What UK degree BEng is the best to work with robots, autonomy vehicles? Boston Dynami

Hello, I'm holding an offer to study at Newcastle University in the 2020 with Automation and Control BEng degree. I'm planning to do my Master's at Imperial College London.
I am interested in robotics, AI and I would like to work for Boston Dynamics, Anybotics, ESA etc.
What degree is the best? General Electronic and electric engineering?

I would do an MEng for that kind of stuff. Robotics is very much a master's level topic, and MEng lays the foundations for it better than BEng+MSc.

As for universities, the top two University based robotics labs in the UK are Bristol Robotics Lab which is a collaboration between University of Bristol and UWE, and the one at University of Sheffield.

As for subject, something like Automatic Control, Robotics, Mechatronics, or Computer Science are good choices. You could also do Electronic engineering but the limited programming component will limit you.

Actually I though about changing the course for EE engineering, so I'm suprised.
Also I applied for BEng. Why is doing BEng at Newcastle and then MSc at Imperial worse than getting MEng straight in Newcastle?
Here's the description of my course. (If you want to check out MEng-change the link to "h661")

When choosing Uni, I am thinking of more than good rankings, opinions, but also connections with industry, prosperity, alumnis and so more.

For MEng degrees the university can assume your level of knowledge whereas this is not the case for an MSc which results in a large proportion of an MSc course being for catching people up. The usage of MScs as a cash cow combined with MEng becoming the norm for domestic students has made this worse as MScs are now typically designed for international students who have not previously studied in the West, are often working at a lower level and are not as able at English. Many MScs tend to be more general because of this, which isn't really what you want at master's level as you will have a good idea of what is more useful and what you're interested in at that point. MEng also means you remain familiar with the university and how things work, alongside having a stronger network. MEng also typically has a major group project in third year and you do your individual project over the full academic year which is somewhat better than the MSc method of slowly planning from a few months in then focusing on it full time during the summer.


So overall MEng usually results in a higher level of end skill and can improve networking.

Sorry but I do not agree with this at all.

Most English universities that offer MEng's (I'm not sure about the Scottish uni's) have a group project in the 4th year and an individual project in the 3rd year. Sheffield University is the only university that I actually know of currently that switches this order, the reason being it forces students not to drop out at the end of their third year and keeps you on for the MEng (aka milking students since if you quit in your 3rd year you essentially leave with no degree because you don't have the appropriate projects to satisfy the accreditation rules).

Also your last statement about the MEng being a higher level of end skill is just nonsense.

In any case MEng typically do have a major group project, including the course OP is talking about, which is not generally something you see in MScs. And the rest of the advice re. project structure is valid.

You may not agree with it but it is accurate. A few comparisons of 4th year MEng with MScs will tell you that as it is very common to see 3rd year modules taken during an MSc and other MSc modules be more general introductions to topics which you may have learned even earlier than that in an MEng. There are exceptions, but these are usually not courses that something about to start their BEng would be knowledgeable about enough to already be choosing them.

Now if you did an MSc in a specialised topic i.e. MSc in Process Safety or MSc in Computational Fluid Dynamics this would be a very different story than doing an MSc in Chemical Engineering or Aerospace Engineering. In the former you'll be learning about the topic in a much more specialised depth and begin to build a speciality in it. In OPs case Newcastle already offer a more streamlined course in Automation & Control which will set him up very nicely for a career in robotics. Whether he wants to do an MSc will depend on his interests in the course...he might find a particular aspect he likes a lot in his latter years and choose to learn it in more depth i.e. MSc in Radio Frequency Engineering or Communications etc. OR he may go with the MEng in Automation & Control both routes are still fine.

Do you have offers at any other universities?

It's also worth noting that entry requirements for MSc at Imperial are typically 70%+ and can be as high as 75% which is an insane requirement, so it may not even be possible for you to go to Imperial for your MSc.

Thank you guys for the response, as I am not that familiar with the UK universities' system. Your answers are helpful and made me thinking even more deeply into the future.

Also, Newcastle offers a chance to change the degree at the end of 1st or 2nd year and changing from BEng to MEng or an option with a year in industry. Speaking of which, this seems like a very good option to choose. I would definitely broad some links in the industry and experience.
I agree that, when doing MSc not to choose general degrees like you said.

No problem, just be aware that the industrial placements can be very competitive and its not always guaranteed that you will get one (at any university) but if you can secure one then for sure it will put you in a great position after your graduation.

The main key is to be proactive during your degree and get involved in extra things that you can add to your CV e.g. joining robotics clubs/ building and making robots with an Arduino kit etc.

