LABORATORIES, DESIGN & PROFESSIONAL STUDIES III - 2024/5

Module Overview

Expected prior learning: Learning equivalent to Year 1 of EE UG Programmes or equivalent

Module purpose: Hands-on experimental skills, professional skills, and enterprise skills are important to today’s electronic engineers. This module helps the students to develop these skills by offering them laboratory-based experiments, team design projects and professional studies on transferrable skills. These activities are based on either individual or teamwork.

Module provider

Computer Science and Electronic Eng

Module Leader

MIRMOHSENI Mahtab (CS & EE)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 5

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative content includes the following:

Laboratory Experiments and Projects

The laboratory programme is accompanied by a “Laboratory lectures" session at the beginning of the Semester, relating to general issues such as safety. It is mandatory for all students to attend these lectures.   MATLAB will also be introduced as a way of data analysis and modelling.

Attendance at laboratories is mandatory and students spend up to six hours per week in the laboratory. The laboratory programme consists of a combination of project work and experiments. Each of the experiments is a stand-alone learning experience which is best appreciated when considered in the context of the associated lecture course(s). Project work is carried out in small teams to develop not only practical skills, but also to improve planning, management, teamwork and student integration.

In part, the experiments support the lectured material; but they are also intended to familiarise students with the use of the electronic instruments needed to test circuits and measure their electronic characteristics, and to introduce students to the practicalities of circuits and circuit components, and to practical techniques useful in the context of electronic design. Students will also be exposed to the use of simulation as an aid to analogue and digital design. The experiments are designed to help students understand the relationship between theory, simulation and actual circuits, appreciate the difference between design expectation and actual performance, and acquire confidence in testing circuits. For further details see the laboratory manuals.

Each student will be required to prepare for the experiment beforehand as instructed in the laboratory manuals and provide evidence of the preparation in their Lab log book. Students will be encouraged to analyse data as it is taken, to compare results with the relevant theory, and to keep an effective record of findings in the Lab log book. The primary purpose of the laboratory supervisors and demonstrators is to maximise the learning process, and students should appreciate that finishing an experiment is not as important as understanding what has been done.


Enterprise Project Preparation

The students will be asked to conduct an enterprise project within a group. The project will be carried out across the entire academic year. In Semester 1, the students are expected to complete preparation tasks of the project, including: each student generating an enterprise project idea, each group of students selecting an idea among the team members, and the group then presenting the selected project ideas in front of the entire class. The remaining tasks will be carried out and completed in Semester 2 in module EEE3037.

The enterprise project idea generated by each student should be in terms of an innovation, service or product relating to the ITEC (Information Technology, Electronics and Computing) sector that the student thinks could be commercialised. The business should aim to generate at least £50,000 of income in the first year of trading and break even within 3 years.

The enterprise project runs along similar lines to what is found in industry. It offers an opportunity for the students to put their general skills into practice, incl. team working, project management, presentation, and leadership, etc. The students will work in a group in a self-disciplined manner.





 

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

Alternative Assessments will be provided where the assessment can't be reassessed in the same format as the original assessment to cover the same Learning Outcomes

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy for this module is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate the learning outcomes. A series of coursework and assignments have been designed to assess their technical skills in the lab experiments and professional skills in the enterprise project.

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of the following:

• Assessment of lab based experiments upon the completion of each experiment;


• Assessment of group-based lab projects in week 11;


• Enterprise task 1 Idea generation and selection (group assignment) due in Week 8;


• Enterprise task 2 Idea presentation (group assignment) taking place in Week 10.

• During lectures, by question and answer sessions;


• During tutorials;


• During team working workshop;


• During supervised laboratory sessions. A set of lab preparation questions is provided to the students prior to the actual lab activities;

• Via the marking of written reports;


• Via assessed coursework.

Module aims

• The module provides opportunities for students to gain hand-on experience and advanced competency in laboratory practice which will built upon the EEE1027 and EEE1028 modules from Year 1. The module will also feed into the semester 2 Labs, Design and Professional Studies EEE2037 and will be important for the Year 3 group project in module EEE3035, the individual project in EEE3017 and for MEng students in the MDDP project in EngM001.
• To complement the lecture courses by ensuring the students verify theoretically developed concepts and models and discover their limitations via physical experiments.
• To provide the students opportunities to develop various transferrable skills including team working, presentation and problem-solving skills, and a sense of commercial awareness.
• To prepare the students for professional and future career development.
• The module also aims to provide opportunities for students to learn about the Surrey Pillars listed below.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is to provide the high quality student learning experience that combines academic rigour, personal and professional development and employability through introducing students to the most up-to-date knowledge that will enhance and develop their skills for independent academic study, digital media literacy, innovation, and working in professional contexts.

Learning and teaching methods include the following:

• Supervised laboratory work


• Team working workshop (usually in Week 3)


• Lectures/tutorials


• Enterprise project group presentations


• Online materials for guided learning and independent learning.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: EEE2036

Other information

Surrey's Curriculum Framework is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills and capabilities in the following areas:

• Digital capabilities: Students will gain proficiency in digital electronics through the lab part of the module which involves several experiments and a lab project. Through the Design and Professional Studies part of the module, students will also use digital platforms to work collaboratively for their Enterprise Project and effectively communicate their concept through professionally formatted report and presentation.

• Employability: This module provides the opportunity for students to gain hand-on experience and advanced competency in laboratory practice (Lab part of the module) and to develop essential transferable skills including team working, presentation skills, problem solving skills and commercial awareness (Design and Professional Studies part of the module). This will equip students with important skills spanning both technical and non-technical areas that are essential for an engineer.

• Resourcefulness and resilience: Students will demonstrate their resourcefulness and resilience through the completion of group projects (Lab project in the Lab part of the module; Enterprise project in the Design and Professional Studies part of the module). They will need to utilise taught concepts and demonstrate initiative to solve challenging problems in a self-driven manner. This will require planning and risk mitigation to ensure specifications are met and projects are delivered in a timely manner.

• Global and cultural intelligence: Students will learn to work together in groups with other students from different backgrounds to solve problems. The module includes a team working skills workshop that will help students develop foundational skills for effective teamwork. The Enterprise Project requires awareness of global and cultural intelligence to ensure each team’s concept addresses a societal need to be commercially viable.

This module is the third module within a series of modules on Laboratory, Design and Professional Studies. It directly builds on the Year 1 modules within that series (EEE1027 and EEE1028), providing further opportunity to develop lab competency and transferable skills. It also prepares students for the follow-up module within this series (EEE2037) in Year 2 Semester 2 and the Engineering Professional Studies (EEE3035) in Year 3. The Enterprise project is a year-long project that runs across both this module and EEE2037.

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2024/5 academic year.