Software Engineering BSc(Hons)

Your first year on this software engineering degree course benefits from all the Games Academy has to offer; it’s a common first phase of study shared by all students in the computing subject area, so you get the opportunity to build and develop your broader technical skills before you specialise in software engineering.  

You’ll gain experience of multidisciplinary teamworking, while exploring the different specialisms in computing that we offer, providing you with flexibility to switch into a different specialism if you choose. 

Principles of Computing 

In this module, you’ll learn the principles of computing, discrete mathematics, statistics and technical communication. Through a series of tasks, you’ll begin to use core computer science concepts, techniques and methods to solve practical problems and leverage algorithms in your solutions.   

You'll also delve into the history of computing, engaging with the plurality of voices in the profession and the controversies evoked by algorithmic bias. 

Digital Creativity 

On this module, you will explore digital media formats including text, image and sound. 

You’ll play, tinker, experiment with and extend digital artefacts, transforming what already exists in one form into another form as a means of appropriation. You will then integrate your digital artefacts with digital game technologies, notably game engines, to make them interactive in some way. 

You’ll also consider moral and legal questions surrounding digital creativity, such as plagiarism, intellectual property law, licensing rights, representation and media literacy. 

Development Foundations 

On this module, you’ll gain foundational experience of the basic principles, terminology, roles and tools used in the development of digital products and services. 

Through several small-scale team projects, you’ll practice a range of prototyping methods and pitch your idea for a future project. These projects will help you to develop your project management skills, while building a professional, inclusive and supportive studio culture. 

Data Fundamentals 

In this module, you’ll learn the fundamentals of the data science life cycle. This will include learning how to formulate questions, collect and clean data, explore and visualise data, make statistical inferences and predictions, and report insights in a way that informs decision making.   

You'll also gain an awareness of the responsibilities, obligations and legalities of working with sensitive and personal data, including its collection, storage, analysis, management and transmission. 

Individual Programming Project 

In this module, you’ll refine your approach to computer programming by developing an architecturally sound project focused on object-orientated solutions.   

Through this project, you’ll build your confidence with various interfaces that enable interaction within and across different system components. You’ll practice more disciplined software engineering methodologies, develop your mastery of the notations for describing and refactoring system architectures, and apply the mathematics associated with circuit design.  

You’ll also gain a greater awareness of ethical considerations such as safety, accessibility, sustainability and the impact of supply chains. 

Multidisciplinary Teamwork 

On this module, you’ll work in multi-skilled teams to make a digital product or service in response to a prompt or brief.  

This work will give you the opportunity to increase your knowledge of organising and managing a software development project. Working in a multidisciplinary team will also give you hands-on experience of the full systems development life cycle and production pipelines in an ‘agile’ context commonly used in professional practice.  

By the end of the module, you and your team should have produced and evaluated a modest but functional proof of concept. 

The second year involves much deeper specialism in software engineering, with course-specific modules complementing modules on key mathematical and computing topics.  

You will also work in partnership with peers in other disciplines on a challenge-led brief to deliver working software to a client, mirroring industry practice. 

Algorithms & Optimisation 

Throughout this module, you’ll practice and develop your computing skills with a focus on the design and analysis of algorithms.  

You’ll explore strategies for creating efficient and optimised code; learning to apply methods of profiling and resource management. You’ll also be challenged to consider sustainability as a theme for your optimisations, with attention to maximising the use and/or extending the lifecycle of hardware that is difficult to recycle, to reduce (notional) energy usage and to better manage processes with environmental impacts. 

Computational Mathematics 

You’ll learn key mathematic principles that underpin computing, such as linear algebra, geometry, trigonometry, 3D transformation, and calculus. You’ll then apply these principles to your own technical work. 

You’ll also investigate the relationship between computational mathematics and cybersecurity. By exploring security topics such as common threats and attack vectors, cryptography and steganography, certification and malware, as well as defensive programming. 

