MSc Projects

The University of Sheffield offers M.Sc. taught degrees for postgraduate students in the areas of Electronic Engineering and Data Communications, the latter being jointly run between our department and Computer Science. Both courses are designed to be particularly relevant to the industries operating in these fields, and combine substantial project work with the taught elements of the courses. Industrially driven projects give students great experience at solving "real" engineering challenges, and give companies a fresh approach at tackling problems.

What sort of projects would be suitable?

Almost any engineering problem may be of interest to us, although preferably in the area of Communications or Electronic Systems. This includes topics such as antenna design for mobile phones and automotive applications, microwave measurements, radar, wireless communications, electronic systems, networking, or communication protocols.

Recent projects have included:-

• Antenna Interface Standards Group (AISG) Compliant Microcontroller
• Phased Array for Bluetooth/802.11 Radar System
• Increasing capacity of small receive-only satellite dishes
• Reduced Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) Antennas of Mobile Phones
• IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Service Interaction for Special Needs Users
• Characterisation of broadband superluminescence LEDs
• Thermal models for power electronic modules

Recent project partners have included Raven, Panasonic, and Vodafone.

What can you expect from the student?

M.Sc. students work on their project part-time during their second semester (February – June), and full-time in their final semester (June – September). They work individually, under the supervision of an academic member of the department.

To obtain their degree and pass their project, our students must submit a dissertation and give an oral presentation of their work.

The high calibre of our students, combined with the time devoted to the project usually results in excellent achievements.

What would you need to do?

The amount of time and effort required on your part is largely negotiable. Some companies choose only to propose a project, then read the student´s report. Others prefer a more hands-on approach, providing an initial site tour and presentation, then liasing with the student regularly during the course of their work.

We can help you formulate a project specification if you have some ideas of what you wish to achieve.

Timings of Projects

Projects run from February to September each year.