Educational Concept

The EW academic programme presented by the CEDR is based on the principle that engineering is about doing things rather than about writing tests and examinations. This concept is implemented in the following ways.

Courses are presented as guided self study where students are given assignments to complete with the lecturer being available for consultation whenever assistance is required.  In this way, students focus on proving their capabilities as engineers rather than on memorising a textbook without ever gaining a gut feeling for what the material really means in practice.

The academic programme is based on training students to conduct research. This has a number of benefits, including:

• The value of EW means that it is usually associated with extremely tight security. This means that off-the-shelf solutions often do not exist, and even when they do, extensive customisation is often required.
• EW is a complex, rapidly-evolving field where remaining at the cutting edge is both extremely difficult and vitally important. This combination means that EW practitioners who are capable of pushing the boundaries of the current state of the art are essential.
• Information technology has meant that vast quantities of information are readily available to everybody. Using research as a vehicle, allows a student to demonstrate that they are capable of completing complex tasks without simply relying on existing work.
• International standards are maintained and clearly demonstrated by publishing the results of the research in leading international journals.