Software Architecture 

On this module, you’ll adopt a design thinking approach to software development. This will involve a renewed focus on conveying your design ideas using modelling languages, and evaluating your designs through different lenses, for example, information, behaviour, structure, domain, function, and enterprise modelling.  

You compare your designs using relevant analytic techniques and consider the different architectures that software can follow. In particular, investigating the merits and flaws of different approaches to structuring software systems, and informing how to maintain and refactor software, typically alongside the processes of decomposition, abstraction, and generalisation. You will also deepen your knowledge of established industry norms and design patterns by referring to relevant research as you write your own software and refine its design over several iterations. 

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning 

In this module, you’ll explore the challenges and opportunities of artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques. Considering real-world applications, you’ll conduct a practical research and development project looking to address a specific brief or challenge.   

Through this work, you’ll get a chance to think about the legal, social, ethical, professional and sustainability implications of AI technologies. You’ll also examine how artificial intelligence and machine learning may impact computer technology and your future career aspirations. 

Development Operations 

You will explore strategies for planning, tracking, testing, and deploying codebases in a way that will continue to scale as the lifecycle progresses and investment increases. In particular, adopting continuous integration and deployment alongside version control practices. You will develop your knowledge of distributed systems, computer networks, server infrastructure, quality assurance, and the orchestration of non-trivial production processes. You will also be challenged to consider security as a theme to ensure that you adequately protect the intellectual property of your stakeholders while maintaining the integrity of your solutions.  

You will be set a production to oversee and a set of requirements to address, with a view to ensure that the reliability of implemented solutions are maintained and to verify that the software continues to meet requirements. As part of this process, it will be important to document your development operations and be able to defend your management strategy at the conclusion of the module. 

Embedded Systems 

Embedded systems constitute multiple interacting components which might include sensors, actuators, various electronic circuits, mechatronics, and physical mechanisms. You will explore the design, engineering, and operation of embedded computer systems with particular attention to real-time processing and interfacing with computer hardware.  

You will also need to consider the protocols and network technologies that facilitate system component distribution. Topics span: input/output; discretisation; analogue to digital conversion; timers; interrupts; pulse width modulation; control systems; serial communication; and higher level topics such as IoT implementation, TCP/IP, and mesh networks. You will also examine techniques including digital prototyping, simulation, and emulation.  

The module will focus on teamwork, and you will be challenged to work with increasing effectiveness and productivity in a context with increasing technical sophistication and engineering complexity.

You can choose to take an optional professional placement after your second year on a three-year programme, or after your third year if you’re studying for a degree with an Integrated Foundation Year.  

You’ll be responsible for finding your own placement, with support from the employability team.  

Choosing this option will enhance your industry experience and skills while studying.  

How you’ll study during your professional placement  

You’ll spend time working in a professional context, as part of a business or organisation. This can be in one role, or up to three, and must be for a minimum of 24 weeks.  

You’ll develop in-demand workplace skills, deepen your insight into industry and grow your network of contacts, all of which could help you get ahead in your career after graduation.  

Throughout this year, you’ll develop a portfolio of work that includes critical self-reflection on what has been learned from the experience. You’ll be required to evidence your experiences, the skills you’ve learned and your professional growth. 

In your third year, you’ll develop greater intellectual freedom, both as an individual but also in tackling a challenge in collaboration with others.  

With modules focusing on developing your personal specialism in software engineering alongside stretching your collaboration skills and a final course-specific module, at the end of this year, you’ll have experience working in multidisciplinary teams and delivering a substantial development project. 

Programming Tools 

You will identify an opportunity to improve the software production process, devising a tool that will refine developer workflows. 

Contexts can vary, but could include utilities for development operations, standalone computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools, debugging extensions for an integrated development environment (IDE), content pipeline automation utilities that leverage generative artificial intelligence, or similar.  

You will need to explore contemporary software engineering practice, bringing a critical eye to the day-to-day tasks of developers to identify and articulate the “need” for your proposed tool. You will also need to explore the frameworks and environments of your chosen context so that you can effectively build upon it. To support you in your endeavour, you will receive support with defining and working with application programming interfaces and in the conventions typical of such programming tools. Notably, how to adhere to system standards, license conditions, and platform specifications.  

