Working with industry

The University of Reading is a top rated research institution and actively seeks to develop long lasting relationships with commercial organisations. The School of Systems Engineering and its constituent subjects have an established reputation in linking with industry. Activities here include numerous collaborative projects, industrial placements for our students, student prizes awarded by industry, and an active Industrial Advisory committee which advises on our degree programmes and provides an industrial perspective helpful to the school and its students. In addition, the University's successful Knowledge Transfer Partnerships was originated by Cybernetics, part of our School.

Collaborative Projects

Systems Engineering staff are interested in collaborative research, technology transfer, consultancy, and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships - information on all of these can be found on the University's Business Services site. In particular, most academics in the School have been involved in Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, KTPs, (formerly Teaching Company Schemes), where academics and industry use their mutual expertise on a specific project, which also have the added benefit that such projects often provide employment and career development for ours students.

In addition, there have been various spin out companies from staff and students in Systems Engineering. Also, some staff in the school spend their sabbaticals working in companies, such as Vodafone and National Grid.

Industrial Advisory Committee

The relevance of our programmes to graduate employers is maintained by a strong and active industrial advisory committee (IAC), which includes members from companies such as Thales, Sony, AWE, National Grid and IBM, the University's Careers Advisory Service, and key members of the school. The IAC meets three times a year where the School reports on its activities and the industrial members make relevant and much appreciated comments. All new degree programme proposals are reviewed by the IAC for both specific contents and overall outcomes and their fit with employer needs and expectations. The IAC have also commented on the recent major reviews of our undergraduate and MSc programmes.

Industrial Placements

Over recent years there has been increasing interest in industrial placements both from employers' and applicants. As such many of our advertised degrees have an 'applied' variant with a year in industry after Part 2 - we can create an applied version of other degrees on demand. A dedicated placement officer has been appointed for this, and we have successfully placed our students in companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Fujitsu and Panasonic. Students are twice visited at their place of work by either their Personal Tutor or the placement officer, and have access to an online communication system to maintain more regular contact. In addition to maintaining links with industry and finding suitable placements, the placement officer also assists the students with writing impressive CVs and covering letters, as well as giving advice on interview technique and psychometric tests. These placements can enhance the career opportunities of our students and are also beneficial to the companies involved.

Prizes

Various companies (e.g. Nortel, Thales) provide prizes for the best students in particular degree programmes or specific modules. The Enterprise IT Architectures module also qualifies students for TOGAF certification offered by The Open Group, and we are looking into other such links for specific modules and industry-standard qualifications.