Education Specification

The Aerospace Engineering specialisation covers the analysis, design and operation of aircraft and spacecraft. Graduates work mainly on the design and manufacture of flight vehicles, their operation with major or satellite airlines and research for civil and military aerospace organisations. Owing to the international nature of aerospace industry, the topics studied cover a similar area and, in general, to the same depth of understanding as professional training programs in aerospace in other industrial countries. The aerospace industry is one of Australia's major exporters of high value-added manufactured goods.

Bioinformatics Engineering is studied as a major specialisation in the BE (Hons). 

This page outlines the core rules for the Bioinformatics Engineering stream when taken as part of a single or dual award. The requirements total 168 units of credit, plus 60 days of industrial training. Refer to the program page for full details on the overall program requirements.

Further details on the specialisation requirements, electives, and advice regarding the order and placement of courses in the specialisation can be found at: Bioinformatics

Imagine using engineering skills to create solutions that improve people’s health! That’s what Biomedical Engineering is all about. It’s a field where engineering principles meet biological and medical sciences to innovate and enhance healthcare solutions, making patient care more effective.

In this specialisation, you’ll have the chance to design and develop medical devices and health technologies. These are the tools clinicians use for diagnosing, treating, and monitoring health conditions. You’ll get to explore cutting-edge healthcare solutions like imaging systems (think X-rays and MRIs), prosthetics (artificial limbs), biocompatible materials (stuff that can safely be used in the body), and diagnostic instruments.

Biomedical Engineering is a mix of different fields. So, you’ll need to understand both engineering and biological sciences. You’ll work closely with healthcare providers, using your broad knowledge to create better healthcare solutions.

Chemical Engineering involves researching, developing and improving properties of products we use every day through the selection of raw materials, the design of chemical processes, and improving the conditions for production. It's about taking projects from inception as a research proposal, through product development and on to commercialisation and manufacture. You'll learn how to apply your knowledge in chemical engineering and chemistry to optimise complex chemical processes in environmental management, general industry and services like water delivery. You'll master the entire process, extrapolating small scale, laboratory chemistry into large, industrial scale production. To get work ready, you'll apply these skills through 60 days of approved industry training.

Chemical Product Engineering involves researching, developing and improving the properties of the products that we use every day through the selection and design of the materials that are used. Product engineers work on the fluids that you use in your everyday life, including chemicals (cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, shampoos, paints, glues), foods, and drinks. As a product engineer, you will learn to take consumer needs and turn them into technical requirements, finding the right combinations of chemicals to deliver those properties and then developing the product and strategies for commercialisation and manufacture. You will learn how to apply your knowledge of engineering and chemistry to design complex chemical products for the pharmaceutical, consumer products and food industries. You'll master the entire development process, testing out ideas for products and extrapolating small scale, laboratory chemistry into large, industrial scale production.

Computer Engineering encompasses the structured and integrated design of the hardware and software components of computerised systems. Not only do personal computer systems, such as desktops and laptops fall into this category, but so do embedded systems for gaming, cars and PDAs, supercomputers used in climate modelling and gene analysis, and prosthetic systems such as ocular implants intended to improve quality of life. The challenge for the engineer is to design these systems with maximal impact, and to trade off competing factors using engineering, scientific and mathematical principles. This specialisation teaches the principles and techniques necessary to engineer high quality systems.

Civil Engineering is responsible for projects that enhance the overall quality of life. Civil engineers design, construct, manage, operate and maintain the infrastructure that supports modern society including buildings, bridges, roads and highways, tunnels, airfields, dams, ports and harbours, railways, new mines, water supply and sewerage schemes, irrigation systems and flood mitigation works. The profession is very broad and affords opportunities for involvement in many specialist activities.

Environmental engineers are concerned with the environmental impact of engineering activities. They apply their broad knowledge of engineering and environmental processes in identifying environmental problems and in developing effective solutions to them. They also coordinate the activities of specialist groups such as biologists, ecologists and geologists within major projects. The discipline of environmental engineering embraces parts of civil engineering, with emphasis on management, systems design, water, geotechnical and transport engineering, together with aspects of chemical engineering, applied and biological sciences and environmental studies.

