Faculty of Engineering & design
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Introduction
The Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering is in the vanguard of progress in a fast-moving discipline and its postgraduate school is one of the largest in the University encompassing research, several full-time MSc programmes and a unique Distance Learning Modular MSc programme.
The Department offers a broad spectrum of research expertise supported by state-of- the-art facilities. Its international reputation reflects substantial levels of research income and journal publication, and it offers outstanding opportunities in postgraduate research.
Main areas of research
Electronic and electrical engineering research is essential in the modern technological society and our department does much significant work in this area.
We collaborate proactively with other departments on many projects. We also collaborate extensively with leading industries and educational establishments around the world.
Many internationally-recognised research activities are undertaken by our three interdisciplinary research centres: the Centre for Advanced Sensor Technology; the Centre for Space Atmospheric & Oceanic Science and the Centre for Sustainable Power Distribution. Other research work includes the EPSRC funded Invert Centre for Imaging Science and additional research units.
We actively promote translation of our research into our teaching, with all taught postgraduate programmes including a detailed research project.
Centre for Advanced Sensor Technology
The Centre for Advanced Sensor Technology brings together expertise in micro-electronics, opto-electronics and novel materials.
Micro-electronics – main areas of interest
- implantable systems for Electroneurogram (ENG) recording
- Electroneurogram (ENG) signal processing
- programmable implantable stimulators
- radio frequency transmitters for transcutaneous links
- analogue approaches to reduced state Viterbi decoders
- application of analogue methods to motion estimation systems for low power video applications.
Opto-electronics – main areas of interest
The opto-electronics side of the group designs and develops integrated semiconductor optical devices and sensors. The efficient material growth and device fabrication facilities and the strong theoretical modelling capability of the group are recognised both nationally and internationally.
Current research areas:
- optical amplifiers
- novel switching and routing matrices
- GaN-based UV and visible materials and devices
- high-power LEDs and diode lasers
- theoretical and experimental investigations on Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs) as functional devices
- electrorefraction in quantum wells and superlattices
- advanced microfabrication techniques for semiconductor and glass-based photonic components
- nanostructured materials and devices
Facilities include:
- III-Nitride materials growth laboratory
- clean room for device fabrication
- extensive optical and electronic test laboratory.
Centre for Space Atmosphere & Oceanic Science (CSAOS)
The CSAOS carries out research into remote sensing of the Earth's atmosphere, ionosphere and space environment, and into various aspects of radar technology, communications engineering, radio propagation and advanced imaging.
The CSAOS is a multidisciplinary team with expertise that ranges from remote sensing of the space environment to studies of radio propagation in urban areas. The Centre uses arrays of sophisticated radars and geodetic GPS receivers to investigate the Earth's atmosphere, ionosphere and near-Earth space. The Centre's expertise in radio systems is used in studies of radio propagation and propagation modelling for communication systems and in antenna design. Advanced imaging work is developed for a wide range of applications.
The Centre consists of nine academic staff and about 15 research staff and students. It attracts significant funding from UK research councils and from industry.
The main areas of work are:
- atmospheric dynamics, electrodynamics and remote sensing
- tomographic imaging (through the department’s INVERT EPSRC Centre)
- GPS satellite navigation systems
- radio science, including radio propagation and active (radar) and passive (radiometric) remote sensing technology
- microwave systems, circuits and devices.
Facilities include:
- geodetic GPS receivers deployed at remote sites
- GPS propagation simulator
- VHF meteor radars at Arctic, middle, equatorial and Antarctic latitudes
- MIDAS ionospheric inversion software
- 93 GHz water-vapour radiometers, including a mobile system
- RF measurement facilities including vector network analysers (to 65GHz) and spectrum analysers (to 95GHz)
- a wideband multiple input multiple output (MIMO) channel sounder
- an anechoic chamber
- millimetre-wave and microwave propagation prediction software tools
- two cluster computers: 32-bit 8-cpu cluster with Myrinet, 64-bit 32-cpu cluster with DDR Infiniband
Centre for Sustainable Power Distribution
The Centre for Sustainable Power Distribution is widely recognised as a centre of research excellence within the area of electrical power and energy systems.
The Centre comprises 8 academic staff and 20 research officers and postgraduates. Complementing the Centre are Visiting Professor John Scott, former technical director of Ofgen, and two visiting fellows with extensive practical experience and expertise: David Tolley – previously commercial manager of NPower and Doung Warn – an independent consultant to the UK's power industry.
The Centre carries out research into all aspects of power generation, transmission and distribution. It has internationally recognised expertise in power system planning, operation and management, security and stability analysis of large systems, control and protection of power systems, distributed generation, power system economics and market operation, FACTS, condition monitoring and protection of power plants. The area of power system economics has been strengthened by the recent award of an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship to Dr Furong Li.
The Centre has substantial co-operative research grants and contracts from the research council, manufacturing and utilities and welcomes many visiting fellows from overseas institutions and companies. Members of the Centre are also involved in a number of multidisciplinary projects (involving Mechanical and Chemical Engineering and Socio-economics) in the areas of biomass energy, hydrogen fuel cell technology and market economics.
The Centre is heavily involved in the EPSRC SUPERGEN programme dealing with issues of sustainable power generation and supply:
- future network technologies: ensuring the continuance of a reliable supply of power to the UK
- energy storage: developing new materials to advance rechargeable lithium ion battery and supercapacitor technologies.
The main areas of research are:
- power system planning, operation and management
- control and protection of power systems
- modelling and simulation of extended electrical power networks
- sustainable and renewable energy generation and integration
- power system security and stability analysis
- power system dynamic analysis
- wind speed modelling and wind power forecasting
- flexible AC transmission systems
- distribution generation
- power systems emergency control and restoration
- power electronics
- power systems economics
Facilities include:
- Real Time Digital Simulator System (RTDS)
- micro-grid system
- flywheel energy storage devices.
Other research areas in the Department include:
- power electronics: power converters, power semiconductor application, amplifiers for magnetic resonance imaging magnets
- electrical machines: design and test of linear machines, disc machines and conventional cylindrical machines
- electromagnetics: 2-D and 3-D finite element analysis of electromagnetic fields
- image and video processing: motion estimation, colour and multispectral image analysis, video compression.
Postgraduate facilities
The postgraduate laboratories are well-equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and instrumentation. Postgraduate facilities include PCs and powerful workstations which also give direct and ready access to the University’s central computer system and the internet. Additional specialist research facilities are available within the department’s three research centres.