Introduction

The School of Engineering and Physical Sciences is a community of some two thousand staff, undergraduate and postgraduate students. Our mission is in the creation and transfer of knowledge through our research, teaching and learning, for the advancement of our subject and to contribute to society. Our School is built around the established subjects of chemical engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical, electronic and computer engineering, chemistry and physics, but our interdisciplinary structure gives us a unique advantage in the pursuit of new and exciting interdisciplinary topics.

The School enjoys both an international reputation for its research and its close connection with the professional and industrial world of science, engineering and technology. This reflects the importance that the University attaches to the quality of its teaching, research and student support.

Mechanical Engineering

Modern society needs high quality Mechanical Engineering graduates for their professional mechanical engineering skills and expertise. Heriot-Watt University is proud that our graduates are constantly in demand for these skills. Mechanical Engineers play key roles in all industrial sectors ranging from aerospace, oil and gas, through food and transport to manufacturing, chemical and entertainment industries. Professional Mechanical Engineers are at the forefront of the management of the earth’s natural resources by optimising the conflicting demands of the modern world. These challenges are clearest in the field of energy production where the long term supply of energy continues to be an issue of major technical and political importance.

Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Heriot-Watt is a leading international centre for learning, innovation and knowledge transfer in electronic, electrical and computer systems engineering (EECE). It equips students and employees for rewarding careers and provides competitive advantage to industrial sponsors and employers. We achieve this by delivering both broad and hands-on courses focused onto industrially relevant topics, and through cutting edge, world-class technological research.

Our specialities in Microsystems, Microwave Engineering, Robotics, Intelligent Systems, Signal and Image Processing, Embedded Systems, Power Electronics and High Voltage engineering are uniquely applied internationally across industries such as Communications, Medical Electronics, Transport, Offshore Oil and Gas, Defence, Energy Generation/Distribution and beyond.

Rated Excellent at the last UK-wide Teaching Assessment Exercise, EECE is at the hub of the engineering disciplines that form people and technology for our future. We pride ourselves in providing life enrichment in a caring environment for the transition to graduate and post-graduate engineer, and in delivering word class research outputs that are consistently used by industry as differentiators to generate economic wealth.

Energy

The MSc Energy is supported by an EPSRC Collaborative Training Account. Its content is directly related to the energy challenges facing the Middle East, further developing the knowledge and expertise of those already in employment as well as providing an entry for recent graduates into a key industry.

Energy – based on fossil fuels and, increasingly, renewables – is an essential component of our existence. The cost, availability and efficient utilisation of energy are increasingly strong focal points in the strategies of governments world-wide, as they realise that the ‘raw material’ for most of the energy used today has a finite life.

Of even greater concern is the probability that the products of the inefficient or profligate use of fossil fuels could make the earth uninhabitable in the longer term, and create havoc in parts of our balanced ecosystem in the medium term.

The implications of the above have both national and international significance. The latter point is recognised by the Kyoto Agreement on CO₂ emissions and similar actions, such as the Montreal Protocol, a damage-limitation exercise with respect to the ozone layer. Nationally, countries which ratify these treaties, or impose self-regulation on energy use, can put their economies at a disadvantage. In order for personnel in companies to overcome the impact on the competitiveness of business, and the economy as a whole, of limitations on CO₂ emissions and pressures to introduce ‘sustainability’ into each process and product, a marriage of technical and business skills is needed. It is the aim of our Energy (FLAME) MSc course to broker this marriage by providing a balanced, integrated course which will equip the participant with the tools needed to influence positively his/her organisation in to developing new business strategies relevant to ‘energy’, or in reacting to the growing portfolio of environmental legislation.