The Teaching Office relies on Directors of Studies to provide accurate and up-to-date information on students. Please notify the Teaching Office as soon as you become aware of any student not returning to Cambridge, changing course or degrading.

Any student incomers joining the second, third or fourth year of Engineering must register in the Department with the IA students from their College.

Course information is distributed by e-mail to all students and Directors of Studies on the Friday before the start of each term. All information is available on line.

Notes for all DoSs

There is now a Moodle site for DoSs, on which you should have been enrolled. You will find lots of useful information there!

DoSs should be aware that it is now much more straightforward for students to intermit during their undergraduate course in order to undertake activities that will contribute in some way to their professional development. Most commonly, this will be to work in industry for a year, but a broad view can be taken. Intermission in Engineering or MET can be between Part I and Part II, or between Part IIA and IIB.

The intermission application form and guidance notes are available here. DoSs should be aware that they must send completed application forms to the Secretary of the Faculty Board by 1 May.

Notes for Part IA DoSs:

Directors of Studies have a particularly important role in helping new students to settle in to Cambridge and to develop good working patterns. The Engineering Department has an induction programme in the first couple of weeks of term, starting with Registration Day (on the first day of Full term, Tuesday) and continuing with some orienting presentations (Wednesday) and the Lego Mindstorms project. Directors of Studies should encourage students to attend all induction events and make sure that they know what is expected of them and where they need to be. The Staff Student Joint Committee (SSJC) offers support during this induction period, through the newly developed College Rep scheme.

Particular duties for IA DoSs in Michaelmas include:

Ensuring that students register with the Department.  Due to the COVID-19 situation this year, this will all be done on line. Instructions regarding this have been circulated via email.

Arranging supervisions, taking account of constraints imposed by lectures and labs in afternoons, and by optional language classes later in the term.

Following up on the Preparatory Problems which students should have worked through before starting the course via the STEMbridge site, often by using this as the basis for the first supervision in each subject.

Additional points of which DoSs should be aware:

Freshers are asked to complete a maths quiz (handed out during the introductory presentations). Results are made available to DoSs early in the term to help them identify students who may need additional support.

Notes for Part IB DoSs:

Registration for laboratory groups and IDP preferences is a fully on-line process and for 2021/22 will take place online.  It is very important that students complete this registration procedure. Instructions will be circualted online.

In a change to previous procedures, hard copies of individual lab handouts will be made available in each of the individual labs.  Students are encouraged to read through the lab handouts the night before their lab session and all handouts are available Moodle.

Notes for Part IIA DoSs:

Students have made preliminary choices of modules through COMET, and will be asked to log in and confirm choices for the Michaelmas Term by midnight on Wednesday of week 1. Students will receive an email reminder at the start of term.

As soon as students have decided on their modules they should sign up for labs, aiming to start doing labs right at the beginning of term. If they subsequently change a module, please remind them to remove their names from the lab list.

Supervisions are arranged by module leaders. The number of supervisions to be given for each IIA module is four – usually three supervisions in the term of the module plus a later ‘revision’ supervision.  Supervisors should request authorisation from DoS prior to arranging or giving any extra supervisions. Students are encouraged to provide feedback on quality of supervisors on-line, but if a supervisor is completely unsatisfactory they should contact their DoS immediately.

Notes for Part IIB DoSs:

Students have made preliminary choices of modules through COMET, and will be asked to log in and confirm choices for the Michaelmas Term by midnight on Wednesday of week 1. Students will receive an email reminder at the start of term.

Do remind students to attend the Project Health and Safety briefing.

Students should be reminded of the classing criteria for Part IIB:

‘Students who obtain a mark of at least II.2 standard on their project, at least III class standard on their module aggregate and at least II.2 standard overall will normally graduate with the M.Eng. degree, as well as the B.A. degree.’

There are no supervisions for IIB modules, so students are to a very large extent responsible for organising their own work. The only feedback which Directors of Studies may receive is from project supervisors, and it is most important that Directors of Studies ensure that students are receiving satisfactory guidance on their project. Students should be encouraged to alert their DoS urgently if there are problems with the project.

Notes for MET DoSs:

DoSs external to the MET course are encouraged to contact the relevant Course Director or the Course Administrator with any queries:

MET IIA Course Director: Prof Alexandra Brintrup, MET IIB Course Director: Prof Frank Tietze, MET Course Administrator: Shane Strawson

MET students will receive all documentation directly from the MET office.

METIIA starts on the Monday before Full Term; students should have been contacted about arrangements individually.

METIIB starts one week earlier (8 days before the start of Full Term).

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