Newcastle is a great university with very good links.

Like I said, I have a contact in Newcastle that actually started his own company concerning robotics, this might help with placement
I would be more than happy to be involved in several robotics societies and build own projects.

Newcastle is definietly great, but I'm thinking about University of Bristol again.
Pros:high rankings, links, great robotic facilities, E3 academy available.
Cons: high entry requirements, seems like a big university and I am not going to uni to have great social life (I'm not exactly a such nerd).
When I check the accomodation prices I get a headache. £130/week when nicer rooms in Newcastle are for £89/w. This is crazy. Prices are the thing that keeps me down. Rn by working doing physical-work I earn £3,7/hour, it's little bit depressing.

One thing that worries me is that as an international student it will be harder for me to understand all the lectures and spend more time than others on making up for the material. I got my IELTS results and I've got for 7.0 overall, but I don't use english that much so that could be a trouble at the beginning.

I got a time until 14 january to pick another university or stay with Newcastle.

I would say Robotics / Mechatronics would be a very good choice, closely followed by Computer Science and Computer Engineering / Electronic and Computer Engineering. I wouldn't recommend Mechanical Engineering or Electronic Engineering since they usually have very little programming modules.

I study Electronic Engineering and I'm part of Oxford Brookes Racing Autonomous, a team from my uni that builds an autonomous race car and takes part in leagues worldwide. There is more computer science work than electronic engineering work tbh. The concepts of EE that you need to build an autonomous vehicle are quite basic (you are good to go if you know embedded system development) that you can easily pick them up in a short time if you already are a computer scientist. The main topics of computer science involved in such systems are computer vision and machine learning / neural networks which can be mostly found in computer science or robotics degrees.

The reason I say Robotics is a very good choice is that it literally gives you all you need: basic concepts of EE with lots of CS modules and a choice to choose from a range of CS and EE modules in your third year.

Well that's a bummer, because I've chosen electricial&electronic enginnering for MEng and mechatronic only for BEng.
I made a new application this year on ucas.
Couple of days ago, I did my math exam and it went really good, so I'm thinking about firming University of Manchester.
I was kind of expecting EE to have less programming:/
Should I then firm Manchester, mechatronic engineering BEng, and maybe later try to change it for MEng? Did you hear anything about this university's EE department? I also got offers from Leeds and Bristol.

Thanks for help.

That's not a problem as you can later change to MEng during your BEng course but you must be getting good grades. And EE has less programming compared to computer science / computer engineering.

I have never heard of Manchester, Leeds or Bristol's EE departments although I know Bristol is very good for aerospace engineering. The only university that comes to my mind when it comes to EE is Surrey. Their research in nanoelectronics is outstanding and there is even a spin-off for that. But research is irrelevant for undergraduates and they are all good universities so just pick the course which suits you best.

Also, since you're interested in AI, did you apply for the University of Edinburgh? They are one of the best in the world for computer science and their AI research is world-class. Also, UWE Bristol is gradually becoming more well-known for robotics and they conduct robotics research in collaboration with the University of Bristol.

Also, think about the racing team thingy that I wrote. Not every university has such team so if you want to take part in (and I suggest you do because it's an awesome opportunity to engage in the implementation of CS in the real-world), I suggest you visit the university and have a chat with the lecturers or current students to find out about it. There were only 4 teams from UK last year (the competition is worldwide) and the teams are from Edinburgh, Brookes, Bath, and Coventry but I think there will be more teams this year.

There are also a few other teams that take part in different competitions. I know Cambridge has an electric car team (CUER), Nottingham has electric bike, Durham has solar car (although they don't have a great engineering department) but I don't know about the rest.

I didn't apply for Edinburgh tho, since the city seemed too expensive to live in for me. I was on a trip in Edinburgh and I loved it!
When applying for Bristol I did research its colaboration with UWE and its great robotics laboratory. Although it looks like mostly researchers benefit from it, but students have nice place where they can put theirs projects together.

I don't know what to think about mechatronic's course modules at Manchester. https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/2020/03394/beng-mechatronic-engineering/course-details/
Worries me, lack of programming languages. Bristol has python, which I also hoped to learn. C seems littlebit outdated, but I know it is still valid and essential in work.

In terms of societies, I also did some research before applying. There is a mars rover competition which takes place in Poland every year, and it gathers teams from all over the world. Only few unis from UK take part in it, Manchester is one of them, this one of many reasons why I choose them to be on my top-list on ucas.

