi and Gauss–Seidel
    • Nested logit mode choice
    • Public transport frequency, capacity and reliability
    • Equilibrium assignment
    • Capacity and level of service
    • Cell transmission and spatial queues
    • Speed, flow and density models
    • Deterministic traffic queues and bottleneck delay
    • Car following and validation
    • Simulation workflow: solvers, step size, verification and validation
    • Simulation and the limits of models
    • Pricing, elasticity and demand response
    • Transport economics and project appraisal
    • Time value of money
    • Accessibility measures
    • Walking, cycling and inclusive transport service
    • Site plans and GIS basics

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Construction Management, Contracts and BIM

    Construction management beyond the core: contract risk allocation, programmes with lags and float, delay and extension of time, prolongation and disruption, contractor cash flow and accounts, and BIM coordination, 4D progress and 5D quantities.

    Prerequisites: Civil Engineering Practice

    What you'll learn (21 topics)
    • Contracts and procurement
    • Estimating and PERT
    • Site risk, quality and environmental management
    • Planning and approvals
    • Contract risk allocation
    • Risk and decisions
    • Precedence networks, lags and float
    • Teamwork and project management
    • Delay, extension of time and concurrency
    • Prolongation and disruption cost
    • Earned value management
    • Contractor cash flow and finance
    • Time value of money
    • Contractor accounts and revenue recognition
    • BIM coordination and clash detection
    • Building systems and structural forms
    • Site plans and GIS basics
    • BIM and the programme: 4D progress
    • BIM and cost: 5D quantities
    • Quantities, take-off and rates
    • Formwork and temporary works

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Humanitarian and Development Engineering

    Engineering for people in need: planning figures for water and toilets, water points and trucking, chlorination, pit sizing, service levels and survey coverage, and life-cycle cost per user.

    Prerequisites: Environmental Engineering and Water Quality

    What you'll learn (18 topics)
    • Human-centred design
    • Ethics and professional practice
    • Sustainability and life-cycle thinking
    • Planning figures for an emergency site
    • Simple civil sizing calculations
    • Water points, queues and trucking
    • Water, wastewater and drainage systems
    • Supply storage schedules, reserve, energy and pressure history
    • Chlorination and household water treatment
    • Water-treatment barriers and preliminary sizing
    • Filter run limits, effective segmented CT and UV operating-volume evidence
    • Excreta: pit sizing and filling
    • Infrastructure systems
    • Service levels and coverage
    • The engineering design process
    • Life-cycle cost per user
    • Time value of money
    • Whole-life carbon

Year 4 · Semester 2 · choose 1 of 6

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Structural Dynamics and Earthquake Engineering

    How buildings and bridges move: periods, modes, earthquake spectra, ductility, isolation and wind.

    Prerequisites: Solid Mechanics, Structural Analysis, Structural Steel Design

    What you'll learn (9 topics)
    • One degree of freedom: structures as mass, spring and damper
    • Generalised single degree of freedom
    • Pulse loads, shock spectra and step-by-step integration
    • Multi-storey buildings and modal analysis
    • Earthquake ground motion and response spectra
    • Seismic design forces and drift
    • Ductility and inelastic response
    • Base isolation and damping devices
    • Wind loading and wind-induced vibration

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Timber and Composite Structures

    Designing in timber and in steel with concrete: the material, beams, columns and joints, fire, composite beams, slabs and columns, and partial interaction.

    Prerequisites: Structural Steel Design, Solid Mechanics, Reinforced Concrete Design

    What you'll learn (15 topics)
    • Timber as a structural material
    • The design basis for timber
    • Timber beams: bending, shear and bearing
    • Timber deflection, creep and floor vibration
    • Timber tension, compression and combined actions
    • Timber connections with nails, screws and bolts
    • Timber durability and fire
    • Composite action: the transformed section
    • Shear connection: studs and the degree of connection
    • Composite beam strength: plastic moment and partial connection
    • Composite beam serviceability: creep, shrinkage and cracking
    • Composite slabs with profiled sheeting
    • Composite columns: squash load and slenderness
    • Partial interaction: the gamma method, CLT and timber–concrete floors
    • Strengthening and rehabilitation of existing members

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Advanced Structural Analysis and FEA

    Beyond the first stiffness analysis: settlement and thermal loads, rigid floors, plates and locking, buckling, second-order sway, plastic collapse and whole-building models.

    Prerequisites: Structural Analysis, Structural Steel Design, Solid Mechanics

    What you'll learn (8 topics)
    • Loads, releases and support movements
    • Constraints, rigid floors and penalty ties
    • Plate bending and shear locking
    • Geometric stiffness and buckling
    • Second-order analysis of sway frames
    • Plastic collapse of beams and frames
    • Elastic-plastic behaviour and hinge sequence
    • Whole-structure models: walls, frames, soil and floors

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Advanced Geotechnical Engineering

    Soil behaviour beyond the basics: stress paths, critical state, in-situ tests, liquefaction, pile tests and lateral loading, anchored and reinforced walls, slope stabilisation, rock slopes and support, problem soils, ground improvement and dewatering, and tunnelling ground movement.

    Prerequisites: Soil Mechanics, Geotechnical Engineering, Engineering Geology and Earth Systems

    What you'll learn (22 topics)
    • Stress paths in the triaxial test
    • Critical state and Modified Cam Clay
    • In-situ testing and geophysics
    • Cyclic loading and liquefaction
    • Unsaturated soils
    • Numerical consolidation by finite differences
    • Pile load tests and setup
    • Laterally loaded piles
    • Anchored walls and soil nails
    • Reinforced soil walls
    • Slope stabilisation and rapid drawdown
    • Intact rock strength and Mohr-Coulomb
    • Discontinuity shear strength
    • Discontinuities and stereographic projection
    • Rock slope plane failure
    • Wedge and toppling failure of rock slopes
    • Rock mass description, RQD and the Q-system
    • Rock bolts and reinforcement
    • Using rock mass classification in design
    • Problem soils: expansive and collapsible ground
    • Grouting, deep mixing and dewatering
    • Tunnelling ground movement

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Coastal, Ocean and Marine Engineering

    Waves, tides and storm surge, the beach and the sand that moves along it, and the structures that must stand in the sea.

