MSc Advanced Control and Systems Engineering

Course description

Control Engineering is a multi-disciplinary subject, with applications across a wide range of industrial sectors. The Control Systems Group in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Manchester has been running an MSc course in Advanced Control and Systems Engineering since 1968. The course is geared for graduates from a variety of scientific and engineering disciplines.

The aims of the course are to:

• provide advanced education in control and systems engineering, emphasising modern theoretical developments and their practical application
• give a sound fundamental understanding of the principles underlying the operation of control systems
• enable students to apply modern control principles in various areas of industry
• Students acquire a range of intellectual skills that cover the design, analysis and simulation of control systems. A strong emphasis is placed on practical and transferable skills through laboratory exercises and the use of software packages.

Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD), the University of Manchester's new £400m purpose-built home for engineering and material science, is nearing completion. The physical move to the new development is scheduled to take place between January 2022 and December 2022. Whilst it is anticipated that access to equipment or work on projects for which such access is required may be limited during the period of the move, plans are underway to ensure that any disruption caused is minimised, a wide selection of dissertation projects will continue to be available, and excellent student experience remains pivotal.

Coursework and assessment

The taught part of the course comprises course units of 15 credits each. This is assessed by written examinations, coursework and laboratory reports.

A strong feature of the course is the dissertation project, which constitutes 60 Credits. The project introduces students to cutting edge control theory and applications.

Course unit details

Typical course units include Control and Computer Laboratory, Linear Optimal Control, Intelligent Systems, Non-linear Controllers & Systems, Self-tuning and Adaptive Systems, Manufacturing Automation, and Process Control Systems.

In 2018 we celebrated the 50th anniversary of our MSc course. In that time graduates of the course have achieved top ranking industrial and academic positions in their home countries, in the UK and around the world.

Graduates from the course are employed in a variety of industries, including process and petro-chemical industries, manufacturing, power generation and the automotive and aerospace sectors. Recently there has been a surge in demand for control engineers in the field of biomedicine. More generally feedback control and systems engineering skills play an important part in an ever-widening range of high tech applications.

The MSc can also be used a springboard for postgraduate research. Approximately 50% of the current PhD students in the Control Systems Group are graduates from the MSc course.