Renewing the focus on the human element of computer systems, you will also consider lessons learned from the literature on user experience design and design science more generally. The tool you build must be deployable, and you must demonstrate that it is fit-for-purpose and compliant with system requirements. You will also need to refactor the architecture of your solution to ensure that it is robust and performant.  

Research & Development: Proposal 

In this module, you’ll plan and commence an individual ‘major’ research and development project in computing. You can choose to conduct primary research centred on or supported by a novel computing artefact, or practice-based research with significant technical depth. 

The development of your written proposal will include identifying an opportunity, critically reviewing relevant literature, setting a hypothesis and designing a mode of data collection, while considering all ethical implications, as well as prototyping a novel and substantial computing artefact. 

Research & Development: Dissertation 

On this module, you’ll continue your individual ‘major’ research and development project. Building upon the proposal you submitted, you’ll further develop your prototype computing artefact into a potentially deployable solution. In doing so, you’ll deepen your knowledge of software engineering, the use of advanced research tools, technical writing and academic conventions, as well as the interpretation and visualisation of results from statistical analyses of quantitative data. 

Under the supervision of a subject-matter expert, you will: realise a novel and substantial computing artefact; execute your research and development; and critically analyse your results, disseminating your findings through a written academic dissertation. You’ll also present your insights to peers alongside a demonstration of the final computing artefact, referring to the potential impact of your project, any ethical concerns, and potential future work. 

Digital Innovation 

You will develop your commercial awareness and entrepreneurial mindset. 

You will consider knowledge and skills that are equally applicable to setting up your own business, establishing yourself as a freelancer, or for use as an employee in a business or organisation. This will help you to further develop your goals, values, and employability skills, as well as to explore options available to you. 

You begin by critically evaluating market opportunities, exploring how businesses can operate, and comparing how intellectual property can be managed through granted rights, contract, trade secret, and incorporation. Contexts will vary, but could include products and services across a wide range of digital contexts. You form teams around enterprise opportunities to devise a project proposal. You will then be immersed in practical learning where you identify an opportunity for innovation and develop your own concept through a pre-production process.  

Branding, cash flow modelling, enterprise planning, developing intellectual property, and more will feature to culminate towards an investment-style pitch in which you present your proposed product or service. 

Major Collaboration 

In this module, you’ll leverage your experiences from the prior stages of the course to deliver a substantial collaborative project. You’ll work in a multi-skilled team to design and implement a potentially innovative product or service.   

Typically, this will be the continuation of your previous project, but it could also be a newly proposed project that satisfies a real need, a response to a market opportunity identified by the University, a live brief from or collaboration with industry partners or research teams, or a solution to a problem presented by an external stakeholder.   

You will continue to put into practice the ethically-informed methodologies you have explored in previous modules. Contexts can also vary but could include: enterprise solutions; mobile apps; installations; games; web applications; robots; immersive experiences; software development tools; and more. 

You will learn in an environment mirroring the industry, with technical workshops and tuition boosted by collaborative, studio-based projects. Individual and group projects with students from other disciplines will be key to your development. You'll create software, devise new applications for computing, generate solutions to technical problems, and build new digital products or services. 

• Demonstrations  
• Studio Practice  
• Project Supervision  
• Lectures  
• Seminars  
• Practical Workshops  
• Crit Sessions  
• Tutorials  
• Guest Speakers  
• Mentoring  
• A focus on team-working and project development in multi-skilled teams 
• Group working strategy 
• Poster Assessment Strategy 

You'll be assessed 100% through coursework only. This can take many forms, including: 

• Practical projects 
• Papers 
• Pitches 
• Portfolios 

Designed to mirror industry practice, you'll be continually assessed on group projects through a group working strategy and be able to practice exhibiting in a trade-show style with our poster assessment strategy.