Software Engineering

In this module, students will be introduced to the concept of Software Design and Development.  Students will be discussing the software development lifecycles, design techniques, and learning the basics of procedural programming.  Students will also be discussing the need to develop interfaces to ensure that they are accessible to a wide range of potential users, with consideration of the alignment to Sustainable Development Goal 10, which focusses on reducing inequalities.

Whatever a student’s future business career, there are certain basic professional skills and expertise that are required in the workplace. This module provides opportunities to acquire and apply essential skills for academic success, while also developing ‘soft skills’ that are a prerequisite for a successful career. Students will practice, and build confidence in wide ranging skills, as part of their transition into higher education.

The aim of the module is to introduce the application of information, information systems and information technologies within organisations and understand the impact of such systems on organisational performance. Students will develop an understanding of the project lifecycle focussing on the importance of the customer and will look at the process involved in creating information systems by learning how to investigate and define customer requirements and understand future needs. Undertaking this module gives students an introduction to information systems and organisations, giving them the skills to work effectively within an IS organisation on projects and giving them the base for understanding other IS modules within the degree programme.

Using inspirational demonstrators from both academia and industry, this module provides an overview of a range of innovative systems and applications in the fields of computer science, cyber security, psychology, social sciences, digital media and business decision making.  It will also facilitate hands-on experience on the choices and applications of innovative systems to interdisciplinary fields.  This module is suitable for students from technical programmes and from psychology, business, digital media and social sciences.

This module imparts an understanding of operating systems including concepts such as scheduling, concurrency and synchronisation, memory management, input and output systems, kernel security and file systems.  Fundamentals of data structures and core algorithms and analysis are also explored.

This module imparts an understanding of analysis and design concepts that are essential for developing and implementing software and database systems.  Design concepts and procedures such as Business Rules, Requirements Analysis, Data Modelling, Relational Data Modelling, Object Orientated Analysis and SQL will be explored.  Students will also learn how to apply Unified Modelling Language (UML) within different computing scenarios.

The aim of this module is to introduce concepts of IT security in order to understand the security threats to an IT system and the operational impact of these threats on an organisation. The module will explore different protection methods for data and develop knowledge of security policies and procedures, including risk assessments, and how these procedures can be implemented and maintained. This module will introduce topical case studies of attacks on organisational information systems, highlighting the business consequences.

The module develops theoretical and practical skills in software engineering principles including abstraction, encapsulation, aggregation and inheritance. Students will learn the processes from analysis to design, implementation, testing and documentation together with software quality principles.

This module explores protection mechanisms appropriate to various information technology systems and architectures.  Mechanisms and cryptographic protocols that help to provide confidentiality and integrity of data together with authentication and authorisation are explored in detail.  The principles and fundamentals of system-level security are considered together with a contextual overview of the law and regulations relating to the use of security mechanisms.  The practical application of these mechanisms in typical IT systems and architectures are incorporated.

This module provides an opportunity for students to work as part of a collaborative team to manage and complete a substantial project for a given scenario.  Students are expected to utilise and extend the knowledge and understanding imparted previously and contextualise the material already covered.

In this module, students will be developing skills in the required to produce applications which utilise the functional programming paradigm.  The module will cover key functional programming concepts such as pattern matching and higher order functions.  In addition, students will be building on knowledge gained in Data Structures and Operating Systems to understand how recursion and other mathematical concepts are implemented within the functional programming paradigm.

Human Computer Interaction is a key consideration when developing interfaces.  In a world where people are living longer, the result is that more people are experiencing impairments which can impact their ability to interact with systems.  This module will aim to consider how interfaces can be designed and developed to take this into account.  With a particular focus on Universal Design, students will be designing interfaces which are both accessible and usable.  In addition, students will be considering the experience provided to the users, and its impact on their acceptance of technology.

This module will build on the content delivered within the level 4 module: Data Structures and Operating Systems.  Students will establish methods for proving mathematical constructs, which by extension will be used to demonstrate the correctness of algorithms.  Both tree structures and graphs will be used to support students to solve computing problems in an efficient manner.  These algorithms will also be used to demonstrate how reduced consumption can be achieved through efficiency, linking with UN Sustainable Development Goal number 12, which is Responsible Consumption and Production.

This module will build on the knowledge technical students obtain in the introduction to programming and testing module. This module presents a systematic approach to software testing as an extension to Software Design and a precursor to Software Development. Agile methodologies will underpin the Design, testing and development modules. This module prepares students to work in testing roles.

A 12 month period of professional training spent as the third year of a sandwich programme undertaking an approved placement with a suitable company. This provides an opportunity for the student to gain relevant industrial experience building on the first two years of study and to prepare for employment after graduation.

The overall aim of this module is to introduce students to a range of advanced, near-research level topics in contemporary software development.  The module considers issues from a technology-driven perspective and a user-driven perspective.  Students will develop advanced skills in modern software development languages and methodologies such as Java, Swift, C# and C++ and Agile   The practical activities of this module are fundamental to build sufficient skills and confidence to approach the Synoptic Project.

The Computing Project provides the opportunity to undertake a major computing related problem in an approved topic area relevant to the programme of study.

This module aims to provide students with an overview of the cloud including: business migration to cloud based systems, cloud security, and cloud-based application design and development.  Students will be encouraged to explore the transition of business systems to the cloud, using multiple case studies as exemplars.  This exploration will focus the value to businesses, as well as the potential risks involved in cloud migration.  In addition, students will gain experience in developing applications which are used within the cloud.  This development will focus on ensuring applications are scalable, secure, usable, and maintainable.  Students will also be expected to develop and conduct cloud-based application testing.

This module explains how concepts and techniques from networking, operating systems and object-orientated programming can be combined to develop distributed systems.  The module will impart a detailed understanding of event ordering, logical and physical clocks together with the practical facets of distributed system structuring using the client-server approach.

Parallel programming involves the running of computations simultaneously.  During this module, students will learn how to exploit the abilities of modern computers to execute instructions in parallel.  Using a variety of frameworks, students will learn how to design, develop, and test systems which utilise parallelism.

This module considers the different forms of intellectual properties created in the software development and information technology sectors, and how these might be utilised for commercial purposes.  Particular emphasis is given to the protection and utilisation of intellectual property rights in computer software programmes by copyright.  The module considers how an understanding of intellectual properties is vital to knowledge-based businesses, and needs to be incorporated into the conceptualisation, design and implementation of new information technologies.  Emerging information technologies create challenges in terms of information rights such as data protection and privacy, access to public information, and information sharing through social media.  Students will be introduced to information rights laws and the trends shaping real-time development of protections in this area.