Welcome to your Electrical Engineering and Renewable Energy Systems course

Welcome to University of Staffordshire

We know you're already passionate about your subject, which is why we're excited you've chosen University of Staffordshire as the place to turn possibility into reality.

To give you an insight into what life as an Electrical Engineering and Renewable Energy Systems student is like, your course leaders have prepared introductions to the course and further activities.

Welcome to MSc Electrical Engineering and Renewable Energy Systems, it has never been such an exciting time to study electrical engineering. The power supply is evolving at a rate that has never been seen before, with the ever increasing demand for energy at as the same time the reduction in the carbon footprint. The world requires engineers to devise innovative solutions to enable us to continue to consume the energy we require.

Course delivery

Teaching will be through a mixture of workshops, lectures, tutorials, labs and seminars. Most modules have four hours of contact a week and class sizes will be bigger in lectures and smaller in workshops, tutorials and labs. Most classes are face to face on campus, and we use a range of assessments including technical reports, lab reports, group assignments and online and traditional exams.

Semester one activities

Welcome Week is your first opportunity to meet your fellow students and the staff you’ll be working with, in one place. We’ll be getting involved in activities and making sure you know more about how the University works and how the next few weeks and months are going to look. We’re hoping that you’ll get to know us and your course mates and be ready to start with the next stage of your journey.

In Welcome Week, you’ll be introduced to the IMechE and IET professional bodies who accredit the course so you can learn more about becoming a member and the benefits linking in to a local and global network of professional engineers can bring to your future career.

Before you start - what can I do to prepare for the start of the course?

This is an award for the graduate engineer who wishes to enhance their knowledge of electrical engineering with the inclusion of locally and grid generated renewable energy, at the domestic, industrial national and global level. The course covers a broad range of areas related to Electrical l Engineering and renewable energy with modules in Smart Grids including networked power engineering, modern power systems and protection, power convertors for electric utilities, low carbon and renewable energy systems and plastic electronics. You will also learn how to be a professional engineer and undertake research methods training which enable you to develop your own project proposal and write an in-depth literature review in readiness for your project.

Before you start, these are some fantastic websites to get you thinking and developing yourself for the course;

https://www.theiet.org/

https://www.instructables.com/

The Engineer is a great place to keep up with news in the Energy and Environmental Industries

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/energy-and-environment/

Software that we will be using on this course includes the following

https://www.mathworks.com/

https://www.pscad.com/software/pscad/overview

Pre-arrival task!

Prior to your arrival we’d like you to complete a little activity – there’ll even be a little prize for the best entry! We’d like you to produce a page or two that presents the most important future looking idea in Electrical Engineering and Renewable Energy Systems that you think will make the biggest impact in the next 20 years. You’ll need to explain WHY you have chosen it and explain why you think it will make such an impact. Maybe you think the DC home or factory are going to become the mainstay or maybe you’re really looking forward to battery technology – we want to know how you think these ideas are going to impact our future!

Equipment

For the first sessions in Welcome Week – as always it would be useful to bring a notepad and pen – while we’ll make sure you have access to any information you need – you might want to note a few things down. As you start your lectures and learning then you’ll want to make sure you always bring a few things to your sessions. Pens and a notebook are a must, while you’ll find that always carrying a scientific calculator will mean that you’re always prepared. It is useful to have a smartphone for logging into the attendance system too. We have PCs available on campus that have the simulation and design software on that we use, but some of these packages can be downloaded onto your own laptop if it is powerful enough. Most don’t work quite as well on Apple Macs.

Once enrolled, you will be able to download a range of software free of charge from the University.

Software link

Professional membership

You will be getting professional membership of the IET for the duration of this course, so make sure you go to the talk in welcome week!

Keep in touch over the next few weeks...

In the 'related accounts' section below we have linked you to course social media accounts - please join us!

Meet the team

Dr Alison Griffiths

Associate Professor

Alison's expertise includes smart grids and their protection and renewable integration, smart homes, wireless sensor network design, implementation and optimisation.

Alison's profile

Torfeh Sadat-Shafai

Emeritus Professor

Torfeh's expertise lies in plastic electronics, Photovoltaics, Experimental Physics, Electronic Material; Thin Films Technology and Optoelectronics. Torfeh is also course leader for Advanced Technology MSc

Torfeh's profile

Professor Hamidreza Gohari Darabkhani

Professor-Low Carbon & Renew Energy Sys

Prof Gohari Darabkhani has focused his research and industry collaborations on technologies and projects that directly contribute to resolving current major issues in the energy industry to achieving net-zero emission targets by 2050.

Hamidreza's profile

Professor Abdel-Hamid Soliman

Professor

Abdel-Hamid's expertise includes automation, including Smart Cities, Building automation, Energy management, Security, Safety and health applications.

Abdel-Hamid's profile

Dr Anas Amjad

Course Director

Anas is Course Director for Electrical and Electronic Engineering. His expertise lies in the use of smart systems for a diverse range of applications, such as smart healthcare, smart homes, smart cities etc.

Anas's profile

What to expect on Welcome Week

We're so excited for you to join us on campus and to welcome you to where you matter. During your welcome week you'll be able to meet our friendly student services teams, connect with new friends, join societies, explore on-campus venues attend club nights and much more.

We look forward to welcoming you to the campus in September.

If you have any questions, please send them to a.l.griffiths@staffs.ac.uk

MSc Electrical Engineering and Renewable Energy Systems Course Team