The School of Electrical Engineering & Telecommunications offers a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate study in all areas of the professions of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications. The School's streams within the undergraduate Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) program in Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering continue to act as models for educating engineers in tomorrow's technology. Options within Electrical Engineering include: Telecommunications, Photonics, Systems and Control, Energy Systems, Microelectronics, and Signal Processing.

The progress of nanotechnology allows the fabrication of devices whose physical dimensions approach the atomic scale. For over 100 years, it has been known that the behaviour of physical systems at the atomic scale does not obey the familiar laws of classical physics. Atomic-size systems behave according to quantum mechanics, which allows them to exhibit rather spectacular properties and dynamics. This stream trains students to design and operate devices that behave according to quantum mechanics, opening the possibility to exploit the peculiar laws of quantum physics to perform otherwise cumbersome or impossible tasks, such as the efficient solution of computationally hard problems, or the secure teleportation of information. Graduates from this stream will have valuable skills that position them ideally for the burgeoning quantum engineering industry, as well as broad skills across most key electrical engineering disciplines.

Unlock the power of nuclear technology with a specialisation that prepares you for one of the most advanced and safety-critical fields in engineering. This program equips you with the expertise to safely operate, manage, and design nuclear systems while upholding the highest standards of nuclear safety, security, and safeguards.

The mindset, the physics, and the management tools you will learn in the context of nuclear technology can be applied to a wide range of careers that involve complex interaction between technical risks, regulatory and legal factors and safety critical technology.

You will gain a deep technical understanding of the physics within a reactor, radiation interactions with matter, and the cradle-to-grave of nuclear fuel cycles. This will be taught alongside the essential regulatory, ethical, and risk management frameworks that govern the industry. Through hands-on simulations, case studies, and industry-aligned projects, you will develop the technical and leadership skills required to navigate complex nuclear challenges.

The Surveying specialisation aims to prepare a graduate for a broad range of career opportunities in the various branches of Surveying and Geospatial Engineering. To this end the specialisation covers general scientific and IT principles, as well as specialised Surveying and Geospatial Engineering topics. The specialisation is provided through the provision of elective courses offered in the third and fourth years of the program and the choice of a targeted final year research thesis project often aligned with an external industry partner.

Mechanical engineers have traditionally played the major role in the analysis and design of complex machinery, devices such as actuators and sensors, as well as energy transformation, heat transfer and electro-mechanical processes. In an environment of global competition, sustainability (energy, environment as well as cost and capital), increasingly complex customer requirements and statutory regulations as well as the increasing pace of technological change and new product innovation, it is vital for modern engineers to possess the skills to not only design but equally importantly, implement and realize their designs in the most appropriate way. In this increasingly complex environment, successful organizations - public, private or governmental - need engineers with analytical and diverse skills, especially in integrating technical with commercial and organisational issues, analyses and ultimately solutions. It is the purpose and aim of the Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering stream to equip you with this knowledge and understanding to become a global engineer, indeed a leader, with the ability to apply analytical methods and quality processes to create short and long term value for your organization, your customers, and the community. It encapsulates the key elements of mechanical engineering and combines them with the five core disciplines of manufacturing and industrial engineering.

The Mechanical Engineering specialisation provides a versatile, comprehensive coverage of areas involving the conception and design of machinery and mechanical plant, the supervision of its construction, operation and maintenance, the planning and supervision of large engineering projects, and general engineering management. Due to its wide range, a number of options are provided as Technical Elective courses in the final year. These are preferentially linked to provide a direction appropriate to the needs of Australian industry and to the specific interests of students, although some flexibility is available if required. Typical fields which may be encompassed by the program include building services, computer-aided design, power generation, energy and environmental systems, gas and liquid handling, bio-mechanics, materials handling, control systems and transport. An emphasis is placed on the application of engineering science, development and management in these fields.

Geoenergy and Geostorage Engineering is an innovative field that intersects with the traditional domain of Petroleum Engineering. This discipline emphasizes the sustainable exploitation of earth resources, including the permanent storage of carbon dioxide, seasonal storage of hydrogen or energy, as well as the extraction of heat, energy or saline brines from the earth. The recognition of the importance of sustainable practices in the extraction and management of subsurface resources has led to the development of this specialized engineering field. It builds on the foundations of Petroleum Engineering by integrating principles of reservoir engineering, geomechanics, and environmental science, reflecting the evolving needs of modern society and the energy sector.

