The University of Cambridge Department of Engineering is the largest department at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

and one of the leading centres of engineering in the world. The department's aim is to address the world's most pressing challenges with science and technology. To achieve this aim, the department collaborates with other disciplines, institutions, companies and entrepreneurs and adopts an integrated approach to research and teaching. The main site is situated at

Trumpington Street Trumpington Street is a major historic street in central Cambridge, England. At the north end it continues as King's Parade where King's College is located. To the south it continues as Trumpington Road (the A1134), an arterial route out of ...

, to the south of the city centre of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

. The department is the primary centre for

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

teaching and research activities in Cambridge. The department is currently headed by Richard Prager.

History

In 1782, the

Reverend Richard Jackson of Torrington The Reverend is an honorific style most often placed before the names of Christian clergy and ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and church traditions. ''The Reverend'' is correctly ...

, former fellow of

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

, died leaving a substantial portion of his estate to endow a Professorship of Natural Experimental Philosophy. This became forerunner to the Professorship of Mechanism and Applied Mechanics, first held in 1875 by James Stuart. The first engineering workshop at Cambridge was constructed in 1878, a wooden hut fifty by twenty feet. The department now boasts several sites around Cambridge: Cmglee_Cambridge_University_Engineering_Department_Trumpington_St

Cmglee_Cambridge_University_Engineering_Department_Trumpington_St

* The main buildings are located at Trumpington Street and Fen Causeway on the Scroope House site, where most of the

undergraduate Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-le ...

teaching in the Engineering Tripos is carried out. The Baker Building was opened by the Duke of Edinburgh,

Prince Philip Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from E ...

, on the 13th November 1952. * Various sections which could not easily be accommodated on the main site have moved to the university's

West Cambridge West Cambridge is a university site to the west of Cambridge city centre in England. As part of the ''West Cambridge Master Plan'', several of the University of Cambridge's departments have relocated to the West Cambridge site from the centre ...

site, including the

Whittle Laboratory The Whittle Laboratory has its origins in Sir Frank Whittle and a number of his original team, from Cambridge, and who in 1937 invented the jet engine. In opening the Laboratory in 1973 the aim was to develop the technology which would underpin the ...

turbomachinery Turbomachinery, in mechanical engineering, describes machines that transfer energy between a rotor and a fluid, including both turbines and compressors. While a turbine transfers energy from a fluid to a rotor, a compressor transfers energy from ...

laboratory, founded by Sir John Horlock, in 1973), The Geotechnical Centrifuge laboratory, the Microelectronics Research Centre (1992), the Electrical Engineering Division building and the

Institute for Manufacturing Institute for Manufacturing (IfM) is part of the Department of Engineering of the University of Cambridge. The IfM integrates research and education with practical application in industry. It disseminates its research findings via a university ...

(IfM). * A few of the smaller buildings on the

Old Addenbrooke's Site The Old Addenbrooke's Site is a site owned by the University of Cambridge in the south of central Cambridge, England. It is located on the block formed by Fitzwilliam Street to the north, Tennis Court Road to the east, Lensfield Road to th ...

, in Trumpington Street opposite the Scroope House Site, have been used by the department from time to time. Currently, the

Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership The Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, formerly the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership and the Cambridge Programme for Industry, is part of the School of Technology within the University of Cambridge. The Instit ...

is in the end building of that site, 1 Trumpington Street, having expanded and moved there under its previous name of Cambridge Programme for Industry in 1991. * In 2016, the construction of The James Dyson Building was completed in front of the Baker Building - providing additional office space, and seminar/meeting rooms for use by the department. * Over the course of the next 10 years, the department plans to consolidate the Department of Engineering entirely on the west Cambridge site.

Notable companies and projects founded by students and alumni

Cambridge University Eco Racing Cambridge University Eco Racing (CUER) is one of UK's solar car racing teams. A team of 60 Cambridge students designs, builds and races Solar power, solar-powered vehicles. Founded in 2007, their first prototype vehicle, ''Affinity'', became th ...

