About Us

 

Batchelor degree programmes in electronics have been taught at the University of Bolton since 1968. Three postgraduate courses for full time students started in 1989, the MSc IC Design and Manufacture, the MSc Electronic Systems Engineering and the MSc Digital Signal Processing and Applcations.

An Integrated Circuit Design Centre was established in 1986 to support and promote the teaching of IC design skills to undergraduates and industrial clients. A few years later the facilities of the Centre were enhanced by EUROCHIP, a European initiative to provide design software and support IC fabrication capabilities in education.

In 1993 Bolton was selected by the UK Government's Department of Trade and Industry to run a pilot support scheme for industry, Microelectronics in Business. The interest and feedback from this scheme and the training courses that run as part of it provided the impetus to develop a way of teaching design skills remotely: remote access to CAD software. That in turn led to the development of an online approach to teaching.

 

The first online course, Advanced Microelectronics for Industrialists was developed jointly with the University of Northumbria and welcomed its first intake in November 1998. Funds to develop courseware and the remote access capability were contributed by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under its Integrated Graduate Development Scheme (IGDS).

 

Links with industry and government have continued unbroken since then. In 1996 the European Commission appointed Bolton and Northumbria Universities to run a Technology Transfer Node (TTN) for the Esprit First User Action project known as FUSE. The project funded the development costs (termed application experiments) for companies to use microelectronics for the first time in areas where it would increase competitiveness.

 

In 1998 another DTI programme, Electronics Design, was set up to assist small companies to incorporate or enhance electronics in their products. Bolton and Northumbria Universities continued to contribute to operate Support Centres for this programme.

In 1999 the UK Government's Department for Education and Skills paid for new servers and software to develop the remote access capability further and service more concurrent users. The Centre for Remote Access to Learning was formed within the Department to research the topic. The Centre was since renamed eLab.

The technique for achieving remote access to CAD software has continued to improve to the point where anyone with a reasonable internet connection can benefit. The only exceptions seem to be the few remaining countries that choose to censor internet traffic and block direct access to the CAD servers.

CEESI logoThe opportunities and choice for distance learning students were extended from 2001 onwards with an agreement between ten universities to create a "pool" of modules in the area of electronics systems integration (CEESI). Students can choose modules from different universities and still obtain a masters degree.

 

With both partners members of CEESI the joint agreement between Bolton and Northumbria has been allowed to lapse. Since then Northumbria has focused on campus-based students while Bolton has continued to expand the provision for distance learning students.

EDR-logoIn May 2003 two further MSc programmes were launched at Bolton for distance learning delivery: Electronic Design Realisation and Microelectronic Realisation. The DTI and Scottish Enterprise contributed to the development of some modules through a company called EDR Ltd.

Throughout 2004 and 2005 the original EDR modules were substantially modified or rewritten and practical work introduced using the system of remote access developed to support the electronics modules. The modules are now relevant to a wider market than before and in recognition of this the two programmes added in 2003 were replaced with a new MSc Electronic Product Development.

As part of a major university-wide reorganisation in 2007 the electronics team became part of a new School of Built Environment and Engineering.

The first students of the MSc Advanced Microelectronics for Industrialists started studying online in November 1997. As far as we know, this makes the electronics programmes from Bolton the longest running internet-based MSc course in Europe, and possibly worldwide.

Updated 7 Oct 08 RA