Building bridges for engineers

Educate Together - this could be the motto of TCD's engineering faculty. The first two years of the undergraduate engineering degree programme are common to all students. Mike Brady, co-ordinator of the computer science specialism, says that the idea is to ensure that mechanical engineers can talk to civil engineers to computer engineers and so on.

Common-entry also allows students some time to make up their minds as to which branch of engineering would best suit them. "A person might come in and want to design cars," says Brady. "For whatever reason, they may change their mind in first or second year and want to go into computing and that's possible."

The college's prospectus notes that the object of the course is to "produce designers who are adaptable and will learn readily new techniques - that is, engineers who have a broad-based understanding of the discipline in addition to a detailed knowledge of their chosen specialism."

TCD's engineering school opened in 1841 and is one of the oldest engineering schools in Britain and Ireland. It offers five specialisms: electronic engineering, computer engineering, electronic and computer engineering, mechanical and manufacturing engineering and civil, structural and environmental engineering.

During the first two years students follow a common curriculum of foundation courses. And all undergraduate engineering students have email accounts.

Subjects in first year include pure and applied maths, computing, engineering physics, engineering chemistry, graphics and an introduction to engineering. In second year, students begin to study areas as diverse as fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, structures, electrotechnology and computing.

In third year, they choose their specialism. Professor J G Byrne, head of computer science, emphasises that this is a free choice. There are no quotas. So, if all second-year students decide they want to become mechanical engineers, so be it.

At present, the computing and electronics courses are very popular - probably because of excellent job prospects. Inevitably, when computing and TCD are mentioned in the same sentence, the talk turns, somewhat wistfully, to Chris Horn and other millionaire graduates. The bachelor of engineering's computing option includes software as well as hardware, stresses Brady. This is something that often escapes school-leavers looking for a computing degree.

In addition to their specialism, third-year students take courses in maths, numerical methods, statistics and the engineer, management and society. Optional courses in French and German for engineers are offered in second and third year.

In fourth year there are further possibilities for specialisation and all students take a course in the engineer, management and society. They must also complete a substantial final-year project.

Brian Foley, co-ordinator of the electronic engineering specialism, says that the projects vary widely. For instance, last year one student investigated how the Internet might be used to help with engineering courses. He did a literature and network search as to how it is being used in other places and then took one third year course and put it into electronic form. Another student worked on PC conferencing and ways of reducing noise interference from a personal computer fan

The course does not include a formal work placement but prospective engineers usually find summer work and sometimes a project on which they were working during the summer spills over into their final year project. The IDA often cites work placement as a popular option with employers. However, Mike Brady explains that it is a trade-off in terms of extra academic time versus time spent in work experience. The course is also very practically based.

As with all engineering programmes, the proportion of women is relatively low. Almost 20 per cent of all first-year students are women, says Foley. There is no reason for girls at second-level to ignore engineering and technical type courses. But it seems that the old oily boiler-suit image is hard to shake. In fact, the women who go into engineering programmes generally do very well.

Prospective student engineers in TCD must have a minimum of a C3 in higher-level maths in the Leaving Cert. Points required last year were 415. About 180 first-year places are available.