, a student run team which designs builds and races solar electric vehicles. *

Innocent Drinks Innocent Drinks is a company that produces smoothies and juice sold in supermarkets, coffee shops and various other outlets. The company sells more than two million smoothies per week. Innocent is over 90% owned by The Coca-Cola Company. Histor ...

, best known for the Innocent Smoothie brand. *

Cambridge Consultants Cambridge Consultants, part of Capgemini Invent, develops breakthrough products and services, creates and licenses intellectual property, and provides business consultancy in technology-critical issues for clients worldwide. The company has offic ...

, an international technology development and consultancy company. *

Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company was a company founded in the late 1870s by Robert Fulcher. The original use of the company was to service instruments for the Cambridge physiology department. In the beginning, the company was financially dri ...

, first manufacturer of the scanning electron microscope.

Undergraduate education

There are about 1,200 undergraduate students in the department at any time, with about 320 students admitted each year. The first two years are essentially the same for all students and aim to give a broad overview, covering mechanical and structural engineering, as well as materials, electrical and information engineering. From the third year, students are required to specialise, undertaking either the Engineering Tripos or Manufacturing Engineering Tripos. In the Engineering Tripos, students may specialise in one or more of nine engineering disciplines: *Aerospace and aerothermal engineering *Bioengineering *Civil, structural and environmental engineering *Electrical and electronic engineering *Electrical and information sciences *Energy, sustainability and the environment *Information and computer engineering *Instrumentation and control *Mechanical engineering It is also possible to not specialise and receive a degree in General Engineering. Meanwhile, the Manufacturing Engineering Tripos provides an integrated course in industrial engineering, including both operations and management.

Graduate education

The Department of Engineering currently has about 190 faculty and PI-status researchers, 300

postdoctoral researcher A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...

s, and 850 graduate students. Post-graduate education in the consists of both taught courses and research degrees ( PhD, MPhil and

MRes A Master of Research (abbr. MRes, MARes, MScRes, or MScR) degree is an internationally recognised advanced postgraduate research degree. In most cases, the degree is designed to prepare students for doctoral research. Increasingly, the degree may ...

). The majority of research students study for a PhD degree while around 10 per cent follow the one-year MPhil (research) programme. The department also has a number of Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs), which follow a 1-plus-3 year model where a one-year MRes course is followed by a three-year PhD. Full funding for four years is provided through these centres. In addition to the CDTs, the department has a limited number of EPSRC PhD studentships available for British and EU students.

Research Evaluation

The department was ranked 2nd among UK engineering departments in 2021

Research Excellence Framework The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a research impact evaluation of British higher education institutions. It is the successor to the Research Assessment Exercise and it was first used in 2014 to assess the period 2008–2013. REF is under ...

(REF). It also ranked 2nd in 2014.

Notable alumni and researchers

;Fellows of the Royal Society * William Dalby *

Alfred Ewing Sir James Alfred Ewing MInstitCE (27 March 1855 − 7 January 1935) was a Scottish physicist and engineer, best known for his work on the magnetic properties of metals and, in particular, for his discovery of, and coinage of the word, ''hys ...

* Bertram Hopkinson * Sir Charles Edward Inglis * John Baker *

John Horlock Sir John Harold Horlock FRS FREng (19 April 1928 – 22 May 2015) was a British professor of mechanical engineering, and was vice-chancellor of both the Open University Brian Spalding Dudley Brian Spalding, FRS FREng (9 January 1923 – 27 November 2016) was Professor of Heat Transfer and Head of the Computational Fluid Dynamics Unit at Imperial College, London. He was one of the founders of computational fluid dynamics (C ...

* Robert Mair * Michael Gaster *

Daniel Wolpert Daniel Mark Wolpert FRS FMedSci (born 8 September 1963) is a British medical doctor, neuroscientist and engineer, who has made important contributions in computational biology. He was Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge ...

