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In June 2000, the fifth group of students to complete the four-year Engineering Course graduated with their MEng degrees. Part I of the course, lasting two years, covers the fundamentals of engineering science and after which students have a wide range of options including being able to select one of the following two-year courses within the Department. Part II of the Engineering Tripos, Parts I and II of the Electrical and Information Sciences Tripos; or the Manufacturing Engineering Tripos. This year students who performed exceptionally well in their third year examinations have had the opportunity of including one of the Department's graduate research modules in their portfolio of final year courses. A further innovation has been the provision of Departmental transcripts to all examination candidates which include details of courses followed of results achieved.
The optional language teaching available within the Department continues to be very popular with undergraduates. The Language Unit, under the direction of Mr d'Angelo, currently offers courses in French, German and Japanese at beginners, intermediate and advanced levels.
During the course of this year the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced substantial government funding for the encouragement of collaboration between the University of Cambridge and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. An important aspect of the Cambridge-MIT Institute will be the exchange of undergraduates, typically in the third year of a four year course. The Department will be an active participant in this scheme and will be accepting a small group of MIT students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering into Part IIA for the academic year 2000-2001. In the following year, numbers will increase and it is anticipated that about 20 of our third year will travel to Boston with approximately the same number of MIT students coming to CUED.
The number of candidates for each of the 2000 Tripos examinations in the Department was:
Of the 297 who were candidates for Part IA, 15 subsequently transferred to Chemical Engineering and 3 to other subjects. Of the 215 who were candidates for the Engineering Tripos, Part IIA, or Electrical and Information Sciences Tripos, Part I, 4 had transferred from the Natural Sciences Tripos, the Mathematical Tripos, or the Computer Science Tripos. Of that same group of 215, 12 did not continue to the fourth year and left Cambridge with the BA degree only.
We congratulate Polly Courtney (Trinity), Victoria Cuthbert (Sidney Sussex) and Peter Hewett (Queens') who received Engineering Leadership Awards from The Royal Academy of Engineering; from the staff, congratulation are also due to Dr Holger Babinsky, of Division A, who was this year awarded a Pilkington Teaching prize.
During the year 503 students applied for graduate courses in the Department and 133 were admitted; 32 students registered for the one-year Advanced Course in Design, Manufacture and Management (ACDMM), and 20 students registered for the taught MPhil course in Computer Speech and Language Processing. The remaining students were admitted for courses in research. At the end of the Michaelmas Term 1999, there were 378 Graduate Students registered for courses in Engineering. Of the candidates approved for certificates and degrees during the year, 2 received the Certificate of Postgraduate Study, 32 were approved for the Postgraduate Certificate in Design, Manufacture and Management, 32 were approved for the MPhil degree, 3 were approved for the MSc degree and 42 were approved for the PhD degree. Eight candidates were approved for the Master of Studies (MSt) degree.
The taught MPhil course in Computer Speech and Language Processing was again offered jointly with the Computer Laboratory. The course consisted of lectures and coursework followed by a project. Introductory material was covered in Michaelmas Term lectures, followed by more specialised topics in the Lent Term. Examinations were held in the early part of the Easter Term and successful candidates went forward to project work and the submission of a thesis. Oral examinations on the thesis were held in September. The course provides students with an excellent springboard for either research or industrial application. The taught full-time Advanced Course in Design, Manufacture and Management operated with single stream entry of 32 students. The course provides a highly effective learning experience in relation to manufacturing industry.
There are now two part-time Master of Studies (MSt) courses offered in the Department. The first, the Manufacturing Leaders Programme (MLP), is offered in collaboration with the Judge Institute of Management Studies and the Cambridge Programme for Industry. The course is divided into four modules plus a dissertation and is taken by students who are in full-time employment in manufacturing and related industries. The second is in Interdisciplinary Design for the Built Environment (IDBE), run jointly with the Department of Architecture and the Cambridge Programme for Industry. Its current Director, Paul Kirby, is a member of staff of CUED. This part-time learning course lasts two years and is structured around a programme of intensive week-long residential periods. Each of these weeks has a specific theme, which is explored through lectures, seminars and multidisciplinary design projects. Written work, including a case study, essays and a thesis, is undertaken away from Cambridge. The students are all in full-time employment in the architectural and engineering sectors of industry, and they are expected to have gained at least three years of work experience before joining the course. The seventh cohort of students began its studies in September 2000. It maintains the trend towards a geographically as well as a professionally diverse student group: currently China, Russia, the United States Of America, Germany and Malaysia are represented alongside the UK in the group. The course aims at developing in its students the capacity to exploit the diverse specialist expertise essential to built-environment projects. It draws its teaching from its home departments, from the wider University and from professionals presenting best practice in industry. A book entitled "Interdisciplinary Design: Practice, Education and Research", has been prepared by the course team. It collects together papers delivered to IDBE students by visiting speakers from industry and papers drawn from IDBE-linked research projects. It is now with the publishers.
The Graduate Teaching Committee approved modules and courses for graduate study for 2000/2001. The list included research modules, selected modules from the final year of the undergraduate MEng course and Reading Clubs. In a Reading Club students meet on a regular basis to work through set texts under the supervision of a senior member of a research group. Unless granted exemption by the Committee, all first year Graduate Students study 3 assessed modules or the equivalent from the approved list.
Information on graduate courses, availability of funds and research studentships is available on the Department's web pages at http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk.
Last modified: October 2001