    Prerequisites: Fluid Mechanics, Engineering Physics, Probability and Statistics for Engineers

    What you'll learn (17 topics)
    • Linear wave theory
    • Wave energy, groups and reflection
    • Shoaling, refraction and breaking
    • Short-term wave statistics
    • Design waves and return period
    • Wave generation and hindcasting
    • Tides
    • Storm surge and design water levels
    • Wave setup and nearshore currents
    • Sediment and the beach profile
    • Longshore transport and shoreline change
    • Beach nourishment and coastal protection
    • Wave loads on slender piles
    • Vertical-wall structures
    • Rubble-mound breakwaters
    • Estuary tidal prism and flushing
    • Wave and tidal power

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Environmental Sustainability and Planning

    Sustainable infrastructure from principles to carbon: planning demand and the year a plant is outgrown, impact assessment and law, air quality, waste and the circular economy, and the whole-life carbon of an asset.

    Prerequisites: Environmental Engineering and Water Quality

    What you'll learn (37 topics)
    • Sustainability frameworks: boundaries, goals and the triple bottom line
    • Water, energy and material cycles
    • Climate and carbon basics
    • Sustainability and life-cycle thinking
    • Population and demand planning
    • Infrastructure systems
    • Planning and approvals
    • Water, wastewater and drainage systems
    • Urban metabolism: stock carry-forward and metered energy boundaries
    • Time value of money
    • Impact assessment, alternatives and mitigation
    • EIA process, jurisdictional roles and operative decision evidence
    • Environmental legislation: duties, approvals, licences and fees
    • Hazard identification
    • Quantifying uncertainty
    • Environmental exposure, compatible dose-response and scoped risk screens
    • Environmental management systems and defensible audit evidence
    • Indigenous knowledge governance in participatory assessment research
    • Externalities, environmental valuation and social counterfactual accounts
    • Ethics and professional practice
    • Transport economics and project appraisal
    • Air sources, dispersion and control
    • Atmospheric evidence, reflected plumes and effective-height limits
    • Gas-control selection, reserve cloth and ideal collecting/reacting models
    • Indoor CO2 balances, zone outdoor air and occupancy-to-purge histories
    • Air pollutants, monitoring evidence and reporting bases
    • Waste hierarchy, recovery and landfill inventories
    • Waste bases, feasible collection service and material-product quality
    • Municipal landfill airspace, water/liner boundaries and dated gas cohorts
    • Compost feed recipes and conditional digestion/COD energy balances
    • Wet-waste thermal energy, net export and residue/heat-integration boundaries
    • Hazardous-waste evidence, paired properties and contaminant-transfer sinks
    • Waste policy authority, cash incentives and honest stock-aware metrics
    • Mass haul diagrams and earthmoving balance
    • Whole-life carbon
    • Life-cycle assessment and sustainable process accounting
    • Life-cycle cost and replacement economics

Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Year 3 · Semester 2 · choose 1 of 1

  • Ready to learn · Level 3 · 6 points

    Computer Architecture

    Why a processor is fast or slow: performance, instruction sets, pipelines, caches, virtual memory, I/O and parallel machines.

    Prerequisites: Computer Systems and C Programming, Digital Systems Design

    What you'll learn (10 topics)
    • Performance, CPI and Amdahl's law
    • ISA design and instruction encoding
    • Datapath and control
    • Pipelines and hazards
    • Branch prediction
    • Caches
    • Virtual memory
    • Input, output and storage
    • Parallel hardware
    • Superscalar issue

Year 4 · Semester 1 · choose 1 of 8

  • Ready to learn · Level 3 · 6 points

    Electronic Devices and Materials

    Where the transistor comes from: bands, carriers, the pn junction, the BJT, the MOSFET, light and how chips are made.

    Prerequisites: Engineering Electromagnetics, Analogue Electronics

    What you'll learn (12 topics)
    • Band theory basics
    • Bands, holes and intrinsic carriers
    • Doping and equilibrium carriers
    • Carrier transport and excess carriers
    • The pn junction: electrostatics
    • The pn diode: current, temperature and charge storage
    • BJT physics
    • The MOS capacitor
    • MOSFET physics
    • Optoelectronic devices
    • Device fabrication steps
    • Metal-semiconductor contacts

  • Ready to learn · Level 3 · 6 points

    Electronic Circuit Design

    Real op-amps, active filters, oscillators, regulators, switching converters and the board layout that makes them work.

    Prerequisites: Electrical Fundamentals, Analogue Electronics

    What you'll learn (10 topics)
    • Real op-amp limits
    • Active filters
    • Filter design
    • Feedback oscillators
    • Comparators and mixed-signal front ends
    • Amplifier noise design
    • Linear regulators
    • LDO specifications and ripple rejection
    • Switching converters
    • PCB layout for circuit designers

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Industrial Automation and Process Instrumentation

    Sensors, PLCs, networks, SCADA and safety: how a plant measures, decides and acts, and how you keep it safe.

    Prerequisites: Electrical Fundamentals, Digital Systems Design, Fluid Mechanics

    What you'll learn (9 topics)
    • Process measurement and transmitters
    • Final elements and actuators
    • PLC hardware and the scan cycle
    • Ladder logic and IEC 61131
    • Sequential control and SFC
    • Industrial networks and fieldbus
    • SCADA, HMI and alarms
    • Loop tuning in practice
    • Safety instrumented systems and machine safety

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Microelectronics and IC Design

    How a chip is designed: MOS devices, the CMOS inverter and logical effort, wires and power, analogue blocks and op-amps, memory, and yield.

    Prerequisites: no set prerequisites

    What you'll learn (12 topics)
    • MOS devices for IC design
    • Layout and design rules
    • The CMOS inverter and logical effort
    • CMOS logic styles
    • Wires, power and scaling
    • Analogue IC blocks and the op-amp
    • Memory arrays: SRAM and DRAM
    • SRAM stability and DRAM cells
    • Variation, yield and fabrication
    • Data-converter circuits
    • IC noise and the bandgap reference
    • Ring oscillators and PLLs

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Optical Communications and Photonics

    How light carries the internet: fibre, loss and dispersion, lasers, photodetectors, link budgets, WDM and optical networks.

    Prerequisites: Communication Systems

    What you'll learn (9 topics)
    • Fibre guiding and modes
    • Attenuation and dispersion
    • Sources and modulators
    • Detectors and receiver noise
    • Receiver sensitivity and the quantum limit
    • Link design and bit error rate
    • WDM, amplifiers and networks
    • Wavelength-routed networks
    • Fibre nonlinearity and coherent formats

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Real-time and Advanced Embedded Systems

    How firmware meets its deadlines: the kernel, scheduling proofs, shared resources and deadlock, timing chains and hardware-software co-design.

