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The second group of students to complete the four-year Engineering Course graduated with their MEng degrees this year. Part I of the course, lasting two years, covers the fundamentals of engineering required by future engineers. After completing Part I, students have a wide range of options and they can select one of the following two-year Triposes within the Department: Engineering Part II; Electrical and Information Sciences; or Manufacturing Engineering. They also have the option to transfer to other Triposes. The feedback from students indicates strong support for the four-year course, particularly the flexibility provided by the large number of modules in the fourth year along with the challenging fourth-year project. This project occupies half of the final year of the course and is often undertaken in collaboration with an industrial partner.
The number of candidates for each of the 1997 Tripos examinations in the Department was:
Engineering Tripos, Part IA - 278
Engineering Tripos, Part IB - 291
Engineering Tripos, Part IIA - 137
Electrical and Information Sciences Tripos, Part I - 105
Manufacturing Engineering Tripos, Part I - 42
Management Studies Tripos - 40
Engineering Tripos, Part IIB - 132
Electrical and Information Sciences Tripos, Part II - 91
Manufacturing Engineering Tripos, Part II - 44
Of the 291 who were candidates for Part IB, 25 subsequently transferred to Chemical Engineering and 2 to Computer Sciences, whereas of the 242 who were candidates for the Engineering Tripos, Part IIA, or Electrical and Information Sciences Tripos, Part I, 18 had transferred from the Natural Sciences Tripos, the Mathematical Tripos or the Computer Sciences Tripos. Of that same group of 242, 17 decided not to continue to the fourth year and left Cambridge with the BA degree only.
Dr Martin Cowley, who has been Deputy Head of Department with responsibility for the Teaching Office for the past four years, was awarded the Cambridge Foundation Teaching Prize. The Prize was presented by the Chancellor of the University on 10 July 1997. Dr Cowley leaves the Teaching Office at the end of this academical year and the post is to be taken over by Mr Ken Wallace.
We congratulate Joanna Clements (Sidney Sussex), Jeremy Morris (Gonville and Caius) and Rosalind Warren (Sidney Sussex) for being selected to receive Engineering Leadership Awards by The Royal Academy of Engineering.
The Department's involvement with the pilot study into Teaching Quality Management, initiated by the Engineering Professors' Council, is continuing. As part of this project a Staff Teaching Handbook has been written by Mr Donald Green. These activities are helping preparations for the Department's Teaching Quality Assessment which is to take place in January 1998.
During the year 542 students applied for graduate courses in the Department and 164 were admitted; 50 students registered for the one-year Advanced Course in Design, Manufacture and Management (ACDMM), and 23 students for the taught MPhil Course in Computer Speech and Language Processing, with the remaining 91 students admitted for courses in research. At the end of the Michaelmas Term 1996, there were 370 Graduate Students registered for courses in Engineering; 154 Home students, 174 Overseas students and 42 EC students. There were 318 men and 52 women. In addition, 52 students attended the ACDMM. Of the candidates approved for certificates and degrees during the year, 2 candidates received the Certificate of Postgraduate Study, 55 candidates were approved for the Postgraduate Certificate in Design, Manufacture and Management, 24 candidates were approved for the MPhil degree, 2 candidates were approved for the MSc degree and 74 candidates were approved for the PhD degree.
A new part-time Master of Studies (M.St.) course, the Manufacturing Leaders' Programme, was inaugurated during the year. The programme is designed to prepare engineers, managers and scientists for senior roles in manufacturing companies. The course structure comprises four residential three-week modules, three in-company case studies and an in-company strategic project. The course is taken over two years and allows course members to stay in post while studying for the M.St. Degree. For reasons of economy, the full-time Advanced Course in Design, Manufacture and Management was changed this year, from a two-stream entry to a single stream entry. There were 50 students on the course, 39 men and 11 women. The course was judged to be very successful, though because of its size it proved less easy to manage in comparison with the two-stream arrangement. A new feature this year was a pilot scheme for distance learning of languages. This was conducted with the University Language Centre and offered the opportunity to learn French and German. If the pilot scheme is a success, other languages will be made available on later courses. The MPhil course in Computer Speech and Language Processing was again offered jointly with the Computer Laboratory. Apart from updating the content, the structure of the course was unchanged. This year entry for the course was 35% above that for 1995-96.
During the year, the Faculty Board received the final report and approved the recommendations of the Working Party on Graduate Studies that was established by the Head of Department to review the PhD programme. Arising out of the Working Party's recommendations, a number of changes are to be made to the structure of graduate programmes. These include the establishment of a Graduate Teaching Committee to oversee graduate courses in the Department. There is to be a requirement that research students in their first year take three 16-lecture courses or the equivalent and submit a 10,000-15,000 word thesis on their research. As this requirement makes the first year of the PhD programme identical to the programme for the MPhil in Engineering, it is expected that many candidates for the PhD will also register for the MPhil degree in their first year of research. Each student is to be allocated an Adviser in addition to the Supervisor. Both will take part in an annual assessment of the student's progress.
A new brochure has been produced describing facilities and research in the Department. Further information on graduate courses, availability of funds and research studentships is now available on the Department's web pages.
Last modified: 8 August 1998