Program Overview

The MSc in Signal Processing and Communications provides graduates and working professionals with a broad training in signal processing and communications, including machine learning and data science. It also offers you an excellent opportunity to work on state-of-the-art research problems in those areas.

Signal processing and communications provide the theoretical foundations for any application which generates, processes, transmits or stores any type of signal. Some practical examples include:

• Computers and smartphones, and the Internet,
• Video streaming
• Autonomous vehicles
• Wearable sensors
• Radar and wireless systems
• Sensor networks
• Medical images
• Financial products

Signal processing and communications are key areas underpinning the Internet of Things and machine learning revolutions we are experiencing today.

This one-year programme will immerse you in the most recent and exciting developments in those areas, including advances in modern machine learning techniques. You will learn about the theoretical foundations of the subjects, as well as about recent advanced topics and how they are applied to solve practical situations. Through the MSc research project, you will solve real-world signal processing and communication problems to demonstrate applications and delve deeper into the underpinning theory. The MSc projects are related to research carried out within the Institute for Digital Communications, often in collaboration with industrial partners and/or other multidisciplinary research centres.

Our programme is taught by excellent researchers at the cutting edge of their field, leading some of the most exciting recent developments. This means that you will benefit from close, direct contact with academics pushing the boundaries of current technologies including, among others, deep neural networks, compressive sensing, wireless communication theory, and numerical Bayesian methods. Our MSc also benefits from having access to dedicated high-performance GPU computing facilities for the MSc project.

The MSc in Signal Processing and Communications was established in September 2004 and, since then, over 600 students from over 30 different countries have graduated from it. This programme is the largest in the UK in this area and one of several in Europe which has a curriculum that covers both signal processing and communications, with a strong emphasis on machine learning techniques.

In summary, our programme places emphasis on fundamental concepts and how they relate to recent advances using real-world problems to demonstrate their practical application. By joining our MSc, you will work on state-of-the-art research problems and benefit from studying within one of the most industrially engaged Schools in the University of Edinburgh. After graduating, you could pursue a career in industries such as communications, radar, medical imaging, finance, and wherever signal processing is applied, or pursue research work in an academic or industrial environment. No matter what your preference is, the increasing demand for experts in the areas of this MSc means that you will be well placed to develop a rewarding and exciting career.