[Abaraka]

Hi ,
Recently , UWE has made many changes about the faculty of engineering . One that there will be no longer an electrical pathway and the course will be just " electronic engineering . Also the robotics course is now a bachelor of engineering (BEng) not a bachelor of science (BSc) and it has accreditation from BCS

As the title indicates , I need to know, as a prospective student , the main differences between the electronic engineer and the robotics engineer.

Is the robotics all about robot , I mean is it a course in which I can go further in many areas or I will just stick in robotics

Thank you

[Abaraka]

NO one is applying or studying one of these courses ??!!

[weaz1991]

Hi

I'm currently at UWE studying Mechanical engineering, not the same course I know but we are in the same department.

The Robotics being accreditation is obviously a huge plus as its one of the main things companies look for when hiring new employees. Also for robotics we have the BRL (Bristol Robotics Lab) on the sight next door to uni. No more than 5 min walk from the bar.

Can't say much other than that. We've got a final open day on the 30th of June if you wish to attend. We also have our annual degree show of the 7th of June showcasing all the work within the engineering dept. If you're in the local area I would recommend attending, gives you a chance to see what you might be up to, talk to students and academics as well.

If you wish I can get you in contact with the heads of both courses and you can ask them any questions you have. Just let me know.

Brad

[Abaraka]

I wish I could come to the open day but I cannot.

Anyway, Thank you very much for your reply. I almost made my mind !

[Porky123]

(Original post by Abaraka)
Hi ,
Recently , UWE has made many changes about the faculty of engineering . One that there will be no longer an electrical pathway and the course will be just " electronic engineering . Also the robotics course is now a bachelor of engineering (BEng) not a bachelor of science (BSc) and it has accreditation from BCS

As the title indicates , I need to know, as a prospective student , the main differences between the electronic engineer and the robotics engineer.

Is the robotics all about robot , I mean is it a course in which I can go further in many areas or I will just stick in robotics

Thank you

Hi ive just finished my first year of bsc robotics so what i have done may differ slightly to next year but i think the only difference may be the inclusion of more maths, we did maths although it was just part of the intro to robotics module.

To answer your question the robotics course isnt just about robots, we had the intro to robotics module which was about robots and well in our case maths as well.

The other modules we had were:

• Introduction to artificial intelligence
• Programming in c
• Digital design and instrumentation
• Digital systems development
• Practical electronics

So you learn about a lot more than just robots. I cant tell you much about the electrical engineering although they did many of the same modules as us infact im pretty sure they did all those in the list above apart from the AI module. So apart from the AI and what ever there specific electrical engineering module was the courses werent to different.

If you want more info about any thing feel free to ask and il do my best to help, if you want i can go in to more detail about each module.

Best of luck with what ever you choose.

Phil

[Abaraka]

(Original post by Porky123)
Hi ive just finished my first year of bsc robotics so what i have done may differ slightly to next year but i think the only difference may be the inclusion of more maths, we did maths although it was just part of the intro to robotics module.

To answer your question the robotics course isnt just about robots, we had the intro to robotics module which was about robots and well in our case maths as well.

The other modules we had were:

• Introduction to artificial intelligence
• Programming in c
• Digital design and instrumentation
• Digital systems development
• Practical electronics

So you learn about a lot more than just robots. I cant tell you much about the electrical engineering although they did many of the same modules as us infact im pretty sure they did all those in the list above apart from the AI module. So apart from the AI and what ever there specific electrical engineering module was the courses werent to different.

If you want more info about any thing feel free to ask and il do my best to help, if you want i can go in to more detail about each module.

Best of luck with what ever you choose.

Phil

Thank you Phil . This is really helpful .
I originally chose Electrical and electronics but now there are changes going on the course as well as the robotics . I hope they will publish more details soon !

