Program Overview

Why Mechatronic Engineering?
As a professional Mechatronic Engineer, you bring together mechanical skills, smart electronics, and robotics with control systems to address a range of complexengineering projects. The innovative graduate who enjoys the challenge of combining these varied areas of practice may find a stimulating role in which they could make a real impact.

How You Could Impact The World
As with all engineering professions this specialism offers you a wide range of opportunities to address the many technical and engineering problems that impact our everyday lives. The critical theme of sustainability is key to all engineering disciplines and Mechatronics offers you an opportunity to drive this agenda through the innovative application of this novel skill set. The careers open to you could allow you to make a real difference to the world.

Career Goals and Employability
Opportunities for individuals with this specialised mix of skills are ever increasing. Mechatronic Engineers are involved in the design of functional products ranging from large aircraft to robotic manufacturing lines to everyday domestic appliances. There are numerous career opportunities for highly specialised technical, management or integrating team leadership roles.

The Course
Mechatronic Engineering sets out to ground you in principles and practice of several disciplines including mechanical, electrical, electronic, control and computer systems. These academic disciplines are supplemented with work on creative thinking skills and the practical design solutions which are essential to the professional engineer. Ultimately you will tackle the design and implementation of smart automated systems for a range of possible applications.

In our Mechanical Engineering subject area, all of our degree programmes share the same first year of study, which means you can leave your options open until the start of your second year. During your first and second year you'll take part in our initiative called EnABLE (Engineering in an Activity Based Learning Environment). This will give you the opportunity to work together in small teams solving real Mechatronic Engineering problems and testing your solutions against other groups in a supportive and friendly competitive environment.

In your third year you will have an option to take an industrial placement. We are always supportive and encouraging about having students spend this year in industry. This offers excellent real world engineering experience to help you stand out at graduate interviews. In the fourth year you will work on a selected individual research/design project with the support of your academic supervisor. It is possible to align this with one of the Master's team projects. These involve the design, build and friendly competitive testing of either a road, airborne or rail vehicle, for example, Team HARE, Team Hawk or HudRail.