Mining Engineering specialisation prepares students to extract natural minerals from the earth and processing them with safety and minimal environmental impact. The focus is on environmentally responsible recovery, processing, marketing and financial management of mineral resources. A solid foundation of fundamental engineering principles and their intelligent application to complex mining systems is an integral part of this stream. It embraces technical skills in areas such as mining systems, geomechanics, mine planning and design, ventilation, and protection of our environments.

The Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering specialisation provides the student with the ability to acquire a hybrid range of skills based on mechanics, electronics and computing. Whilst there is a comprehensive coverage of mechanical engineering and design areas, the stream enables a deeper understanding of the principles supporting the conception, design, construction, maintenance, integration and repair of intelligent machines. Typical examples of these machines are robots, white goods, cameras, automated test equipment and transport vehicles.

Typical fields which may be encompassed by the program include building services, computer controlled plant, manufacturing, robotics and autonomous vehicles. An emphasis is placed on the application of engineering science, development and management in these fields.

Software Engineering is an Engineering profession concerned with the processes, methods, and tools for the design and development of high quality, reliable software systems. This involves the study and application of software specification, design, implementation, testing, and documentation of software. Target systems may range from simple software applications to mission-critical real-time systems.

Software Engineering is studied as a specialisation in the BE(Hons). Day to day administration of this stream is conducted through the Computer Science and Engineering Student Office.

The specialisation includes training in photovoltaics technology development, manufacturing, quality control, reliability and life-cycle analysis, cell interconnection and encapsulation, a range of solar cell applications, system planning and design, operation, maintenance and fault diagnosis and electricity industry integration. While the degree focuses on photovoltaics, electives can be taken across a range of relevant courses in electrical or mechanical engineering, renewable energy and complementary technologies such as battery storage. Emphasis is placed on gaining hands-on experience of working with solar energy devices, modules and systems.

UNSW academics in the photovoltaic field have been consistently ranked amongst the leaders worldwide through international peer review. This team has held the world record for silicon solar cell efficiencies for decades and were responsible for developing the most successfully commercialized new photovoltaic technology internationally throughout the same period. From 2006 onwards we have seen an explosion of interest in the School's technologies from major industry players all around the world.

The specialisation in Renewable Energy Engineering develops skills for planning, design and operation of renewable energy systems and their integration into larger electricity systems. The degree covers a range of renewable energy technologies and systems, including utility-scale and distributed generation of electricity from photovoltaics, wind turbines; electricity and heat from solar thermal and biomass systems; supporting technologies including battery energy storage systems; and broader energy transition and sustainability topics such as energy efficiency, low energy buildings, life-cycle assessment, and electricity industry integration.

The cross-disciplinary nature of renewable energy engineering necessitates a range of core engineering skills and working in teams across disciplines, including electrical power systems, and data science. Data science skills are increasingly important in the industry and are developed across the four year degree. From Year 2, students can select a set of ‘Strand elective’ courses in one of three areas to develop interdisciplinary depth to their education in Renewable Energy. These strands are available in Humanitarian Engineering, Low Energy Systems, and Renewable Energy Systems. This structure offers a solid base of the core engineering knowledge, followed by secondary specialisation paths.

The Telecommunications specialisation prepares students for a broad and creative profession concerned with the design, development, planning and management of systems and devices which underpin modern economics and contribute to the quality of life.

Telecommunications engineering is concerned with communicating information at a distance. It is strongly associated with data communications, largely because of the need to encode, compress and encrypt all information, and because of the growing importance of digital and wireless (e.g., mobile telephony) networks. It is designed to equip students who are interested in the following fields: satellite communications; signal and image processing; optical fibres and photonics; optical and microwave communications; mobile satellite communications; data networks; software systems including e-commerce; microelectronic devices and systems; data coding, compression, encryption and transmission; real-time embedded systems; quantum telecommunications.