    Prerequisites: Embedded Systems, Computer Systems and C Programming

    What you'll learn (11 topics)
    • The real-time kernel
    • Cyclic executive and super loop
    • Fixed-priority scheduling analysis
    • EDF, demand and overload
    • Shared resources and priority inversion
    • Semaphores, queues and deadlock
    • Timing analysis and latency chains
    • Stacks and memory pools
    • Hardware-software co-design
    • Multiprocessor and time-triggered scheduling
    • Soft real time and stochastic timing

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Power Electronics and Converters

    How power is switched and shaped: rectifiers, device losses, buck and boost converters, magnetics, isolation, inverters, harmonics and control.

    Prerequisites: Electrical Fundamentals, Analogue Electronics, Control Engineering

    What you'll learn (11 topics)
    • Rectifiers
    • Switching devices and their losses
    • The buck converter
    • The boost and buck-boost converters
    • Discontinuous conduction
    • Converter magnetics
    • Isolated converters
    • Inverters and PWM
    • Harmonics and power quality
    • Converter control
    • Power-factor correction with a boost stage

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Electrical Drives

    How machines are driven and controlled: drive mechanics and quadrants, brushless drives, Clarke and Park transforms, the permanent-magnet machine in dq, vector control, field weakening, induction vector control, servo loops and regeneration.

    Prerequisites: Electrical Fundamentals, Control Engineering, Signals and Systems

    What you'll learn (23 topics)
    • DC machines: generators, speed control and starting
    • Induction motor performance
    • Synchronous machines
    • Balanced three-phase circuits
    • Drive mechanics and the four quadrants
    • DC motor and actuator models
    • Gear trains
    • Brushless DC and six-step commutation
    • Actuators and drives: DC motors, PWM, steppers and gearmotors
    • Clarke and Park transforms
    • Inverters and PWM
    • The permanent-magnet machine in dq
    • Vector control of a permanent-magnet motor
    • PID control
    • Bode plots
    • Stability margins and Nyquist
    • Field weakening and maximum torque per amp
    • Variable-speed drives
    • Vector control of an induction motor
    • Servo cascade control
    • Trajectory planning: cubic, quintic and trapezoidal moves
    • Regeneration and braking
    • Choosing a motor

Year 4 · Semester 2 · choose 1 of 7

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Wireless Communications

    How radio links really behave: path loss, fading, diversity, OFDM, MIMO and cellular planning.

    Prerequisites: Communication Systems

    What you'll learn (9 topics)
    • Path loss, shadowing and coverage
    • Multipath, Doppler and fading
    • Diversity combining
    • OFDM
    • Equalisation and channel estimation
    • MIMO
    • Multiple access and spread spectrum
    • Cellular systems and standards
    • Adaptive modulation and standards rates

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Renewable Energy Systems and Grid Connection

    From the sun and the wind to the grid: solar geometry, the PV cell and shading, maximum power point tracking, the wind resource and turbine control, battery packs and life, hybrid systems with diesel, the inverter and string design, voltage rise and hosting, and islanding and trip settings.

    Prerequisites: Electrical Fundamentals, Control Engineering

    What you'll learn (21 topics)
    • Solar photovoltaics
    • Solar resource and geometry
    • Diodes and rectifiers
    • PV cell curve and shading
    • The boost and buck-boost converters
    • Maximum power point tracking
    • Wind power
    • Continuous random variables: density, exponential and return periods
    • Wind resource: shear and the Weibull distribution
    • PID control
    • Wind turbine regions and control
    • Storage and firming
    • Battery packs and life
    • Hybrid systems and diesel
    • AC circuits and power
    • Inverter model and string design
    • Power flow: complex power and the bus admittance matrix
    • Generation and voltage control: droop, excitation, compensation and taps
    • Grid connection: voltage rise and hosting
    • Protection fundamentals: CTs, inverse-time relays and grading
    • Islanding and trip settings

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    High Voltage Engineering

    Why insulation fails and how to test it: field stress and grading, gas breakdown and the Paschen curve, corona on lines, voids and thermal breakdown in solids, test voltages, impulse generation, measurement and test statistics, travelling waves, lightning and line performance, breaker transients, arresters and insulation coordination, and earthing and safety.

    Prerequisites: Electrical Fundamentals, Probability and Statistics for Engineers

    What you'll learn (25 topics)
    • Coulomb's law, Gauss's law and potential
    • Conductors, dielectrics and capacitance
    • Field stress and grading
    • Gas breakdown and the Paschen curve
    • Corona on lines
    • Capacitors and inductors
    • Solid insulation: voids and thermal breakdown
    • AC circuits and power
    • AC and DC test voltages
    • RC and RL transients
    • Second-order RLC transients
    • Impulse generation
    • Extreme values, fitting distributions and goodness of fit
    • Measurement and test statistics
    • Transmission lines
    • Reflection and transmission at boundaries
    • Travelling waves
    • Discrete random variables: binomial and Poisson
    • Lightning and line performance
    • Symmetrical faults
    • Switching and breaker transients
    • The normal and lognormal distributions
    • Arresters and insulation coordination
    • Protection fundamentals: CTs, inverse-time relays and grading
    • Earthing and safety

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Smart Grids and Power Markets

    How a modern grid is run and paid for: distribution reliability and automation, feeder voltage control, demand response, batteries and export limits, microgrid inverter droop, market clearing and withholding, locational prices and congestion, and unit commitment.

    Prerequisites: Probability and Statistics for Engineers

    What you'll learn (21 topics)
    • The per-unit system
    • Distribution reliability and automation
    • Power flow: complex power and the bus admittance matrix
    • Generation and voltage control: droop, excitation, compensation and taps
    • Feeder power flow and voltage control
    • Economic dispatch: equal incremental cost, limits and losses
    • Demand response
    • Storage and firming
    • Lagrange multipliers
    • DER aggregation and network limits
    • Microgrids and inverter droop
    • Renewable energy economics
    • Merit order and clearing
    • Load-flow solution: Gauss-Seidel, Newton-Raphson and the DC approximation
    • Locational prices and congestion
    • Power system stability: the swing equation and equal-area criterion
    • Unit commitment
    • Contracts, hedging and risk
    • Adequacy and generation planning
    • State estimation and meter data
    • Frequency and inertia with inverters

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Advanced Control and Optimisation

    Control run by a computer: sampling and the zero-order hold, z-domain stability, digital equivalents and the digital current loop, then state feedback, observers, LQR, the Kalman filter and LQG, predictive control with input limits, and Lyapunov analysis.

