Smart Computer Systems with Foundation BEng (Hons)

University of Westminster, London

Our degree courses with Foundation year offer the opportunity to prepare you for advanced study before you progress onto a full honours degree at the University of Westminster. Whether you do not feel ready for degree-level study, don’t have the right qualifications, want to change your subject specialism or return to study after an absence from education, we aim to encourage a broad range of students to undertake our Foundation year in order to progress onto their full honours degree with us.The Foundation year is designed to give you the opportunity to explore new ideas, opening up new perspectives on the key debates within your chosen field. During the foundation year you will explore a range of creative disciplines and get a chance to develop in your chosen field, benefiting from workshops in our high end facilities and working with leading academics who will encourage you to become a confident and creative thinker. Core modules accelerate your academic and professional development and you will also take modules within your chosen field, giving you the chance to develop a cross-disciplinary perspective on your course.On successful completion of the Foundation year (Year 0), you will be able to move on to study for the Computer Systems Engineering BSc Honours over a further three years study.Smart computer systems engineering is a growing market in today’s computer industry. Embedded systems have become widespread in industry and can be found in almost all modern consumer devices, from washing machines to cars.The Smart Computer Systems BEng Honours aims to develop your skills as a strong computer-based engineer, in demand in both industry and research. It will equip you with in-depth knowledge of the structure, design and efficient operation of smart computer system engineering, through a variety of embedded platforms, peripheral devices, associated operational, supervisory and networking software. The course is especially focused on the rapidly growing and changing technologies involving embedded systems, sensors, wireless networks and Internet-of-Things (IoT) ecosystems, and will help you meet the demand from employers for graduates with hardware and software engineering skills and know-how.The course offers a short-term work-based learning experience that will give you the opportunity to work on a real-life problem, which is normally set by an external organisation as a small-scale project. This experience will allow you to put theory into practice by applying your knowledge and skills gained from various modules to address a real-life situation, usually within the context of a business-related problem.In addition, you will have the opportunity to take a year in industry (work placement) after completing the Year 2. This will help you gain work experience and increase your chances of employability after you graduate. You will be offered help and support to find and secure placement opportunities through various workshops and events organised by the Careers and Employability Service and the course team. Typically, you will be assigned into roles involving tasks related to software and/or hardware computer engineering.