MEng, BEng Civil Engineering

Year 4

(Award available for year: Master of Engineering)

Learning outcomes

On completion of the year/programme students should have provided evidence of being able to:

• demonstrate in-depth, specialist knowledge and mastery of techniques relevant to civil engineering and/or to demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of concepts, information and techniques at the forefront of the discipline;
• exhibit mastery in the exercise of generic and subject-specific intellectual abilities;
• demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of techniques applicable to their own research or advanced scholarship;
• take a proactive and self-reflective role in working and to develop professional relationships with others;
• proactively to formulate ideas and hypotheses and to develop, implement and execute plans by which to evaluate these;
• critically and creatively evaluate current issues, research and advanced scholarship in the discipline.


Students will have:
Knowledge and Understanding of:
• the mathematical principles necessary to underpin their education in civil engineering and to enable them to apply mathematical methods, tools and notations proficiently in the analysis and solution of multi-disciplinary engineering problems;
• properties, behaviour and use of relevant materials in civil engineering;
• management techniques which may be used to achieve civil engineering objectives within that context;
• the role of codes of practice in design;
• principles and implementation of advanced design techniques specific to civil engineering;
• mathematical and computer models relevant to civil engineering, and an appreciation of their limitations;
• the role of the professional civil engineer in society, including health, safety, environmental, sustainability, ethical issues and risk assessment;
• the wider multidisciplinary engineering context and its underlying principles;
• developing technologies related civil engineering and the ability to develop critiques of them;
• the framework of relevant requirements governing civil engineering activities, including personnel, health, safety, and risk issues (an awareness of);
• advanced design processes and methodologies and the ability to adapt them in unfamiliar situations.

Ability to:
• demonstrate self-learning and competence in identifying, defining and solving civil engineering problems;
• apply appropriate mathematical and computer-cased methods for modelling and analysing civil engineering
• problems and appreciate their limitations;
• extract data pertinent to an unfamiliar problem, and apply its solution using computer based engineering tools where appropriate;
• evaluate and integrate information and processes in project work;
• understand the use of technical literature and other information sources;
• critically evaluate current research or equivalent scholarship that may be relevant in design problem solving;
• comprehend the broad picture and thus work with an appropriate level of detail;
• use creativity to establish innovative solutions;
• demonstrate creative and innovative ability in the synthesis of solutions and in formulating designs;
• have the ability to extract data pertinent to an unfamiliar problem, and apply its solution using computer based engineering tools when appropriate.

The Practical Skills to:
• use laboratory and field equipment competently and safely;
• observe, record, process and analyse data from the laboratory and field;
• use computational tools and packages to optimise design solutions;
• prepare technical reports and give technical presentations to communicate information to both specialist and non-specialist audiences;
• prepare technical drawings, both manually and using CAD;
• generate innovative designs.

Transferable (key) skills

Students should have provided evidence of the key skills to:

• communicate effectively using written, oral and graphical skills and to be able to sustain arguments;
• use mathematical skills appropriate to a civil engineer;
• work independently and be capable of self-learning;
• work in a team environment;
• manage workloads and time effectively;
• work with limited or contradictory information and have an appreciation on the limits of knowledge;
• monitor, plan and reflect upon personal, educational and career development (Personal Development Planning);
• exercise initiative and personal responsibility.

Students will have had the opportunity to acquire, as defined in the modules specified for the programme:

• the transferable/key/generic skills necessary for employment related to the area(s) studied;
• the exercise of initiative and personal responsibility;
• the deployment of decision making skills in complex and unpredictable situations;
• the communication of information, ideas, problems and solutions in a variety of ways to a variety of audiences;
• the ability to undertake appropriate further training of a professional or equivalent nature.

Assessment

Achievement for the degree will be assessed by a variety of methods in accordance with the learning outcomes of the modules specified for the year/programme and will involve the achievement of the students in:

• evidencing an ability to conduct independent in-depth enquiry within the discipline;
• demonstrating the ability to apply breadth and/or depth of knowledge to a complex specialist area;
• drawing on a range of perspectives on an area of study;
• evaluating and criticising received opinion;
• make reasoned judgements whilst understanding the limitations on judgements made in the absence of complete data.