University of Strathclyde Faculty of Engineering

Strathclyde Faculty of Engineering

Older logo that has since been replaced

The Faculty of Engineering is one of the four faculties which make up the University of Strathclyde^[1] in Glasgow, Scotland. The faculty contains multiple departments offering many different undergraduate and postgraduate courses. These range from BEng, MEng and MSc courses to doctorates throughout the faculty.

Introduction

Poster outside of the James-Weir Building.

The Faculty of Engineering at Strathclyde is the largest of its kind in Scotland. The university is renowned for its close links with industry.^[1]

It teaches over 4,000 students, who come from many different countries. 3,000 of these are undergraduates, 650 are postgraduates being taught, and 500 are at the university to do research. It provides many opportunities to get students into these companies for experience or even full-time work.^[2]

Departments

The faculty has eight departments. These are:

• Architecture
• Biomedical Engineering
• Chemical and Process Engineering
• Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management
• Electronic and Electrical Engineering
• Mechanical and Aerospace engineering
• Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering

Architecture

The department moved to the James-Weir building in August 2013.

Part of the department contains The Centre for Research in Sustainability and Design (CRiDAS). This is a centre that works on the implementation and improvement of technology to help reduce environmental and social impacts of buildings.^[3]

Strathclyde was ranked the 11th best university for architecture in 2013^[4] by TheCompleteUniversityGuide.

Biomedical Engineering

In Biomedical Engineering, people work at the intersection of engineering, the life sciences and healthcare. They take principles from applied science (including mechanical, electrical, chemical and computer engineering) and physical sciences (including physics, chemistry and mathematics) and apply them to biology and medicine. The goal is to better understand, replace or fix a target system to ultimately improve the quality of healthcare.^[5]

The Departement of Biomedical Engineering is located at Wolfson Centre.^[6] The Department incorporates the National Centre for Prosthetics and Orthotics which is one of only two institutions in the UK offering undergraduate and postgraduate education in Prosthetics and Orthotics. The Centre's interests in training, education and research span the fields of prosthetics, orthotics and related aspects of the provision of aids for the disabled.^[6]

Chemical and Process Engineering

The Strathclyde University Department of Chemical and Process Engineering is located at James Weir Building. The staff in this section are widely praised by their current and former students, with many of them complimenting them on their teaching methods.^[7] Chemical Engineering at Strathclyde was rated the best in Scotland in the last Scottish Higher Education Funding Council Teaching Quality Assessment. All of the BEng, MEng and MSc courses are fully accredited by the Institution of Chemical Engineers.^[7] The course offers a number of challenges, intellectual satisfaction, flexibility and future prospects.

The Department also specialises in advanced computational modelling; looking at materials and processes on all scales from the atomic to the macroscopic. Strathclyde University Chemical and Process Engineering has been ranked 16th by Complete University Guide^[8] and rated 13th by The Guardian^[9] in 2013.

Civil and Environmental Engineering

Civil and environmental engineering is a diverse and dynamic field that impacts society by advancing civilization and quality of life.

The profession deals with the design, construction and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including structures and materials, transportation of people and goods, water and air quality, natural materials in engineered systems, sustainable resource management, and environmental biotechnology, to name a few. It is a critical component in supporting the global economy, securing the health and safety of diverse communities, maintaining and enhancing the environment, and overall quality of life.^[10]

Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management

Design, Manufacture & Engineering Management (DMEM) is an energetic and innovative department aimed to offer broad-based education and research of relevance to meet industrial and commercial needs. It is concerned with making organisations perform better through product, process and business development. The fields of expertise range from creative and engineering design, through manufacturing and supply to the management of the entire value chain. ^[11]

Electronic and Electrical Engineering

The car that Students of Electronic and Electrical Engineering created.

Electrical and Electronic engineering is a course which is used to get into a vast range of engineering sectors, such as: aerospace, automotive, energy, information technology and telecommunications.^[12]

The department itself is located within the Royal College of Science and Technology Building.

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

The department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering is located in the University of Strathclyde's James Weir building. The department is dedicated to pursuing knowledge and commerce in the field of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Aerospace engineers work on the development of aircraft and related technology.^[13] Their work covers:

• fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters
• space vehicles
• micro- and nanofluidics
• flight simulators
• composite materials
• flight components and instruments.

The department's laboratory and research facility contacts are as follows: Advanced Space Concepts Laboratory, Energy Systems Research Unit, Future Air-Space Transportation Technology, James Weir Fluids Laboratory, Mechanics & Materials Research Centre.

Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering

The Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering is located at the University of Strathclyde's Henry Dyer Building. The BEng and MEng courses are accredited by the Royal Institution of Naval Architects (RINA) and the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) on behalf of the Engineering Council.^[14]

A Naval Architect is a professional engineer who is responsible for the design, construction and repair of ships, boats, other marine vessels and offshore structures, both civil and military, including Merchant ships, Passenger/Vehicle Ferries, Warships and many more.^[15] Marine engineers design, build, test and repair boats, ships, underwater craft (remotely operated vehicles – ROVs), offshore platforms and drilling equipment. ^[16]

Marine Engineering involves the design, construction, installation, operation and support of the systems and equipment which propel and control marine vehicles, and of the systems which make a vehicle or structure habitable for crew, passengers and cargo.^[17]

Staff

Staff Numbers

Currently (as of November 2013) there are 18 members of staff in the Faculty of Engineering,^[18] including the Dean of the faculty.

Dean of Faculty

The Dean of the Faculty of engineering is a man named Scott J. MacGregor. He gained both his B.Sc and PhD at the University of Strathclyde in 1982 and 1986. After gaining his PhD At the university he became a Pulsed-Power Research Fellow in 1986. He later became a Lecturer in pulsed-power technology in 1989. In 1994 he became a senior lecture and later became a professor of high-voltage engineering.^[19]

He became the Dean of the faculty of Engineering in 2010. The dean is responsible for the academic leadership of the faculty. He is also responsible for the management of staff, resources, putting a Strategic Plan to help support and help students and staff in the faculty. He also is in charge of research and knowledge exchange activities.^[19]

Research

Engineers at the University are leading the €4 million, Europe-wide Stardust project, a research-based training network investigating the removal of space debris and the deflection of asteroids, and the first programme of its kind in the world. ^[20]

The Faculty is also leading in training the next generation of researchers and is engaged in ten multi-million pound EPSRC-funded Doctorial Training Centres in Advanced Forming and Manufacture, Continuous Manufacture and Crystallisation, Future Power Networks and Smart Grids, Medical Device and Healthcare Technologies, Wind and Marine Energy Systems, Applied Photonics, Nuclear Engineering, Offshore Renewable Energy, Oil and Gas, Systems Engineering.

Competitions

A team of three students by the name of Team Hydra, composed of Eric Brown, Hugh McQueen and Theo Scott, developed and entered a solution to reduce the cost of passenger kilometers in Germany. The competition they entered the solution into was called the BP Ultimate Field Trip, they won the first prize and even the runners up were a combined team from Strathclyde and Glasgow.^[21]

See also

• University of Strathclyde
• University of Strathclyde Faculty of Science
• Strathclyde Business School
• Royal College of Science and Technology
• James Weir Building

References

External links

• Strathclyde University Faculty of Engineering Homepage