About Cybernetics

Welcome to Cybernetics, part of the School of Systems Engineering at the University of Reading.

As more technology is introduced into our everyday lives, Cybernetics, the science of information and its application, will play a role of ever-increasing importance. We have gained an international reputation for our imaginative, forward-thinking research in the field and have developed courses that, through project work with business and industry, offer you the additional benefit of real-world scientific exposure.

Cybernetics, a modern inter-disciplinary subject reflecting many of the interests of a high technology society, has been taught at Reading since 1963. The name was coined by Norbert Wiener in 1948 as a result of collaborations between Wiener, a mathematician, and colleagues from other disciplines: they noticed that they had similar interests, but where was no name to group together their interests. They chose cybernetics, subtitle control and communication in the animal and the machine, thus reflecting that both technological and biological systems have many common characteristics. This definition is reflected in our teaching and our research.

The various  undergraduate courses cover both types of system. The MEng in Cybernetics covers almost all of Cybernetics we teach. Whereas, some degrees emphasise technology more, for instance Cybernetics & Control Engineering or Computer Science and Cybernetics. Others emphasise systems including humans, for instance Biomedical EngineeringCybernetics.

Our research is organised in three themes.  'Cybernetic Intelligence' which looks at intelligent machines, control and human intelligence. 'Interactive Systems' covers systems involving humans and machines, including medical cybernetics, robotics and virtual reality. 'Instrumentation & Signal Processing' includes work on Terahertz technology, signal processing and infrared multilayer filters.