    Prerequisites: Mathematical Methods, Control Engineering, Multivariable Calculus

    What you'll learn (18 topics)
    • Stability margins and Nyquist
    • z-transform: ROC, transfer functions, stability and inversion
    • Sampling and the zero-order hold
    • Analysis in the z-domain
    • Lead and lag compensators
    • IIR filter design: the bilinear transform, Butterworth filters and notches
    • Digital equivalents and PID
    • The delay and the digital current loop
    • State-space models
    • Discrete state space
    • State feedback and pole placement
    • Observers and output feedback
    • Maxima, minima and saddle points
    • Linear quadratic regulation
    • The Kalman filter, linear and extended
    • Kalman filter and LQG
    • Model predictive control, a first look
    • Lyapunov analysis

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Machine Learning and Vision

    Learning from data and honest evaluation, linear and logistic models, classifiers, PCA and clustering, neural networks and backpropagation, 2-D image filtering, segmentation, convolutional networks, deep learning for signals, and squeezing a model onto a microcontroller.

    Prerequisites: Embedded Systems, Multivariable Calculus, Mathematical Methods

    What you'll learn (22 topics)
    • Events and probability
    • Point estimation: moments, maximum likelihood, bias and variance
    • Learning from data and evaluation
    • Least-squares regression
    • Gradient and directional derivatives
    • Linear and logistic models
    • Detection in noise: matched filter and bit error rate
    • Bayes, neighbour and tree classifiers
    • Joint distributions and correlation
    • Eigenvalues and eigenvectors
    • Features, PCA and clustering
    • The multivariable chain rule
    • Neural networks and backpropagation
    • Discrete convolution and impulse copies
    • Image filtering and edges
    • Thresholding, morphology and segmentation
    • Convolutional networks
    • Windowing and spectral estimation
    • Deep learning for signals
    • Low-power design: duty cycling, battery life, CMOS power and sleep break-even
    • Real-time basics: polling, utilisation, response time and state machines
    • Models on microcontrollers

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Biomedical Instrumentation and Imaging

    Biopotentials and electrodes, amplifiers and interference, ECG processing, physiological sensors and electrical safety, then radiography and CT, ultrasound, magnetic resonance, nuclear imaging, and the image quality that compares them.

    Prerequisites: Electrical Fundamentals, Digital Signal Processing, Analogue Electronics

    What you'll learn (15 topics)
    • Thévenin and Norton equivalents
    • Frequency response and filters
    • Biopotentials and electrodes
    • Biopotential amplifiers and interference
    • IIR filter design: the bilinear transform, Butterworth filters and notches
    • ECG and biosignal processing
    • Physiological sensors
    • Electrical safety and standards
    • Discrete random variables: binomial and Poisson
    • Radiography and CT
    • Ultrasound imaging
    • Fourier transform: pairs, properties, modulation and filtering
    • Magnetic resonance imaging
    • Nuclear imaging: PET and SPECT
    • Image quality and modality choice

Chemical Engineering

Year 4 · Semester 1 · choose 1 of 5

  • Ready to learn · Level 3 · 6 points

    Advanced Unit Operations and Membrane Separations

    Beyond binary distillation: azeotropes and batch stills, evaporators, crystallisers, adsorption cycles, dryers, and membrane transport and fouling, then how to combine them.

    Prerequisites: Separation Processes

    What you'll learn (8 topics)
    • Azeotropic, extractive and batch distillation
    • Evaporation and heat integration
    • Crystallisation
    • Fixed-bed adsorption cycles
    • Dryer design
    • Membrane transport and polarisation
    • Fouling, cleaning and cycle optimisation
    • Hybrid separation and intensification

  • Ready to learn · Level 3 · 6 points

    Advanced Reaction Engineering and Catalysis

    Beyond the ideal reactor: multiple steady states and runaway, heterogeneous catalysis and pore diffusion, catalyst ageing, multiphase and fluidised beds, and photo- and biocatalytic reactors.

    Prerequisites: Reaction Engineering

    What you'll learn (8 topics)
    • Multiplicity and stability of a cooled CSTR
    • Thermal runaway and reactive hazards
    • Unsteady non-isothermal reactors
    • Heterogeneous catalytic kinetics
    • Pore diffusion and falsified kinetics
    • Catalyst characterisation and deactivation
    • Multiphase and fluidised-bed reactors
    • Photocatalytic and biocatalytic reactors

  • Ready to learn · Level 3 · 6 points

    Polymer and Advanced Materials Engineering

    From chain to product: polymer architecture and networks, step- and chain-growth kinetics, molecular-weight distributions, thermal transitions, rheology, cure and processing, and nanocomposites and material selection.

    Prerequisites: Reaction Engineering

    What you'll learn (8 topics)
    • Polymer architecture and networks
    • Step-growth polymerisation
    • Free-radical chain growth
    • Molecular-weight distributions
    • Thermal transitions and morphology
    • Viscoelasticity and melt rheology
    • Cure and polymer processing
    • Nanocomposites and material selection

  • Ready to learn · Level 3 · 6 points

    Energy and Low-Carbon Process Technologies

    Energy and carbon accounting, combustion and low-carbon heat, hydrogen production, storage and carriers, carbon capture and utilisation, batteries, biomass and biorefineries, and the techno-economics of renewable integration.

    Prerequisites: no set prerequisites

    What you'll learn (8 topics)
    • Energy and carbon accounting
    • Combustion and low-carbon heat
    • Hydrogen production
    • Hydrogen storage and carriers
    • Carbon capture, utilisation and storage
    • Batteries and electrochemical storage
    • Biomass and biorefineries
    • Renewable integration and techno-economics

  • Ready to learn · Level 3 · 6 points

    Advanced Process Control and Data-Driven Process Engineering

    Multivariable gains and conditioning, model predictive control, real-time optimisation, soft sensors and state estimation, data analytics for processes, fault detection and monitoring, digital twins, and the economics of control projects.

