Welcome to your Automotive Engineering course

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Hello and Welcome to the start of your postgraduate journey here at University of Staffordshire! Starting a postgraduate course in Automotive Engineering can be daunting, so we want to help you prepare in advance and know what to expect to make things as smooth as possible. The information below will help you prepare for your exciting new course at University.

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

This is an award for the graduate Mechanical and Automotive Engineers who wish to focus on Automotive related topics. The course covers a broad range of areas related to Automotive Engineering with a choice of module in Advanced Vehicle Dynamics & NVH, Vehicle Aerodynamics (CFD), Automotive Propulsion & Emission Control, Engineering Design, Manufacture and Sustainability, and FEA of Static and Dynamic mechanical systems. The type of project undertaken for the MSc dissertation will determine the final award title/specialisation.

During your time as a postgraduate student and even before you start the course, the following texts will prove useful source of information and core knowledge:

Barton, D. C. & Fieldhouse, J. D., (2018). Automotive Chassis Engineering. Springer International Publishing AG (ISBN 978-3-319-72436-2)

Crolla, D. A., (2009). Automotive Engineering – Powertrain, Chassis System and Vehicle Body. Butterworth-Heinemann Publishing (Elsevier). (ISBN: 978-1-85617-577-7)

Equipment and software

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

Meet the team

Dr Abdul Waheed Awan

Senior Lecturer

Dr Awan is Senior Lecturer in Mechanical & Automotive Engineering and Award Leader for MSc Automotive Engineering and MSc Mechanical Engineering and Sustainable Energy Technologies within School of Digital, Technology, Innovation and Business.

Abdul Waheed's profile

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

Debi Roberts

Interim Head Of Department

Debi has a keen interest in Automotive and Aeronautical Aerodynamics, Engine Design and Engineering History (Automotive and Aeronautical).

Debi'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.