Overview

This course is available with a year in industry, which is taken after your 2nd year of study.

This is a four-year course (or five with placement), leading to a Masters degree. A special emphasis is given to Embedded Systems, that is the embedding of computer systems into a multitude of devices such as cars (engine management systems), mobile phones, personal video recorders, MP3 players, aeroplanes, medical equipment, kitchen appliances and so on. Embedded Systems must operate in real-time, reliably, safely and manner that is appropriate to the user's expectations. This often means that requirements and specifications are detailed and comprehensive.

The first two years provide a solid foundation in core areas of Computer Science, and introduce some of the fundamental Embedded Systems concepts. The third and fourth year lead to a gradual specialisation in your areas of interest, allowing you to obtain a deeper knowledge of selected Embedded Systems and other CS topics through a large range of options. These usually represent the research areas of our staff and so provide a picture of the latest achievements in the field. The same is valid for your individual final-year  project.

A Masters course such as this provides you the benefit of an extra year of study with us (as compared with a Bachelors degree), allowing you to study more topics at a deeper level, thus connecting you with the state-of-the-art in your selected study areas.

Course Structure

First Year

The first year contains essential fundamental material in programming, computer architectures and human-computer interfaces. It also contains mathematical and theoretical foundations of computer science. The structure of the first year modules can be found in the first year modules table.

Second Year

The second year continues with fundamental material, such as 'Principles of Programming Languages', 'Systems and Compilers', and 'Computability and Complexity'. Slightly more specialised topics start to be introduced, for example 'Artificial Intelligence' and 'Vision and Graphics'. Furthermore, all students can choose between a large Software Engineering project or a Hardware project. The structure of the second year modules can be found in the second year modules table.

Third Year

Once you reach your third year, there is more flexibility and you can choose 6 modules from a range of options. Examples of current module options can be found in the third year modules list.

Fourth Year

In the fourth year, you do a large individual research project, a group project and five modules. Examples of individual projects can be found under the final year projects tab on this page. Examples of current module options can be found in the fourth year modules list.

Final Year Projects

Typically, you will have a large list projects to choose from, a short list of recent examples is shown below. It is even possible to define your own final year project in Embedded Systems.

• Real-Time Interconnect for Multiprocessor FPGA Systems
• OpenGL Library for FPGA
• FPGA support for OS Filesystems
• Guitar Hero on FPGA
• Implementation of Handel-C on a Multiprocessor x86 Architecture
• Wormhole Communication on FPGA
• Use of Scheduling Analysis to place applications within a multiprocessor systems
• Modeling and Analysing Memory Hierarchies
• A new solution scheme for RTA (response time analysis)
• Modelling Network-on-Chip monitors
• Efficient request/response support on multiprocessor architectures based on Networks on Chip
• Average case sub-optimality of fixed priority pre-emptive scheduling