Please , if u do not mind , I'd like to know about the teaching style . for example these courses you mentioned
*]Introduction to artificial intelligence[*]Programming in c[*]Digital design and instrumentation[*]Digital systems development[*]Practical electronics
Are they for the whole year eg. we will study programming in the first semester and the second . Or they will be split into two semesters?

thank you phil

[Porky123]

(Original post by Abaraka)
Thank you Phil . This is really helpful .
I originally chose Electrical and electronics but now there are changes going on the course as well as the robotics . I hope they will publish more details soon !

Please , if u do not mind , I'd like to know about the teaching style . for example these courses you mentioned
*]Introduction to artificial intelligence[*]Programming in c[*]Digital design and instrumentation[*]Digital systems development[*]Practical electronics
Are they for the whole year eg. we will study programming in the first semester and the second . Or they will be split into two semesters?

thank you phil

I have heard there is restructuring going on for next year, as you say hopefully full details will be published soon.

All the modules are for the whole year, but there split up in to 2 halves by which I mean you have log books / practical’s which have to be done before the Christmas holidays then you have exams in January. After this you carry on with the same modules but start new topics with in them then there are more practical’s, log books and so on then exams in may.

As for the teaching styles:

Introduction to artificial intelligence:
Is taught by lectures and tutorials. Assessment is done via 2 online coursework’s done on blackboard in your own time with 2 attempts allowed these are worth 25% each. Then there is a exam done on computer in may which is under exam conditions with 1 attempt allowed this is worth 50%.

Programming in c:
This is again taught via lectures and with practical lab sessions with the lecturer. The assessment is done via 2 practical projects one worth approx 13% which is a simple duck shoot game implemented on a special rack in the labs. This is done before Christmas and is just to check you understand C as you should. The second is a larger project done as a pair which is programming buggies that have a set of sensors to perform a number of tasks / behaviours worth 37%. Lastly there is an exam worth 50% of the module.

Digital design and instrumentation:
This is taught with just lecturers in till after the Christmas break, after which a practical session is also added. Assessment is 15% logbook, 20% practical assessment, 2 exams worth the remaining 65% together 1 in Jan and 1 in May.

Digital systems development:
This consists of lectures and practical sessions the whole way through the year. With 1 exam in Jan worth 20% and 1 in May worth 20%, 2 log books worth 45% together 1 done before Christmas the other after, and a group project worth 15%.

Practical electronics:
This is taught solely through practical sessions, before Christmas you complete a log book in which you record the work and findings from various tasks given to you this is surprisingly worth 50% of the module. After Christmas there are 2 projects one individual project and a group one. Both of these are worth 25% each. Help / advise is always available if you need it.

All the modules (apart from AI and practical electronics) have something called PAL (peer assisted learning) where you have a class taken by some one in there second year to go over what you are doing in the modules and help you if needed. If I’m honest I didn’t go to many of these, some are helpful though.

Although practical electronics doesn’t have PAL it has something which I think is better where PHD students take the class for an hour after the "proper" teacher. The PHD students that we had were extremely knowledgeable and therefore very helpful. Also they were from the BRL so had some interesting stuff to talk about.

Which course is it you choose in the end then?

Hope that helps, anything else feel free to ask.

Phil

[Abaraka]

(Original post by Porky123)
I have heard there is restructuring going on for next year, as you say hopefully full details will be published soon.

All the modules are for the whole year, but there split up in to 2 halves by which I mean you have log books / practical’s which have to be done before the Christmas holidays then you have exams in January. After this you carry on with the same modules but start new topics with in them then there are more practical’s, log books and so on then exams in may.

As for the teaching styles:

Introduction to artificial intelligence:
Is taught by lectures and tutorials. Assessment is done via 2 online coursework’s done on blackboard in your own time with 2 attempts allowed these are worth 25% each. Then there is a exam done on computer in may which is under exam conditions with 1 attempt allowed this is worth 50%.

