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AI generated image of eco friendly building with planting

Major new project will harness AI to transform way Zero-Emissions buildings are designed

Professor Thomas Adcock admitted as Senior Proctor at University of Oxford

Oxford researchers investigate painless, needle-free vaccine delivery using ultrasound

Researchers smiling for the camera during Robotics week

Doctoral training investment supports leading research in areas of national importance

Control Lab with Professor Harrison Steel

Transformative solutions to antibiotic resistance

Department of Engineering Science | University of Oxford

Sign saying Engineering outside Thom Building

Engineering teaching and research takes place at Oxford in a unified Department of Engineering Science. Our academic staff are committed to a common engineering foundation as well as to advanced work in their own specialities, which include most branches of the subject. We have especially strong links with computing, materials science and medicine.

This broad view of engineering, based on a scientific approach to the fundamentals, is part of the tradition that started with our foundation in 1908 - one hundred years of educating great engineers, and researching at the cutting edge!

Our graduates go off to a huge variety of occupations - into designing cars, building roads and bridges, developing new electronic devices, manufacturing pharmaceuticals, into healthcare and aerospace, into further study for higher degrees and in many other directions.

Wind turbines silhouette at night

Our Research

The Department of Engineering Science has an international reputation for its research in all the major branches of engineering, and in emerging areas such as biomedical engineering, energy and the environment. The major theme underlying our research portfolio is the application of cutting-edge science to generate new technology, using a mixture of theory and experiment.

Find out more in our Case Studies and Research pages.

Oxford Robotics Institute vehicle offroad at Blenheim Palace with lake in background

Our Institutes

The Department has five Institutes which lead the way for research and collaboration in different areas of engineering, including biomedical, thermofluids and robotics - visit their websites to find out more.

4th year student project presentations at the Engineering Science Lubbock Lecture 2019

MEng in Engineering Science

Undergraduates on the Engineering Science course at Oxford spend their first two years studying core topics which we believe are essential for all engineers to understand.

Having developed a solid grounding in these, for their final two years they choose to specialise in one of the six branches of Engineering Science: Biomedical, Chemical and Process, Civil and Offshore, Control, Electrical and Opto-electronic, Information, Solid Materials and Mechanics, or Thermofluids and Turbomachinery.

DPhil candidate Barbara Souza

Postgraduate Study

The research degrees offered by the Department of Engineering Science are MSc(R), DEng and DPhil. The opportunities in the Department for postgraduate study and research include conventional disciplines of engineering such as chemical, civil, electrical, and mechanical, as well as information engineering, applications of engineering to medicine, low-temperature engineering, and experimental plasma physics.

Control Lab with Professor Harrison Steel

Transformative solutions to antibiotic resistance

Bioengineering

More than 1.2 million people already die each year as a direct result of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections*. But this number could soon rise dramatically: as resistance spreads, an increasing number of infections are becoming harder – and sometimes impossible – to treat as antibiotics become less effective.

Begbroke Innovation District: a living lab for sustainable development

Energy / Sustainability

The development of the Begbroke Innovation District is envisioned as a ‘Living Lab’, providing the opportunity to model sustainable practices from energy use to community engagement, and biodiversity to building design.

Safe Inspection of Tall Buildings

Oxford Robotics Institute

Inspection of tall buildings is a major challenge for facilities owners. The Oxford Robotics Institute, part of the Department of Engineering Science at Oxford, has developed an entirely autonomous aerial system for mapping tall buildings.

Unlocking the Mysteries of the Universe with Radio Telescopes

Scientific Computing

Xiao Li was always curious about the mysteries of the universe and dreamt one day she would explore it. Now as a DPhil student at the Oxford e-Research Centre, she is contributing to the Square Kilometre Array project. Her work mainly focuses on developing a new imaging pipeline for radio astronomy.

Bringing vital engineering innovation to hospitals

Biomedical engineering

Alumna Dr Katerina Spranger is bringing vital engineering innovation to hospitals. Dr Spranger’s software platform, PreSize, is powered by AI to accurately simulate how medical devices would behave once implanted into a patient. For stents, used to treat brain aneurysms, such simulations could help the surgeons choose the right size of stent before they start surgery.