John Arthur Shercliff John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

* John Denton *

Alistair MacFarlane Sir Alistair George James MacFarlane (9 May 1931 – 2 November 2021) was a Scottish electrical engineer and leading academic who served as Principal and Vice Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, and Rector, University of the H ...

* Christopher Calladine *

Richard V. Southwell Sir Richard Vynne Southwell, FRS (2 July 1888 – 9 December 1970) was a British mathematician who specialised in applied mechanics as an engineering science academic.

Frank Whittle Air Commodore Sir Frank Whittle, (1 June 1907 – 8 August 1996) was an English engineer, inventor and Royal Air Force (RAF) air officer. He is credited with inventing the turbojet engine. A patent was submitted by Maxime Guillaume in 1921 fo ...

* Sir Christopher Sydney Cockerell * Sir Bennett Melvill Jones * Charles Oatley * Harry Ricardo * Andrew Schofield *

Ann Dowling Dame Ann Patricia Dowling (born 15 July 1952) is a British mechanical engineer who researches combustion, acoustics and vibration, focusing on efficient, low-emission combustion and reduced road vehicle and aircraft noise. Dowling is a Deput ...

Zoubin Ghahramani Zoubin Ghahramani FRS ( fa, زوبین قهرمانی; born 8 February 1970) is a British-Iranian researcher and Professor of Information Engineering at the University of Cambridge. He holds joint appointments at University College London and t ...

Keith Glover Keith Glover FRS, FREng, FIEEE is a British electrical engineer. He is an emeritus professor of control engineering at the University of Cambridge. He is notable for his contributions to robust controller design and model order reduction. ...

Melvill Jones Sir Bennett Melvill Jones, (28 January 1887 – 31 October 1975) was Francis Mond Professor of Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Cambridge from 1919 to 1952. He demonstrated the importance of streamlining in aircraft design. It had ...

* John Robertson *

Mark Welland Sir Mark Edward Welland, (born 18 October 1955) is a British physicist who is a professor of nanotechnology at the University of Cambridge and head of the Nanoscience Centre. He has been a fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, since 1986 and ...

Roberto Cipolla Roberto Cipolla (born 1963), , FREng, is a British researcher in computer vision and Professor of Information Engineering at the University of Cambridge. Education Cipolla was born in Solihull, England and attended Langley School in Soli ...

* Stephen Young * Gareth McKinley *

William Hawthorne Sir William Rede Hawthorne CBE, FRS, FREng, FIMECHE, FRAES, (22 May 1913 – 16 September 2011) was a British professor of engineering who worked on the development of the jet engine. Bragg-Hawthorne equation is named after him. Life ...

Alec Broers Alec Nigel Broers, Baron Broers, (born 17 September 1938) is a British electrical engineering, electrical engineer. In 1994 Broers was elected an international member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to electronic beam ...

* Kenneth Bray *

Andrew Clennel Palmer Andrew Clennel Palmer (26 May 1938 – 21 December 2019) was a British engineer who worked on offshore geotechnical problems of submarine pipeline design and the study of the properties of ice. He spent much of his career as a teacher and ...

* Morien Morgan * Christopher Hinton *

David J. C. MacKay Professor Sir David John Cameron MacKay (22 April 1967 – 14 April 2016) was a British physicist, mathematician, and academic. He was the Regius Professor of Engineering in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge and f ...

* Michael F. Ashby * Kenneth L. Johnson * Norman Fleck * Vikram Deshpande ; Members of the Order of Merit *

* Christopher Hinton *

;Timoshenko Medal Recipients *

Richard V. Southwell Sir Richard Vynne Southwell, FRS (2 July 1888 – 9 December 1970) was a British mathematician who specialised in applied mechanics as an engineering science academic.

* Kenneth L. Johnson * James N. Goodier ;Notable people for their contributions * John Baker, developer of the plasticity theory of design. *

Brian Spalding Dudley Brian Spalding, FRS FREng (9 January 1923 – 27 November 2016) was Professor of Heat Transfer and Head of the Computational Fluid Dynamics Unit at Imperial College, London. He was one of the founders of computational fluid dynamics (C ...