Moreover, manchester is buidling/renewing facilities, campus for enginners. I expect the engineering at Manchester to be developing more and more.
https://www.mecd.manchester.ac.uk

When choosing unis, I reached out to a friend who graduated from ICL, he told me that Manchester, Edinburgh has nice graduating prospects.

I would very much like to visit manchester in another month. At the beggining of the year, I booked a trip to Newcastle, but It was canceled due to the virus:/ I hope I will get a chance to visit my future uni, since I wasn't anywere in the UK besides Edinburgh.

Manchester seems to be very well situated in terms of world recognition. It's kind of important for me as well, because I don't hope to stay in the UK after graduating, I would like to go back and work in my country. I'm still considering studying here.

I didn't apply for Edinburgh tho, since the city seemed too expensive to live in for me. I was on a trip in Edinburgh and I loved it!
When applying for Bristol I did research its colaboration with UWE and its great robotics laboratory. Although it looks like mostly researchers benefit from it, but students have nice place where they can put theirs projects together.

I don't know what to think about mechatronic's course modules at Manchester. https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/2020/03394/beng-mechatronic-engineering/course-details/
Worries me, lack of programming languages. Bristol has python, which I also hoped to learn. C seems littlebit outdated, but I know it is still valid and essential in work.

In terms of societies, I also did some research before applying. There is a mars rover competition which takes place in Poland every year, and it gathers teams from all over the world. Only few unis from UK take part in it, Manchester is one of them, this one of many reasons why I choose them to be on my top-list on ucas.

Moreover, manchester is buidling/renewing facilities, campus for enginners. I expect the engineering at Manchester to be developing more and more.
https://www.mecd.manchester.ac.uk

When choosing unis, I reached out to a friend who graduated from ICL, he told me that Manchester, Edinburgh has nice graduating prospects.

I would very much like to visit manchester in another month. At the beggining of the year, I booked a trip to Newcastle, but It was canceled due to the virus:/ I hope I will get a chance to visit my future uni, since I wasn't anywere in the UK besides Edinburgh.

Manchester seems to be very well situated in terms of world recognition. It's kind of important for me as well, because I don't hope to stay in the UK after graduating, I would like to go back and work in my country. I'm still considering studying here.

I checked their website (manseds.co.uk) and it seems their projects are more than the mars rover. It's impressive. I wish I could afford Manchester *cries in international student tuition fees*.

I don't think any UK universities except Oxford, Cambridge, LSE, Imperial, UCL, and King's, St Andrews, Edinburgh to a lesser extent, will be known overseas. In my home country, only Oxford and Cambridge are known. In Singapore, LSE, Imperial, and UCL are known. So chances are if your employer was never an international student or an academic, then he wouldn't have heard of Manchester. Although that doesn't mean they will be completely unknown. Like, I know an american who got a job back in America because of his automotive engineering degree from Coventry. And one time, I was playing an online multiplayer game with the name of my university as my gamer tag (nickname) in a Russian server and someone knew Oxford Brookes was a British university lol.

And I wouldn't worry about job prospects that much to be honest because employers care more about your actual skills and experience rather than your university name or even grades although having connections can help you secure a job. Elite universities make you work harder, but you can go to a non-elite university and learn new things in your free time anyway.

Manchester is a very big university. It was renamed as the University of Manchester when UMIST and Victoria University of Manchester merged in 2004, both of which were already good universities. Because of its size, they are able to conduct more research and thus, attract more funding, and more investment for more facilities.

Also, did you look at computer systems engineering at Manchester? Its very similar to mechatronics but involved more computer science modules.

https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/2020/10253/beng-computer-systems-engineering/

Python and C have different uses, with C and related more useful for real-time applications while Python has developed a niche for machine learning. Depending on which aspects of Robotics/Mechatronics the course focuses on you could be focusing more on either of them, though I wouldn't worry too much about it as you can also learn either in your own time if you particularly wanted to, or you may need the other for your dissertation.

I actually took part in the European Rover Challenge last year. It's worth getting into if you have the opportunity but there is also a similar UK based competition by UKSEDS where you will likely learn more about Robotics, although it doesn't run every year like ERC. The ERC requires lots of teams on lots of very small aspects, which while more like an actual aerospace project, isn't everyone's cup of tea. The UKSEDS lunar rover competition allows you to get more involved with the bigger picture aspects of the rover.

I would be very careful regarding Manchester uni's development and their reputation over the next few years. They're due to be one of the worst hit universities from the current crisis with very high layoff rates. For context someone I know works at Leeds which is expecting to layoff 15% of its academics over the upcoming months and he was saying he was glad to at least not be at Manchester because they're going to get it worse there.