About the School

Learn more about the School of Engineering and Informatics.

Our departments

The School of Engineering and Informatics is divided into two departments:

Across the School, we deliver high-quality courses and world-leading research. We’re also home to excellent facilities, where students and researchers can carry out their work to the highest standard. 

Our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion

We are strongly committed to welcoming and supporting students and staff from diverse backgrounds. We support initiatives promoting engineering careers to young girls, supporting the career development of female staff through improvement of work practices and encouraging female students considering further studies.

Learn more about our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion.


Department of Engineering and Design

Our Engineering and Design department offers courses in:

  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering
  • Automotive and Mechanical Engineering
  • Robotics Engineering
  • Product Design.

Our dedicated and enthusiastic team delivers high-quality research and teaching, as we work together for a safer, healthier and environmentally friendlier world.

Partnerships and industry

We’re proud of our long-standing collaborations with leaders in the engineering and design industry. Together, we collaborate on topics that explore our areas of expertise and develop solutions to problems within the industry, which can lead to significant breakthroughs in research and innovation.

Many of the organisations we work with offer sponsored prizes, projects and research to our students over the course of their studies. This gives invaluable insight into industrial requirements and approaches to complex problem solving, offering students the chance to work on projects that can really benefit them.

This also gives industry an opportunity to work with students over an extended period, so they can see first-hand our students’ abilities and expertise.

Developing Formula style racing cars

Sussex Racing is the Formula Student team that represents Sussex at the annual Formula Student competitions. This brings together our Automotive and Mechanical Engineering students to build a Formula style racing car.

Our Industrial Advisory Board provides a forum for the exchange of ideas, advice and the setting of priorities for our industrial strategy and curriculum development. It has members from key industrial sectors that are relevant to research and teaching.

We work in partnership with industry and commerce to develop our degrees, producing graduates who are prepared to work in industry and are highly sought-after by employers.

Research

Our research groups and centres include:


Department of Informatics

Informatics at Sussex was established in 2003, building on a long record of excellence in computing teaching and research. The first public demonstration of an intercontinental computer link using satellite communications was made at Sussex in 1973.

This heritage continues today – with teaching and research in areas including artificial intelligence, bio-inspired computing, cognitive science, digital media technologies, foundational issues in computer systems and human-computer interaction. Our teaching and research both benefit from strong links with industry.

We teach a rich and stimulating curriculum, connecting computer science with a broad range of application areas. A number of our degrees are interdisciplinary, drawing on and contributing to other subjects including business and management, media studies, neuroscience, philosophy and psychology.

Our student community is diverse and international, and our graduates progress to a wide range of careers.

Partnerships and industry

Our links and partnerships with business and industry not only enhance our students’ learning experience, but also make a vital contribution to their successful development.

The Informatics Industrial Advisory Board makes sure that our degrees reflect current developments and industry skills requirements. Board members (from multinationals such as BT, Logica and NCSoft as well as new media companies like Brandwatch, Cogapp and Semantico) offer students support, and sometimes even sponsorship for undergraduate final-year and Masters projects.

Research

As well as high-quality research in computing, we also make significant research contributions to many other disciplines. We collaborate with researchers in biology, education, engineering, international development, media studies, mathematics, medicine, music, neuroscience and psychology.

The Department also plays a major role in interdisciplinary research centres at Sussex, including the Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR), the Centre for Research in Cognitive Science (COGS), the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science (SCCS) and Sussex Neuroscience.

We have strong links with industry, through spin-out companies founded by our staff, and many applied research and consultancy contracts.

Contact

If you have any queries, email ei@sussex.ac.uk.