Programming in c:
This is again taught via lectures and with practical lab sessions with the lecturer. The assessment is done via 2 practical projects one worth approx 13% which is a simple duck shoot game implemented on a special rack in the labs. This is done before Christmas and is just to check you understand C as you should. The second is a larger project done as a pair which is programming buggies that have a set of sensors to perform a number of tasks / behaviours worth 37%. Lastly there is an exam worth 50% of the module.

Digital design and instrumentation:
This is taught with just lecturers in till after the Christmas break, after which a practical session is also added. Assessment is 15% logbook, 20% practical assessment, 2 exams worth the remaining 65% together 1 in Jan and 1 in May.

Digital systems development:
This consists of lectures and practical sessions the whole way through the year. With 1 exam in Jan worth 20% and 1 in May worth 20%, 2 log books worth 45% together 1 done before Christmas the other after, and a group project worth 15%.

Practical electronics:
This is taught solely through practical sessions, before Christmas you complete a log book in which you record the work and findings from various tasks given to you this is surprisingly worth 50% of the module. After Christmas there are 2 projects one individual project and a group one. Both of these are worth 25% each. Help / advise is always available if you need it.

All the modules (apart from AI and practical electronics) have something called PAL (peer assisted learning) where you have a class taken by some one in there second year to go over what you are doing in the modules and help you if needed. If I’m honest I didn’t go to many of these, some are helpful though.

Although practical electronics doesn’t have PAL it has something which I think is better where PHD students take the class for an hour after the "proper" teacher. The PHD students that we had were extremely knowledgeable and therefore very helpful. Also they were from the BRL so had some interesting stuff to talk about.

Which course is it you choose in the end then?

Hope that helps, anything else feel free to ask.

Phil

Thank you very much Phil . You are a star !.

As the course will be just " Electronic Engineering" and as u said there is no such a huge difference between it and robotics, I think I will be with electronics )

This is really very help . Just please allow me to ask for an advice . As u know I am starting in Sep 2012 so
Do u think it is important , or at lest would be helpful , if I took course in summer about PCB ,PIC or C programming ?
What would you recommend for me to do this summer ?

Thank again Phil

[Porky123]

(Original post by Abaraka)
Thank you very much Phil . You are a star !.

As the course will be just " Electronic Engineering" and as u said there is no such a huge difference between it and robotics, I think I will be with electronics )

This is really very help . Just please allow me to ask for an advice . As u know I am starting in Sep 2012 so
Do u think it is important , or at lest would be helpful , if I took course in summer about PCB ,PIC or C programming ?
What would you recommend for me to do this summer ?

Thank again Phil

No trouble chap, we didnt do much to do with PCBs to be honest the only time we had to create one was for the DSD group project. But its a very handy thing to be able to do, and for your course will likely be more important so wouldnt hurt to look in to the software used to create them. Eagle is popular but the one we used in DSD was call Easy PC if i remember correct.

PIC would be good to look in to, we programmed them in assembler for the most part in the DSD practicals which personally i didnt like much as i find assembler a bit of a pain to work with. But the tasks are simple enough and to start with you are literally told what to do by the booklet they give you. So a bit of a look at assembler wouldnt be a bad idea.

For C programming i would advise getting used to linux if you havent used it before as all of the C module is done in linux. Programming enviroments to look in to are esclipse and Emacs see which one you like better. A very good book which the C lecturer recommends is "C programming" By Tony Royce working your way through that over the summer will give you a great head start. It can be a little pricey new but shop arround and you can find it second hand for pretty cheap mine cost me a little over £10 delivered if i remember correct. Heres a link to the site the lecturers runs for C programming bit of a mess but pretty much all the info you could want there:
http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~irjohnso/courses/ets.html

DDI was mostly just logic circuits, simple electronic stuff, and a bit of binary.

Pratical electronics well not hard to guess what to look over for that, but i exspect you would be looking over basic electronics principles and rules given your course choice.

Anything you do over the summer will certainly help you but I wouldnt say its essential. As the first year is all about getting people to the same level so you start simple and theres always help on hand if needed.