, a founder of computational fluid mechanics. * Sir Christopher Sydney Cockerell, English engineer, best known as the inventor of the hovercraft. * Sir Charles Edward Inglis, under whose leadership the department became the largest in the university. * Sir Bennett Melvill Jones, who demonstrated the importance in streamlining in aircraft design. *

Ian Liddell William Ian Liddell (born 1938) CBE FREng FIStructE Hon FRIBA is a structural engineer and the designer of London's Millennium Dome. He was one of the founding partners of Buro Happold and is a Royal Academy Visiting Professor of Engineerin ...

, designer of the Millennium Dome. * Charles Oatley, developer of one of the first commercial scanning electron microscopes. *

Nicholas Patrick Nicholas James MacDonald Patrick (born 19 November 1964), is a British-American engineer and a former NASA astronaut. His flight on the 2006 ''Discovery'' STS-116 mission made him the fourth person born in the United Kingdom to go into space. ...

, astronaut. * W. E. W. Petter, aeronautical engineer, designer of

Westland Lysander The Westland Lysander is a British army co-operation and liaison aircraft produced by Westland Aircraft that was used immediately before and during the Second World War. After becoming obsolete in the army co-operation role, the aircraft's ...

English Electric Canberra The English Electric Canberra is a British first-generation, jet-powered medium bomber. It was developed by English Electric during the mid- to late 1940s in response to a 1944 Air Ministry requirement for a successor to the wartime de Havil ...

and the

Folland Gnat The Folland Gnat is a British compact swept-wing subsonic fighter aircraft that was developed and produced by Folland Aircraft. Envisioned as an affordable light fighter in contrast to the rising cost and size of typical combat aircraft, it wa ...

* Harry Ricardo, major contributor to development of the

internal combustion engine An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal c ...

. * Andrew Schofield, pioneer in centrifuge research. * James Stuart, first true professor of engineering at Cambridge appointed in 1875. *

Constance Tipper Constance Tipper (born Constance Fligg Elam; 16 February 1894 – 14 December 1995) was an English metallurgist and crystallographer. She investigated brittle fracture and the ductile-brittle transition of metals used in the construction of ...

, metallurgist, crystallographer and first woman to serve full-time as faculty in the department. *

Carol Vorderman Carol Jean Vorderman, HonFIET (born 24 December 1960) is a Welsh media personality, best known for appearing on the game show ''Countdown'' for 26 years from 1982 until 2008, as a newspaper columnist and nominal author of educational and diet ...

, former

Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...

host and mathematical television personality. *

, inventor of the jet engine. * Reverend Robert Willis, the first Cambridge professor to win an international reputation as a mechanical engineer. * James N. Goodier, co-author of "Theory of Elasticity" with

Stephen Timoshenko Stepan Prokofyevich Timoshenko (russian: Степан Прокофьевич Тимошенко, p=sʲtʲɪˈpan prɐˈkofʲjɪvʲɪtɕ tʲɪmɐˈʂɛnkə; uk, Степан Прокопович Тимошенко, Stepan Prokopovych Tymoshenko; ...

. * Morien Morgan, sometimes referred to as "the Father of Concorde". * Christopher Hinton, supervised construction of

Calder Hall Sellafield is a large multi-function nuclear site close to Seascale on the coast of Cumbria, England. As of August 2022, primary activities are nuclear waste processing and storage and nuclear decommissioning. Former activities included nucl ...

, the world's first large-scale commercial nuclear power station. * James A. Greenwood, winner of Tribology Gold Medal, known for the Greenwood and Williamson model of contact interfaces. * Bertram Hopkinson, who proposed the Split-Hopkinson pressure bar method to measure dynamic stress–strain response of materials.

References

{{Authority control 1875 establishments in England Educational institutions established in 1875 Engineering, Department of Engineering, Department of