Comments from our students. Press articles

Comments from our students

Luca di Mauro, SensorDynamics AG Austria
"Let me thank you for supporting me in building Verilog and VHDL skills. They have been really useful in finding my new job in Austria and took an important role during all the interviews I attended."

Andy Hare, Cheshire
"It was tough going at times. E-learning, however, was the perfect choice for me - it definitely suited my needs and I would not have been able to do an MSc otherwise. I wanted to update my hardware knowledge - I spend all my time working in software - and to those ends this course has definitely been a success."

Michael Vogwell, Ericsson Microelectronics
"I wanted to have an MSc to make it easier to get accreditation with the Institution of Electrical Engineers. You have to allow a lot of time to write up your dissertation. This way of studying has been ideal."

Anonymous feedback
"Overall an excellent module; difficult to see how it could be improved without overloading students. An excellent introduction to EDA tools and techniques."

Paul Malpass
"Qualifications and skills - even those recently acquired - are quickly rendered obsolete in today's fast changing electronic jobs marketplace The AMI MSc has helped me to keep my electronics design skills up to date, as it has allowed significant exposure to high end commercial electronics design and simulation tools, which I could never have access to within industry. Combined with the fact that the practical oriented modules are part-time, flexible and involve "hands on design" via the Internet, meant that they have been a most convenient means of keeping my skills up to date."

Robert Quarry
"I must say the support I had from the tutor was very good and also the librarian provides an excellent service."

Andy Hare
"E-learning was the perfect choice for me"

Mark Armstrong, Birmingham, England
"I am finding the course content very useful so far and have actually implemented bits of it at work."

Graeme Hawksley, Sandown, England
"Despite my initial trepidation I have found the course immensely stimulating."

Anonymous feedback
"The online work is very well put together and a lot of thought has obviously gone into it. I never experienced any problems with access to online work."

Vikas Anand, USA
"I am writing this e-mail to inform you that I have been accepted for a PhD in Electrical Engineering at the University of Massachusetts here in the United States. My Advanced EDA assignment acted as a catalyst - my advisor at the university liked it very much."

Chris McCurdy, Frodsham, England
"I have just got a job and I think it was because of the project management experience."

Ben Walpole, Norfolk, England
"I have enjoyed my time studying with Bolton. It has been a professionally run course and provided me with new skills and knowledge that hopefully will increase my potential to a future employer. Thank you for all your help over the past two years."

Simon Tong, Michegan USA
"I've been running Cadence for the past few days and the performance is excellent".
"The news from this side of the world is my MSc has allowed me to get a job within Panasonic's American automotive operation."

Tony Kirkham
"I would like you to know that I have gained a great deal from this course.  I was able to take the opportunity to experiment, go up blind alleys etc., but above all I have now formed a clear view of how to work with these languages."   ...   "My thanks for a stimulating course."

Santokh Virdee, Quality Manager, SiGe Microsystems Semiconductor Operations, Canada
"I think the connection to the AMI server through the internet is really wonderful.  This has opened up a wonderful opportunity for students all over the world."

John Keyani, Intel Corporation (UK) Ltd, Swindon
"The AMI courses are unique and extremely valuable for employed engineers and managers. They offer the flexibility that is required to allow the individual, employers and the course to be successful."
"I am committed to lifelong learning and professional development, as promoted by the IET. However, this can be difficult to achieve if you have to do a lot of travelling, as I do."
Regarding his job interview:  "The MSc course was mentioned at the interview and I believe it did have a positive effect on the outcome, even if it just demonstrated my interest and capability for further advanced learning - but I am sure it was much more than that."

Tony  Waite, Applied Materials, Horsham, UK
"An excellent modern course - delivered in a democratic fashion by educationalists with vision. Not only is the course enjoyable and interesting, but it does you no harm on the jobs front either."

Lee Hewitt, Argonaut Technologies
"I feel that this is a good way to help develop my career;  I wanted to get more involved in lower-level design and to get more formal training in management, for example." ...  "Because I have a full time job it would be difficult to find the time to do this sort of thing normally.  I can get the lecture material whenever I want to, even if I am in a different part of the country or abroad."

Daragh Smyth, Texas Instruments, Scotland
"I have in the last few weeks looked at several distance learning MSc courses in Britain, Ireland, USA and Australia and I am convinced that the AMI MSc is the most suitable and interesting course for me to follow."