The internets a great resource and theres plently avaliable for free that will help give you a head start.

What A levels have you done? If you dont mind me asking.

Phil

[Abaraka]

(Original post by Porky123)
No trouble chap, we didnt do much to do with PCBs to be honest the only time we had to create one was for the DSD group project. But its a very handy thing to be able to do, and for your course will likely be more important so wouldnt hurt to look in to the software used to create them. Eagle is popular but the one we used in DSD was call Easy PC if i remember correct.

PIC would be good to look in to, we programmed them in assembler for the most part in the DSD practicals which personally i didnt like much as i find assembler a bit of a pain to work with. But the tasks are simple enough and to start with you are literally told what to do by the booklet they give you. So a bit of a look at assembler wouldnt be a bad idea.

For C programming i would advise getting used to linux if you havent used it before as all of the C module is done in linux. Programming enviroments to look in to are esclipse and Emacs see which one you like better. A very good book which the C lecturer recommends is "C programming" By Tony Royce working your way through that over the summer will give you a great head start. It can be a little pricey new but shop arround and you can find it second hand for pretty cheap mine cost me a little over £10 delivered if i remember correct. Heres a link to the site the lecturers runs for C programming bit of a mess but pretty much all the info you could want there:
http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~irjohnso/courses/ets.html

DDI was mostly just logic circuits, simple electronic stuff, and a bit of binary.

Pratical electronics well not hard to guess what to look over for that, but i exspect you would be looking over basic electronics principles and rules given your course choice.

Anything you do over the summer will certainly help you but I wouldnt say its essential. As the first year is all about getting people to the same level so you start simple and theres always help on hand if needed.

The internets a great resource and theres plently avaliable for free that will help give you a head start.

What A levels have you done? If you dont mind me asking.

Phil

Excellent ! . So basically , I will gain everything I need through the university's lectures and practical sessions . What did you find the most difficult part of everything?

Actually , I am an international student and I followed the educational system in my country; I finished my high school physics and mathematics then I did a foundation year in a uni here in my country(which was also about deep physics and mathematics )

Many thanks phil

[Porky123]

(Original post by Abaraka)
Excellent ! . So basically , I will gain everything I need through the university's lectures and practical sessions . What did you find the most difficult part of everything?

Actually , I am an international student and I followed the educational system in my country; I finished my high school physics and mathematics then I did a foundation year in a uni here in my country(which was also about deep physics and mathematics )

Many thanks phil

Well your study of physics should of covered a lot of electronics i would thought so that should give you a good basis. Of course you need to do some work in your own time along with whats done in the lectures / practical sessions but this is of course true of all higher educations courses.

With regard to the hardest part, im not sure. If im honest i did feel a little overwhelmed to start with all the new things i was learning but that passed relatively quickly. I think the key is just putting the effort in and of course the time.

The first year doesnt actually count towards the degree so some people are happy just to pass, i think this is a poor attitude to take as its important to learn as much as possible. And of course if you want to do a year in industry then a good grade in the first year is important.

Apologys for the delay in reply my laptop died.

Anything else feel free to ask.

Phil

[Abaraka]

(Original post by Porky123)
Well your study of physics should of covered a lot of electronics i would thought so that should give you a good basis. Of course you need to do some work in your own time along with whats done in the lectures / practical sessions but this is of course true of all higher educations courses.

With regard to the hardest part, im not sure. If im honest i did feel a little overwhelmed to start with all the new things i was learning but that passed relatively quickly. I think the key is just putting the effort in and of course the time.

The first year doesnt actually count towards the degree so some people are happy just to pass, i think this is a poor attitude to take as its important to learn as much as possible. And of course if you want to do a year in industry then a good grade in the first year is important.

Apologys for the delay in reply my laptop died.

Anything else feel free to ask.

Phil

I think that's it for now ! . I really appreciate your help Phil . Thank you very much .
See you soon in September
Good luck