< Previous | Contents | Next >
Colin Duncan Constable Steele1, Peter R Green2
1School of Mathematics, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
2School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Manchester, United Kingdom
The University of Manchester is currently planning a major new building development that will house the four schools of Engineering and which will act as a focus for the teaching and research activities for these schools.
The vision for the Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD) involves floor-space of 76 000 square metres spread across 8 floors. With completion expected in 2020, it will be home to 1300 staff and 7000 students.
MECD will house the following four schools of Engineering : Chemical Engineering and Analytic Science : Electrical and Electronic Engineering : Materials : Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering. In addition, the Science and Engineering Foundation Office (with students on the Foundation Year progressing to the four Engineering Schools and to other schools in the Faculty) will be located within MECD.
One common factor possessed by all these schools is the requirement for high-quality mathematics teaching and the consequent role of the school of mathematics. The needs of the school of mathematics in teaching to these schools forms a key part of the design process in this new development.
The committee being consulted on matters to do with teaching consists of MECD project staff, technical staff (e.g. audio-visual) the Directors of Studies of the Engineering Schools (including the director of Foundation Studies) and the Director of Service Teaching in the School of mathematics. This committee considers such matters as lecture theatres, small group teaching and consultation rooms, computer clusters, study spaces and, of course, multi-function rooms. It considers such aspects as suitability for small/medium group mathematics tutorials as well as specialist engineering project group meetings. It considers constraints on the wifi-networks and projection systems relevant for the needs of mathematical software as well as the needs of engineers on their mainstream courses.
Once complete, MECD will be an inspiring home for the engineering students for their studies including the study of mathematics.