    Prerequisites: no set prerequisites

    What you'll learn (8 topics)
    • Multivariable gains and conditioning
    • Model predictive control: moves and horizons
    • Real-time optimisation and constraints
    • Soft sensors and state estimation
    • Data analytics for process engineering
    • Fault detection and statistical monitoring
    • Digital twins and model-plant mismatch
    • Control performance and deployment economics

Year 4 · Semester 2 · choose 1 of 2

  • Ready to learn · Level 3 · 6 points

    Biochemical and Bioprocess Engineering

    From the cell to the purified product: growth and enzyme kinetics, bioreactors, oxygen transfer, scale-up, sterilisation and downstream processing.

    Prerequisites: Reaction Engineering

    What you'll learn (8 topics)
    • Cells and metabolism for engineers
    • Enzyme kinetics, inhibition and immobilisation
    • Growth kinetics, yields and stoichiometry
    • Batch, fed-batch and chemostat
    • Oxygen transfer and aeration
    • Bioreactor design and scale-up
    • Sterilisation and the Del factor
    • Downstream processing

  • Ready to learn · Level 3 · 6 points

    Food, Pharmaceutical and Bioproduct Process Engineering

    Food properties and water activity, thermal processing and sterilisation, refrigeration, freezing and shelf life, drying and evaporation, fermentation and brewing, pharmaceutical production and dosage forms, hygienic design and cleaning, and GMP validation and sampling.

    Prerequisites: Mass and Energy Balances, Process Simulation and Flowsheeting

    What you'll learn (8 topics)
    • Food properties and water activity
    • Thermal processing and sterilisation
    • Refrigeration, freezing and shelf life
    • Drying, evaporation and product design
    • Fermentation and brewing
    • Pharmaceutical production and dosage forms
    • Hygienic design, cleaning and food safety
    • GMP, validation and sampling

Mechatronics Engineering

Year 3 · Semester 1 · choose 1 of 2

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Power Electronics and Converters

    How power is switched and shaped: rectifiers, device losses, buck and boost converters, magnetics, isolation, inverters, harmonics and control.

    Prerequisites: Electrical Fundamentals, Analogue Electronics, Control Engineering

    What you'll learn (11 topics)
    • Rectifiers
    • Switching devices and their losses
    • The buck converter
    • The boost and buck-boost converters
    • Discontinuous conduction
    • Converter magnetics
    • Isolated converters
    • Inverters and PWM
    • Harmonics and power quality
    • Converter control
    • Power-factor correction with a boost stage

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Electrical Drives

    How machines are driven and controlled: drive mechanics and quadrants, brushless drives, Clarke and Park transforms, the permanent-magnet machine in dq, vector control, field weakening, induction vector control, servo loops and regeneration.

    Prerequisites: Electrical Fundamentals, Control Engineering, Signals and Systems

    What you'll learn (23 topics)
    • DC machines: generators, speed control and starting
    • Induction motor performance
    • Synchronous machines
    • Balanced three-phase circuits
    • Drive mechanics and the four quadrants
    • DC motor and actuator models
    • Gear trains
    • Brushless DC and six-step commutation
    • Actuators and drives: DC motors, PWM, steppers and gearmotors
    • Clarke and Park transforms
    • Inverters and PWM
    • The permanent-magnet machine in dq
    • Vector control of a permanent-magnet motor
    • PID control
    • Bode plots
    • Stability margins and Nyquist
    • Field weakening and maximum torque per amp
    • Variable-speed drives
    • Vector control of an induction motor
    • Servo cascade control
    • Trajectory planning: cubic, quintic and trapezoidal moves
    • Regeneration and braking
    • Choosing a motor

Year 3 · Semester 2 · choose 1 of 1

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Industrial Automation and Process Instrumentation

    Sensors, PLCs, networks, SCADA and safety: how a plant measures, decides and acts, and how you keep it safe.

    Prerequisites: Electrical Fundamentals, Digital Systems Design, Fluid Mechanics

    What you'll learn (9 topics)
    • Process measurement and transmitters
    • Final elements and actuators
    • PLC hardware and the scan cycle
    • Ladder logic and IEC 61131
    • Sequential control and SFC
    • Industrial networks and fieldbus
    • SCADA, HMI and alarms
    • Loop tuning in practice
    • Safety instrumented systems and machine safety

Year 4 · Semester 1 · choose 1 of 2

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Advanced Control and Optimisation

    Control run by a computer: sampling and the zero-order hold, z-domain stability, digital equivalents and the digital current loop, then state feedback, observers, LQR, the Kalman filter and LQG, predictive control with input limits, and Lyapunov analysis.

    Prerequisites: Mathematical Methods, Control Engineering, Multivariable Calculus

    What you'll learn (18 topics)
    • Stability margins and Nyquist
    • z-transform: ROC, transfer functions, stability and inversion
    • Sampling and the zero-order hold
    • Analysis in the z-domain
    • Lead and lag compensators
    • IIR filter design: the bilinear transform, Butterworth filters and notches
    • Digital equivalents and PID
    • The delay and the digital current loop
    • State-space models
    • Discrete state space
    • State feedback and pole placement
    • Observers and output feedback
    • Maxima, minima and saddle points
    • Linear quadratic regulation
    • The Kalman filter, linear and extended
    • Kalman filter and LQG
    • Model predictive control, a first look
    • Lyapunov analysis

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Computer Vision and Perception

    Camera models and calibration, corners, optical flow and robust matching, two-view geometry and stereo depth, classical detection and its scoring, visual servoing and depth images.

    Prerequisites: Multivariable Calculus, Numerical Methods and Modelling, Mathematical Methods

    What you'll learn (23 topics)
    • Rotation matrices and homogeneous transforms
    • Reflection, refraction and lenses
    • Camera models and image formation
    • Least-squares regression
    • Calibration and homography
    • Image filtering and edges
    • Eigenvalues and eigenvectors
    • Corners and optical flow
    • Events and probability
    • Matching and robust fitting
    • Epipolar geometry and triangulation
    • Range sensors: ultrasonic, time-of-flight and triangulation
    • Stereo and depth
    • Thresholding, morphology and segmentation
    • Hough transform, templates and cascades
    • Learning from data and evaluation
    • Convolutional networks
    • Detection scoring
    • The Jacobian and singularities
    • Visual servoing
    • Robot programming with ROS: nodes, topics and a motion pipeline
    • Features, PCA and clustering
    • Depth images and point clouds

Year 4 · Semester 2 · choose 1 of 1

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Machine Learning and Vision

    Learning from data and honest evaluation, linear and logistic models, classifiers, PCA and clustering, neural networks and backpropagation, 2-D image filtering, segmentation, convolutional networks, deep learning for signals, and squeezing a model onto a microcontroller.

