Advanced Mechanical Engineering with Industrial Application Heriot-Watt University

Overview

The programme allows those with a bachelor-levels graduate in Mechanical Engineering to build upon your existing knowledge and skills in the area. For those from a different Engineering background, the programme offers you the opportunity to develop key Mechanical Engineering knowledge and skills required for your professional development. You’ll gain a deep understanding of the core engineering and science underpinning the Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing sector. The industry-relevant degree will provide you with an accredited route to become a Chartered Engineer.

During the master’s programme, you’ll gain a broad knowledge of the core components in Mechanical Engineering Sciences and practices, whilst developing an extensive, detailed, and critical knowledge and understanding of at least one specialist area within the subject. The flexible degree structure allows you to focus in on your specific interests within Advanced Mechanical Engineering. You’ll have the opportunity to choose courses from an extensive list, including fluids, dynamics, renewable energy technologies, heat exchangers and heat transfer, robotic mechanical systems, and advanced thermodynamic applications.  

In your second year, you will spend your first semester working on your dissertation before reflecting upon your teaching and applying your knowledge and skills to an industrial setting through a placement, or to an interdisciplinary project. This gives you the opportunity to develop your industrial skills and experience within a real-life work environment, whilst gaining some globally recognised and verifiable work experience in the British engineering sector.  

The career-focused master’s programme will develop your technical, scientific, and managerial abilities, and provide you with a specialist education to set you up to become a professional Mechanical Engineer. Upon completion, you’ll have the skills and knowledge to prepare you for a wide range of technical and managerial careers across the sector, including roles in process and plant design, construction, commissioning, operation, management to specialist consultancy, and advanced research and development.  

Your Student Experience

Our Expertise 

Your learning will be informed by the expertise of our research-active mechanical engineers and academics. 

96% of Heriot-Watt University’s engineering research was classed as world-leading in the REF 2021 review, which ranked us 1st in Scotland and 3rd in the UK for engineering research through a joint submission with the University of Edinburgh. 

Your learning is directly informed by the world class research carried out by Heriot-Watt’s Mechanical, Process and Energy Engineering (IMPEE) research institute which focuses on promoting excellence across four main research themes: 

• Biomedical Engineering 
• Digital Engineering 
• Energy Harvesting and Conversion 
• Multiphase Flow 

The research relevance of this postgraduate programme ensures your studies remain innovative and industry focused.

Your learning environment  

The MSc Advanced Mechanical Engineering programme is taught though a combination of lectures, tutorials, and laboratory practicals, allowing you to get to know and build relationships with your teaching staff, academics, and peers. You will be assessed by coursework, exams, and your dissertation, and will receive support and feedback throughout the programme.  

During your studies, you’ll benefit from and have access to our specialist equipment, software and laboratories used by professional mechanical engineering, including machining and manufacturing facilities, high speed wind tunnel rig, wind tunnel for fluid mechanics and aerodynamics, 3D printer, and a uniaxial testing machine. You will have the opportunity to work on real-world problems, and work across disciplines to deliver practical solutions with global impact in our state-of-the-art GRID (Global Research Innovation and Discovery) facility.  

Outside of the classroom, you can join several Mechanical Engineering related societies including: 

• Our satellite building society, CanSat in which you can build a satellite the size of a drink can and have the opportunity to complete at the AAS CanSat Competition,  
• HWRacing to build and compete a car at the world-famous Formula Student Competition at Silverstone,  
• Aero-Watt to build a fully autonomous plane for the IMechE UAS challenge,  and

• IMechE Railway Challenge team where you’ll build a small-scale locomotive to compete in the national challenge. 

Societies provide a fantastic opportunity to meet likeminded people, get involved in regular social events and networking events, and gain insights into career prospects in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and other relevant industries. 

You’ll have the opportunity to focus on the areas of mechanical engineering that interest you the most. You can customise your degree to match your specific interests or desired career pathway by studying five mandatory courses and choosing three further options from a suite of over 10 specialist mechanical engineering courses. You will choose optional courses from an extensive list, including engineering design, fluids, dynamics, renewable energy technologies, heat exchangers and heat transfer, robotic mechanical systems, and advanced thermodynamic applications.

In semester three, you’ll undertake an extensive and specialised investigation into your chosen area of mechanical engineering through your dissertation. You’ll be required to demonstrate your mastery of the subject area by applying design and evaluation techniques to develop new insights and responses to current issues in mechanical engineering.  

In the second semester of your second year, you will have the opportunity to either work on an industry placement or industry project of your choice. You’ll apply your learning to solve problems in a real-life work environment and develop further practical and soft skills to make you highly employable upon graduation.  

You can choose whether to study the programme full-time, part-time, or by course. This flexibility allows you to fit your postgraduate studies around your lifestyle. You can begin the programme in September, and the full-time course will last 12 months full time or 24 months part time. If you decided to study part-time, you register for two courses per semester and progress to the dissertation at the end of your second year.   

You may have the opportunity to Go Global on our Inter-Campus Transfer. Opportunities for postgraduate study abroad are assessed on a case-by-case basis and if you are interested in studying at our Dubai campus or Malaysia campus for a semester or longer, you should contact the Go Global Team.    

Employability

This programme is designed to enable graduates to undertake a wide range of technical and managerial careers across the sector, e.g. process and plant design, construction, commissioning, operation, management to specialist consultancy and advanced research and development. Each year there are two university-wide recruitment fairs held and seven industry-specific recruitment and networking events, giving you the chance to meet with graduate employers and find out about opportunities.

Accreditation

This programme is accredited by IMechE.  

Students completing an IMechE accredited degree are deemed to have met part or all the academic requirements for registration as a Chartered or Incorporated Engineer and are in a strong position to move on to achieve professional engineering status after a period of initial professional development in industry.