Alex Ross, Diagnostic Instruments Ltd, Livingstone, Scotland
"I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you on this course.  I have looked at many courses and consider yours and the teaching methods to really offer something to those of us fortunate to be in employment, yet, keen to pursue ongoing and further education.  A resounding well done."

Beo-Sim Teo, Malaysia
"The course structure offered by Bolton is just perfect, I get to work and continue to increase my knowledge with professionals in the west and also stay at home."

Philip Kane
"This course is brilliant, well structured and implemented and an educational forerunner."

Eur. Ing. John Herat,  Signalfield Ltd,  Purley, Surrey, UK
"I find the content and thrust of this course most relevant and the reaction of my colleagues and customers in the industry to it to be very positive.   Having successfully undertaken various short modules over the last few years I found the requirement to be away from the commitments of work, even for a matter days, almost impossible to fulfil.  The great advantage of this course is that it enables me to work in my own time and does not require me to be away from my professional commitments.  Although the coursework is demanding, the challenges are stimulating and rewarding."

"Employers seem to appreciate the fact that you are trying to better yourself, and they can also easily find out about the course and its validity.  I also feel that after two full years that I can honestly say that I have gained in knowledge."

Steve Browning, Newmarket, England
"The reason the course appeals to me is not so much the distance learning structure as the fact that most development positions require a familiarity with custom, semi-custom or programmable logic techniques."

Duncan Coles, Marketing Manager for Higher Education, BT Education & Training
"This is a wonderful example of how information and communications technologies enable universities to be innovative in their teaching practices.  The course can be studied from potentially anywhere in the world, opening up new revenue streams for colleges and offering students unparalleled flexibility."

Glen Birchby, AIMS Design Manager, GEC Plessey
"There is a clear requirement in the market for this course."

Graeme Smith, Principal Engineer, Fujitsu
"Such a course is invaluable for industrialists and graduates moving into this area of electronics, especially now that microelectronics and ASIC design are becoming more widespread."

Stuart Eccles,  Business Adviser Microelectronics in Business, DTI Initiative
"It meets the real needs of Industry in a very practical way."

Top

Press Releases

Expert Guidance for Lead-free Implementation
20 May 2004

Bolton Institute shortlisted for Northwest E-learning Excellence Awards
7 January 2002

Institute for System Level Integration choose online engineering tuition.
25 April 2001. Written by ISLI.

Bolton Institute takes advantage of new release of Citrix MetaFrame on Sun Microsystems Solaris
10 August 2000.   Written by Esteem Computers plc

Bolton Institute selects Esteem Computers plc for advanced "Teaching Over the Internet" system
24 March 1999.   Written by Esteem Computers plc

Remote Access to CAD design tools
2 October 1998.

University of the Internet
4 March 1998.   A case study written for BT

Pioneering Internet-based MSc keeps electronic engineers up to speed
2 March 1998.  Written for EPSRC

Published Articles

Review of electronics provision at the University of Bolton **link to add**
October 2005

IPR in International eLearning courses - **link to add**
May 2005

Bolton Institute Advanced Distance Learning with Citrix MetaFrame for the Solaris Operating Environment
November 2001,   Case study by Citrix Systems UK Ltd

Global Learning
18 May 2001. Page VII of supplement to The Times Higher.
By Olga Wojtos, Scottish Editor

Bolton Institute Rewrites the Rules
10 February 2001. A collaboration between Bolton Institute and Esteem Systems leads to a major breakthrough in distance Learning software.
Esteem Systems Newsletter.

Exceed Gives Distance Learning a Boost at Bolton Institute
18 April 2000.   Case study published by Hummingbird Communications Ltd, Toronto, Canada.

Advance and be Recognised
29 March 2000.  Scottish student works on a Master of Science degree at Bolton Institute - from home.

Circuit Training
"A range of IGDS programmes is being developed for the microelectronics industry."
Engineering E2,  18 June 1999, pages 11 - 14.
By Antonia Ward

An MSc via the internet

"... what is believed to be the first postgraduate course in the world to be taught entirely over the Internet" EMTA Matters (Engineering and Marine Training Authority), pages 16-17, January 1999.

more entries are missing from truncated file dated 08.03.06

updated 03.08.07 R.A.