Lectures
The 8 papers in Part IB are taken by all students. Papers 1-7 are of 2 hours' duration. Paper 8 is of 2.5 hours' duration, except for those students who have chosen to take either the Civil Engineering option or a foreign language assessment, where it is of 1.5 hours' duration. If a student chooses to do both the Civil and the foreign language option, then the paper is 30 mins duration. The 30 min section is the compulsory section on the Engineer in Business.
| Paper 1 | Mechanics (16 lectures) | |
| Paper 2 | Structures (20 lectures) | |
| Paper 3 | Materials (16 lectures) | |
| Paper 4 | Thermofluid mechanics (26 lectures) | |
| Paper 5 | Electrical engineering: Linear circuits and devices (8 lectures) Electrical machines (10 lectures) Electromagnetic fields and waves (6 lectures) |
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| Paper 6 | Information engineering: Linear systems and control (14 lectures) Signal & data analysis (7 lectures) Communications (7 lectures) |
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| Paper 7 | Mathematical methods: Vector calculus (14 lectures) Linear algebra (8 lectures) Probability (6 lectures) |
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| Paper 8 | Selected topics: Electives (14 lectures) |
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| Compulsory section: The Engineer in Business (8 lectures) | ||
| (i) Civil engineering | Floating offshore Wind turbines | |
| (ii) Mechanics, materials and design | Mechanical engineering for renewable energy | |
| (iii) Aerothermal engineering | Design of a jet engine | |
| (iv) Electrical engineering | Micro- and nano-electronic devices | |
| (v) Information engineering | Photo editing and image searching | |
| (vi) Bioengineering | Engineering of the human eye | |
| (vii) Manufacturing, management and design | Bringing technology innovations to market |
All lectures for Papers 1-7 are scheduled during the Michaelmas and Lent terms, and have associated experimental work and examples papers. Colleges arrange supervisions on these topics.
Paper 8 Overview
Paper 8 consists of engineering activities taught in the context of design, and is divided into seven electives with the topics shown above. Each course has 16 timetabled slots (4 per week), and all choices except the Civil Engineering elective are delivered via the equivalent of 14 lectures and 2 examples classes - although in some cases explanation of examples may be spread throughout the course. There will be the equivalent of two examples papers per topic with fully worked solutions being made available for students to see and they are assess via examination (further details below). There are no supervisions for these courses. The time commitment is 40 hours per elective, which is true for both examination and coursework based modes.
The Civil Engineering elective is assessed purely via coursework with four design tasks submitted by students in each of the four weeks the course runs. In each week there are two lectures and two design workshops where you will be able to come and talk with us about your design tasks prior to each mini-submission. These design tasks focus on discrete aspects of a hypothetical construction project, which is currently a floating offshore wind turbine.
The material in these selected topics is not a prerequisite for third-year courses, although some preliminary reading may be expected by those who have not taken a topic. The material in the electives is not considered prerequisite for Part IIA courses (although some preliminary reading may be expected by those who have not taken a particular elective).
Paper 8 Assessment
All choices except the Civil Engineering elective are assessed via examination. There are three potential circumstances for examinations:
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Students not taking a foreign language or Civil Engineering for credit are required to answer questions from two electives.
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Students who have chosen to take a foreign language or Civil Engineering for credit are required to answer questions from one elective.
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Students who take both a foreign language and Civil Engineering are required to answer questions from only 'The Engineer in Business' section and no electives.
Unless students intend to take a foreign language or Civil Engineering, they will not be required to specify which topics they intend to follow and may attend more than two courses if they wish - this is particularly useful to help decide which courses to focus on the the examination. Students intending to take Civil Engineering are required to indicate this intention to the Teaching Office by the end of week 2 of Easter term in order that suitable provisions can be made to host the examinations.
In addition, all students are required to answer the multiple-choice compulsory section 'The Engineer in Business', lectures for which are given in the Lent term. Lectures for all the other sections are given during the first four weeks of the Easter term.
Language programme for engineers
Students who take the language programme for engineers in Part IB may offer this course as one of their two options in Paper 8. They will also be eligible to receive a Digital Badge that will record the level of the course (i.e. beginners', intermediate or advanced). The Digital Badge has replaced the paper certificate which is now only available on request.
Students who wish to offer the Language Option as one of their electives should inform the CLIC Administrator at clic-enquiries@eng.cam.ac.uk , as well as their Director of Studies, no later than Monday of week 7 in the Lent term. No applications to offer the language option will be accepted after this date.
Examples papers
One examples paper is issued for about every four lectures according to the termly schedule. The material is followed up in College supervisions.
The schedule for the examples paper release can be found on the Examples paper Moodle page. Solutions (cribs) of each examples paper will be made available to students online approximately three weeks after the paper has been released.
Coursework
See the Part IB coursework overview for an outline of the activities, together with the timetabled sessions allocated to them.
Last updated on 14/02/2024 08:49