    Prerequisites: Embedded Systems, Multivariable Calculus, Mathematical Methods

    What you'll learn (22 topics)
    • Events and probability
    • Point estimation: moments, maximum likelihood, bias and variance
    • Learning from data and evaluation
    • Least-squares regression
    • Gradient and directional derivatives
    • Linear and logistic models
    • Detection in noise: matched filter and bit error rate
    • Bayes, neighbour and tree classifiers
    • Joint distributions and correlation
    • Eigenvalues and eigenvectors
    • Features, PCA and clustering
    • The multivariable chain rule
    • Neural networks and backpropagation
    • Discrete convolution and impulse copies
    • Image filtering and edges
    • Thresholding, morphology and segmentation
    • Convolutional networks
    • Windowing and spectral estimation
    • Deep learning for signals
    • Low-power design: duty cycling, battery life, CMOS power and sleep break-even
    • Real-time basics: polling, utilisation, response time and state machines
    • Models on microcontrollers

Mining Engineering

Year 4 · Semester 1 · choose 1 of 1

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Underground Ground Control and Geotechnical Data

    Keeping underground openings standing and knowing it: coal pillars, longwall abutment and caving, subsidence, stope stability, rockburst support, mining seismicity, test-data statistics and trigger plans.

    Prerequisites: no set prerequisites

    What you'll learn (8 topics)
    • Coal pillar design
    • Longwall abutment stress and caving
    • Subsidence and surface impact
    • The open stope stability graph
    • Dynamic ground support
    • Mining seismicity
    • Characteristic values from test data
    • Ground monitoring and trigger action response plans

Year 4 · Semester 2 · choose 1 of 1

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Specialist Mining Topics: Uranium, Critical Minerals and Frontier Resources

    The mining of metals that need their own arithmetic: uranium grade and radon dose, in-situ and heap leaching, lithium from rock and brine, water and propellant from the Moon, and the learning curves and decision gates of new technology.

    Prerequisites: no set prerequisites

    What you'll learn (8 topics)
    • Uranium grade and yellowcake economics
    • Radon, working levels and dose
    • In-situ recovery wellfields
    • Heap leaching
    • Lithium: ore to carbonate equivalent
    • Brines and evaporation ponds
    • Space resources and in-situ propellant
    • Frontier technology and learning curves

Software Engineering

Year 1 · Semester 1 · choose 1 of 1

  • Ready to learn · Level 3 · 6 points

    Introduction to Cybersecurity

    Assets, the CIA triad and risk, passwords and authentication, symmetric encryption, hashing and integrity, network attacks, malware and social engineering, detection and incident response, and the ethics and law of security work.

    Prerequisites: no set prerequisites

    What you'll learn (18 topics)
    • Assets, the CIA triad and risk
    • Security principles and least-privilege workflows
    • Threat modelling: STRIDE, boundaries and defensive controls
    • Passwords, entropy and authentication
    • Sessions, cookies and authentication boundaries
    • Symmetric encryption and key space
    • Hashing, MACs and integrity
    • Modular arithmetic
    • Application cryptography and key lifecycles
    • Network security: RSA, Diffie-Hellman, TLS and firewalls
    • Network attacks
    • Common vulnerabilities: injection, XSS and object permissions
    • Secure coding: validation, sizes and memory boundaries
    • Malware, social engineering and secure habits
    • Detection, logging and incident response
    • Security testing and verification evidence
    • Security ethics, law and responsible disclosure
    • Ethics and professional practice

Year 3 · Semester 1 · choose 1 of 1

  • Ready to learn · Level 3 · 6 points

    Advanced Algorithms and Theory of Computation

    Divide and conquer with the FFT, network flow and matching, finite automata, context-free languages, Turing machines and undecidability, P and NP, NP-completeness proofs, approximation and randomised algorithms.

    Prerequisites: Data Structures and Algorithms

    What you'll learn (26 topics)
    • Formal growth bounds and amortised analysis
    • Recursion and divide and conquer
    • Recurrence relations
    • The radix-2 FFT algorithm and zero padding
    • Divide and conquer beyond the basics
    • Greedy algorithms: choices that need a proof
    • Dynamic programming: states, tables and witnesses
    • Graphs: degrees, paths, Euler and Hamilton
    • Graph traversal and nonnegative shortest paths
    • Network flow and matching
    • Logic and proof techniques
    • Sets, relations and functions
    • Mathematical induction
    • Modular arithmetic
    • Finite automata and regular languages
    • Counting and combinatorics
    • Stacks, queues and circular buffers
    • Context-free languages and pushdown automata
    • Turing machines, computability and undecidability
    • Time complexity, P and NP
    • NP-completeness proofs
    • Approximation algorithms
    • Events and probability
    • Discrete random variables: binomial and Poisson
    • Merge, quick and heap sort
    • Randomised algorithms

Year 3 · Semester 2 · choose 1 of 7

  • Ready to learn · Level 3 · 6 points

    Computer Architecture

    Why a processor is fast or slow: performance, instruction sets, pipelines, caches, virtual memory, I/O and parallel machines.

    Prerequisites: Computer Systems and C Programming, Digital Systems Design

    What you'll learn (10 topics)
    • Performance, CPI and Amdahl's law
    • ISA design and instruction encoding
    • Datapath and control
    • Pipelines and hazards
    • Branch prediction
    • Caches
    • Virtual memory
    • Input, output and storage
    • Parallel hardware
    • Superscalar issue

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Machine Learning and Vision

    Learning from data and honest evaluation, linear and logistic models, classifiers, PCA and clustering, neural networks and backpropagation, 2-D image filtering, segmentation, convolutional networks, deep learning for signals, and squeezing a model onto a microcontroller.

