Engineering
The first year engineering course is quite broad and covers 11 lecture courses in total.
Mechanical Engineering
This section consists of Mechanics, Mechanical Vibrations and Thermofluid Mechanics.
The Mechanics course is largely covered in A-Level Further Maths, though is taught assuming
no prior knowledge of these topics. Mechanical Vibrations is a further application of Mechanics,
looking at systems. Thermofluids, as you will quickly learn, is extremely "gorgeous and sexy
and lovely". This is taught from scratch and includes fluid mechanics and thermodynamics (heat
transfers and applications to engines).
Structures and Materials
The Structures course includes a lot about statical equilibrium (e.g. trusses, arches), bending
of beams, stresses in beams and buckling. Further Maths will be useful for having had practice
at the statics side, but is not essential - the majority of material is new. Materials is quite
a broad subject and requires a lot of learning. A-Level Chemistry is useful for background. There
is a lot of work on elastic and plastic properties of materials (e.g. metals, composites, polymers),
along with fracture mechanics.
Electrical & Information Engineering
This consists of Linear Circuits, Digital Circuits and Electromagnets. Linear Circuits is the course
most people struggle with. It involves DC and AC circuit work, Transistors, Amplifiers, Power and
Transformers. There is quite a lot of maths (you need to be comfortable with complex numbers!) and
requires a lot of work. Digital circuits includes logic circuits (combinational and sequential) and
Microprocessors. GCSE or A-Level electronics will be useful, though again it is taught assuming no
prior knowledge of the subject. Electromagnetics includes electric and magnetic fields and magnetic
materials.
Mathematical Methods
This consists of Maths, Dimensional Analysis and Computing. A-Level Further Maths will be a great
advantage as the first term is spent covering this material. The maths is initially streamed, so
those who have not done A-Level Further Maths are taught from scratch at a slower pace. I recommend
getting hold of some of the A-Level Further Maths books if possible though, as these are very useful
references. The Lent and Easter courses are not streamed and go beyond the A-Level Further Maths
syllabus. Computing is a relatively short lecture course (only 8 in total) but is backed up with
coursework. Previous experience of programming is very useful (especially C++) though the course
assumes no prior knowledge.
Coursework - Labs
In the Michaelmas term there are a series of 'short labs'. There are about 3 per week, each lasting
2 hours. These operate on a 'standard credit' system - essentially if you turn up on time and have
a go you will get full marks (2/2). In the Lent and Easter terms short labs continue but there will
also be 'long labs' (about once a fortnight). These theoretically can go on for 4 hours (i.e. for
another 2 hours into the afternoon!), but in practice never do. Long labs require a report afterwards
which you need to get 'signed-up' (i.e. marked) by the demonstrator who supervised the lab. The
reports are marked out of 6, though you never get below a 4. Pretty much everyone gets a 5 on every report.
Also, it's very likely you won't really understand everything you are doing in the labs as you are often
scheduled to do them before the topics are covered in lectures! You can get through the labs by just
following the handouts though.
Other Coursework
A good summary of the various projects undertaken in the first year is given on the department
website. Again, these
largely operate on the standard credit scheme so a good attempt will get you the marks required
to fulfill the coursework aspect of the course. The largest sections are the Drawing and Computing.
There is one 4-hour Drawing session per fortnight (2 hours in the morning and then 2 in the afternoon)
throughout the year. This involves both technical drawing and Computer Aided Design (CAD) usage.
Computing sessions are also 4 hours long but there are only a handful of these in the Michaelmas and Lent terms.
Timetable
There are about 11 one-hour lectures and 4 lab sessions per week. In the Michaelmas term you can expect
to be in the department from 9-1 every weekday (engineers don't work weekends!). On top of this you will
probably be in the department for 1 afternoon a week (2:15-4:15) for drawing or computing coursework.
In the Lent term there are fewer labs so some slots will be free - allowing you to go back to college
early or even have a nice lie in! There will still be about 1 afternoon a week. The Easter term follows
a similar rota to the Lent term, with the lab sessions finishing around week 4.
On top of work in the department there will also be supervisions to attend. Typically there are 2 a week
in the Michaelmas term and then 3-4 in the Lent and Easter terms. These predominately involve going over
the 'Examples Papers' (sheets of questions you get every Wednesday) and you rarely have to hand in work.
There is a fair amount of work to do for supervisions and coursework, but there will also be plenty of time
to do things other than engineering :)!
Exams
There are 4 three-hour exams (Mechanical Engineering, Structures and Materials, Electrical and Information
Engineering and Mathematical Methods) which follow the new format introduced in 2005. On each paper there
are 8 short questions (10 marks each) which are approximately the same difficulty as questions in the Examples
Papers. There are also 5 long questions (30 marks each), of which you must do 4 (except on the Maths paper
where you have to do all 5!). These are harder questions designed to be of the same standard as tripos questions before 2005.
© 2003 The Danby Society of Downing College, Cambridge