Computer Systems Engineering with Integrated Foundation Year

Our Integrated Foundation Year will take you through a carefully-designed course to help you to progress confidently onto your undergraduate degree.

Engineering, Physical, Computational and Mathematical sciences underpin modern technological society and can help us provide answers to fundamental questions. Graduates with these degrees are highly sought after by employers. The Computer Systems Engineering Foundation Year provides progressive structures in which you are able to gain knowledge and understanding of approaches to scientific study and your chosen degree subject.

Once you have completed your Foundation year, you will normally progress onto the full degree course, BEng Computer Systems Engineering. There may also be flexibility to move onto a degree in another department (see end of section, below).

Computer systems engineering is a discipline that embodies the science and technology of design, construction, implementation, and maintenance of software and hardware components of modern computing systems, computer-controlled equipment, and networks of intelligent devices. It is solidly grounded in the theories and principles of computing, mathematics, science and engineering, and it applies these theories and principles to solve technical problems through the design of computing hardware, software, networks, and processes.

Creative technologies are at the core of the multimedia industries, but they are also changing the way we interact with computers and the real world. For work or entertainment, at home or in industrial environments, virtual/augmented reality is making its way into our everyday lives, requiring new tools (sensors, haptic devices) and approaches (artificial intelligence, storytelling).

This undergraduate degree will enable you to broaden your technological knowledge and understanding in Computer Sciences and Electronic Engineering and equip you with the practical skills that you will need to succeed in this fast moving and exciting area.

We offer a vibrant environment in which you can pursue your studies. You’ll study a combination of core courses in Computer Sciences and Electronic Engineering to introduce the theoretical knowledge and practical skills relevant to professional practice, with a range of specialist options from computer and network security systems, renewable energy systems, and smart transportation, to voice and music technologies, human factors and healthcare engineering.

The course will engage you imaginatively in the process of learning through creative hands-on group and individual project based activities, enabling you to develop your independent critical thinking and judgement. As well as the fundamentals of computer technologies and electrical/electronic engineering techniques, you’ll develop an appreciation of how electronics and computer systems engineering is the heart of many systems used on a daily basis, including mobile communications systems, computer system, transport systems, energy systems, software engineering, medical applications, domestic appliances, TV, radio, music studios and gaming devices.

• A degree course structured to develop ingenuity, creativity, invention and product development skills.

• Enjoy varied, practical project-led learning.

• Learn in a new building that is purpose-built to support electronic engineering processes.

• Develop your interests through a number of optional modules in your final year.

• Graduate with high employability prospects in a thriving industry.

On successful completion of your Foundation Year, you may be able to choose an alternative pathway which could include a degree from one of the other departments offering a Foundation Year within the School of Engineering, Physical and Mathematical Sciences. If you'd like to do this, you may take your Foundation Year Individual Project in one of these other departments.

Please visit our website for full details.

Course Modules

Core Modules

Foundation Year

• Foundation Programming

• Foundation Physical Sciences I

• Foundation Mathematics I

• Foundation Programming Group Project

• Engineering Society

• Foundation Mathematics II

Year 1

• Embedded Systems Creative Team Project 1

• Programming in C++

• Electronic Circuits and Components

• Communications Engineering 1

• Mathematics for Engineers 1

• Mathematics for Engineers 2

• Internet Services

• Academic Integrity

Year 2

• Embedded Systems Creative Team Project 2

• Computer and Network Security

• Software Engineering for Electronics

• Signals, Systems and Communications

• Professional and Sustainable Engineering

• Algorithms and Complexity

• Operating Systems

Year 3

• Individual Project

• Digital Signal Processing Design

• Principles of Engineering Management

• Digital Systems Design

• Advanced Communications Systems

Optional Modules

Below is a taster of some of the exciting optional modules that students on the course could choose from during this academic year. Please be aware these do change over time, and optional modules may be withdrawn or new ones added.

Foundation Year

• All modules are core

Year 1

• All modules are core

Year 2

• All modules are core

Year 3

• Advanced Algorithms & Complexity

• Machine Learning

• Critical Infrastructure Security

• Fundamentals of Biomedical Engineering

• Computational Optimisation

• Intelligent Agents and Multi-agent Systems

• Power Systems

• AI on Chip

https://royalholloway.ac.uk/studying-here/undergraduate/electronic-engineering/computer-systems-engineering-with-integrated-foundation-year/

Teaching activities will include lectures, tutorials, and seminars. Practical project work will be carried out in groups and individually in purpose-built thinking, prototyping and fabrication laboratories. In particular, the underlying principles of the course are the development of creative skills in the context of proposing ingenious solutions to tomorrow’s problems prior to the prototype and product development stages.

Various assessment methods will be used including examinations for theoretical subjects, formal presentations, reports and practical demonstrations for project work with an additional oral examinations for final year individual projects. In addition, you will be involved in workshops and will produce various forms of creative work. You will contribute to group presentations and demonstrations for the assessment of group project work.