    Prerequisites: Embedded Systems, Multivariable Calculus, Mathematical Methods

    What you'll learn (22 topics)
    • Events and probability
    • Point estimation: moments, maximum likelihood, bias and variance
    • Learning from data and evaluation
    • Least-squares regression
    • Gradient and directional derivatives
    • Linear and logistic models
    • Detection in noise: matched filter and bit error rate
    • Bayes, neighbour and tree classifiers
    • Joint distributions and correlation
    • Eigenvalues and eigenvectors
    • Features, PCA and clustering
    • The multivariable chain rule
    • Neural networks and backpropagation
    • Discrete convolution and impulse copies
    • Image filtering and edges
    • Thresholding, morphology and segmentation
    • Convolutional networks
    • Windowing and spectral estimation
    • Deep learning for signals
    • Low-power design: duty cycling, battery life, CMOS power and sleep break-even
    • Real-time basics: polling, utilisation, response time and state machines
    • Models on microcontrollers

  • Ready to learn · Level 3 · 6 points

    Operating Systems

    The kernel boundary and system calls, processes and threads, CPU scheduling, races and synchronisation, deadlock and the Banker's algorithm, memory management, virtual memory and page replacement, and file systems with disk scheduling and RAID.

    Prerequisites: Computer Systems and C Programming, Discrete Mathematics

    What you'll learn (14 topics)
    • Interrupts: latency, load, preemption and shared data
    • Kernel, user mode and system calls
    • Processes, threads and communication
    • CPU scheduling
    • Real-time basics: polling, utilisation, response time and state machines
    • Synchronisation
    • Deadlock
    • Memory management
    • Virtual memory
    • Virtual memory and page replacement
    • Input, output and storage
    • File systems and storage
    • Virtualisation and containers
    • Security principles and least-privilege workflows

  • Ready to learn · Level 3 · 6 points

    Data Analytics and Data Science

    Turning raw data into a conclusion you can defend: tidy tables and joins, summaries and outliers, honest charts, validation and the bias-variance trade-off, regularised regression, classifier scoring and costs, the bootstrap and multiple testing, and reporting results with their uncertainty.

    Prerequisites: Engineering Computing, Probability and Statistics for Engineers

    What you'll learn (26 topics)
    • Descriptive statistics and data presentation
    • Data analysis
    • SQL queries: select, join, aggregate and subqueries
    • Data wrangling and tidy data
    • Joint distributions and correlation
    • Exploratory analysis: summaries, outliers and correlation
    • Plotting with matplotlib
    • Presenting and analysing data
    • Visualisation: choosing and critiquing charts
    • Learning from data and evaluation
    • Point estimation: moments, maximum likelihood, bias and variance
    • Model validation and the bias–variance trade-off
    • Least-squares regression
    • Regression and correlation: fit, inference and prediction
    • Regression for prediction and regularisation
    • Linear and logistic models
    • Classification and how to evaluate it
    • Bayes, neighbour and tree classifiers
    • Eigenvalues and eigenvectors
    • Features, PCA and clustering
    • Hypothesis tests for a mean and a proportion
    • Comparing two samples: independent, paired and proportions
    • Sampling distributions and confidence intervals
    • Resampling and multiple testing
    • Technical communication
    • Communicating results honestly

  • Ready to learn · Level 3 · 6 points

    Concurrent, Parallel and Distributed Computing

    Why shared state goes wrong and how to count it, what locks and compare-and-swap cost, sizing thread pools, splitting work across processors, message passing and collectives, logical clocks, replication and consensus, and surviving failures with retries and checkpoints.

    Prerequisites: Software Architecture

    What you'll learn (19 topics)
    • Counting and combinatorics
    • Computer organisation: performance and caches
    • Interrupts: latency, load, preemption and shared data
    • Interleavings and the memory model
    • Locks and lock-free
    • Queueing, Little's law and Erlang B
    • Scalability, capacity and availability
    • Thread pools and scalability
    • Parallel hardware
    • Parallel decomposition
    • Transport layer: UDP, reliable transfer and TCP timers
    • Message passing and collectives
    • Time and ordering in distributed systems
    • Discrete random variables: binomial and Poisson
    • Transactions, serialisability and concurrency control
    • Replication and consensus
    • Repairable systems and availability
    • System reliability and redundancy
    • Fault tolerance and checkpointing

  • Ready to learn · Level 3 · 6 points

    Artificial Intelligence

    Rational agents and problem formulation, uninformed and informed search, local search and constraint satisfaction, games and alpha-beta pruning, logic and inference, automated planning, Bayesian networks and decisions, and how generative AI works, where it helps and where it fails.

    Prerequisites: Data Structures and Algorithms

    What you'll learn (21 topics)
    • Events and probability
    • Agents and problem formulation
    • Graph traversal and nonnegative shortest paths
    • Heaps and indexed priority queues
    • Uninformed search
    • Informed search and heuristics
    • Path planning: A-star, potential fields and RRT
    • Graphs: degrees, paths, Euler and Hamilton
    • Trees, spanning trees and colouring
    • Local search and constraint satisfaction
    • Recursion and divide and conquer
    • Adversarial search and games
    • Logic and proof techniques
    • Knowledge representation and logical inference
    • Automated planning
    • The Bayes filter and Gaussian noise
    • Discrete random variables: binomial and Poisson
    • Uncertainty, Bayesian networks and decisions
    • Vectors, projections, lines and planes
    • Neural networks and backpropagation
    • Generative AI: how it works, uses and limits

  • Ready to learn · Level 3 · 6 points

    Advanced Databases and Data Systems

    How a database joins and optimises a query, when a document store fits, how data is partitioned, replicated and kept consistent across machines, distributed transactions and sagas, data warehouses and columnar storage, batch and stream pipelines, and sketches for data too big to hold.

    Prerequisites: Software Architecture

    What you'll learn (21 topics)
    • Relational model, keys and relational algebra
    • SQL queries: select, join, aggregate and subqueries
    • Indexing and query cost: B+ trees, scans and selectivity
    • Transactions, serialisability and concurrency control
    • Join algorithms and external sorting
    • Descriptive statistics and data presentation
    • Query optimisation: estimates, plans and join order
    • Functional dependencies and normal forms
    • Entity-relationship modelling and mapping to tables
    • NoSQL families and document modelling
    • Discrete random variables: binomial and Poisson
    • Scalability, capacity and availability
    • Partitioning and replication
    • Consistency, quorums and CAP
    • Distributed transactions: two-phase commit and sagas
    • Data warehousing, dimensional models and OLAP
    • Queueing, Little's law and Erlang B
    • Big data pipelines: batch and stream processing
    • Events and probability
    • Hash tables and collision invariants
    • Probabilistic data structures for scale

Year 4 · Semester 1 · choose 1 of 1

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Real-time and Advanced Embedded Systems

    How firmware meets its deadlines: the kernel, scheduling proofs, shared resources and deadlock, timing chains and hardware-software co-design.

    Prerequisites: Embedded Systems, Computer Systems and C Programming

    What you'll learn (11 topics)
    • The real-time kernel
    • Cyclic executive and super loop
    • Fixed-priority scheduling analysis
    • EDF, demand and overload
    • Shared resources and priority inversion
    • Semaphores, queues and deadlock
    • Timing analysis and latency chains
    • Stacks and memory pools
    • Hardware-software co-design
    • Multiprocessor and time-triggered scheduling
    • Soft real time and stochastic timing

Environmental Engineering

Year 2 · Semester 1 · choose 1 of 1

  • Ready to learn · Level 2 · 6 points

    Energy and the Environment

    Where the carbon in a country's energy comes from and how to cut it: units, the greenhouse effect, fuel emissions, inventories, the grid, efficiency, pathways and the economics of carbon.

    Prerequisites: no set prerequisites

    What you'll learn (18 topics)
    • Energy flows and units
    • The greenhouse effect
    • Climate and carbon basics
    • Fossil combustion emissions
    • Fuels and combustion
    • Emissions inventories and carbon accounting
    • Electricity supply and grid emissions
    • Solar photovoltaics
    • Wind power
    • Storage and firming
    • Energy efficiency and demand
    • Energy audit and verification
    • Efficiency measures and leaks
    • Decarbonisation pathways
    • Time value of money
    • Renewable energy economics
    • Energy economics and carbon pricing
    • Net-zero system planning

Year 3 · Semester 1 · choose 1 of 1

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Hydrogeology and Groundwater

    How water lives and moves underground: aquifer storage, Darcy flow, pumped wells and what a test reveals, water quality and the salt wedge, models you can solve by hand, and a licence that does not drain the basin.

    Prerequisites: no set prerequisites

    What you'll learn (15 topics)
    • Groundwater basics: the water table, aquifers and pumping
    • Aquifers and their properties
    • Flow in porous media
    • Permeability
    • Darcy flow, heads and layered ground
    • Steady well hydraulics
    • Transient well theory
    • Pumping tests and boundaries
    • Groundwater quality and saltwater intrusion
    • Groundwater modelling
    • Investigation, monitoring and management
    • Groundwater advection, dispersion and conditional pulse inference
    • Pumping envelopes, persistent sources and extraction ledgers
    • Remedy monitoring, vapour rebound and completion evidence
    • Catchment water balance, yield and reliability

Year 4 · Semester 1 · choose 1 of 1

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Flood, Catchment and Urban Water

    Flood estimation and urban water beyond the core: curve-number runoff, synthetic unit hydrographs, catchment models, flood frequency, compound channels, routing, flood damage, street drainage and sewer hydraulics.

    Prerequisites: Fluid Mechanics, Hydraulics and Hydrology, Environmental Engineering and Water Quality

    What you'll learn (14 topics)
    • Curve-number runoff
    • Synthetic unit hydrographs
    • Conceptual catchment models
    • Flood frequency with weighted skew
    • Compound channels and floodplains
    • Flood routing with Muskingum–Cunge
    • Flood damage and benefit–cost
    • Street drainage and inlets
    • Sewer hydraulics and the hydraulic grade line
    • Stormwater quality and pollutant loads
    • Treatment trains and water-sensitive design
    • Two-dimensional flood modelling
    • Joint probability and compound flooding
    • River sediment transport

Year 4 · Semester 2 · choose 1 of 1

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Coastal, Ocean and Marine Engineering

    Waves, tides and storm surge, the beach and the sand that moves along it, and the structures that must stand in the sea.

    Prerequisites: Fluid Mechanics, Engineering Physics, Probability and Statistics for Engineers

    What you'll learn (17 topics)
    • Linear wave theory
    • Wave energy, groups and reflection
    • Shoaling, refraction and breaking
    • Short-term wave statistics
    • Design waves and return period
    • Wave generation and hindcasting
    • Tides
    • Storm surge and design water levels
    • Wave setup and nearshore currents
    • Sediment and the beach profile
    • Longshore transport and shoreline change
    • Beach nourishment and coastal protection
    • Wave loads on slender piles
    • Vertical-wall structures
    • Rubble-mound breakwaters
    • Estuary tidal prism and flushing
    • Wave and tidal power

Year 4 · Semester 2 · choose 1 of 2

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Climate Change Adaptation and Environmental Risk

    How to plan for a hotter, wetter, higher-sea future: climate scenarios, flood and heat risk, sea-level rise, the cost of adapting and how to decide when nobody knows what comes next.

    Prerequisites: Probability and Statistics for Engineers, Hydraulics and Hydrology

    What you'll learn (15 topics)
    • The greenhouse effect
    • Climate scenarios and projections
    • Hazard, exposure and vulnerability
    • Risk evaluation and ALARP
    • Extreme rainfall and flood risk
    • Flood frequency with weighted skew
    • Flood damage and benefit–cost
    • Sea-level rise and coastal hazard
    • Storm surge and design water levels
    • Heat risk and urban heat
    • Adaptation options and benefit-cost
    • Time value of money
    • Decision-making under uncertainty
    • Resilience and natural hazard management
    • Geological hazards: earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis and floods

  • Ready to learn · Level 4 · 6 points

    Renewable Energy Engineering

    Solar, wind, hydro, bioenergy and storage as one system: hourly resource against demand, battery dispatch through a calm spell, pumped hydro with a moving head, life-cycle impacts, and a community portfolio costed and tested on a dry day.

    Prerequisites: Fluid Mechanics

    What you'll learn (15 topics)
    • Resource, demand and adequacy
    • Solar photovoltaics
    • Solar thermal and heat pumps
    • Wind power
    • Hydropower and penstocks
    • Pumped-storage cycle
    • Biomass fuels and biofuels
    • Geothermal power
    • Tidal and wave energy
    • Storage and firming
    • Storage dispatch and firming
    • Storage cost and thermal storage
    • Renewable energy economics
    • Renewable impacts and life cycle
    • Integrated portfolio design