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University of Reading

School of Systems Engineering to close on 31 July 2016

Monday, 18 July 2016

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The School of Systems Engineering (SSE) is closing on 31 July 2016 and a number of its activities will move to other areas of the University. This follows the University Council’s decision last year to accept the recommendations of the University Executive Board regarding the re-organisation of the activities undertaken within SSE.

Staff within the SSE and across the University have worked hard over the past year to deliver these changes. In a communication to staff last year, the University had outlined plans to create two new units – a Department of Computer Science and a Bio-Engineering Section – in addition to a neuroscience group, a data science and big data analytics group and to integrate the activity relating to sustainable engineering into Construction Management and Engineering.

From 1 August 2016:

  1. The Department of Computer Science will form part of the renamed School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences. The Department will continue to deliver high-quality degrees in computer science and focused research in associated areas, including data science and computational science. It will also teach out the Information Technology degree programmes;
  2. A Biomedical Engineering Section will form part of the School of Biological Sciences, which will teach out  a number of degrees including Electronic Engineering, Robotics and Cybernetics. The department will also deliver new degrees including a BEng and MEng in Biomedical Engineering to be launched in 2017;
  3. Staff will be joining the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences to enhance activities in neuroscience; and, 
  4. Sustainable engineering research will be enriched through the expertise of a member of staff moving to the School of the Built Environment.
  5. The Infrared Multilayer Laboratory (IML) will continue its work and will be based within the School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences

Current students will be supported in their new Schools, largely by staff who are already familiar to them. Computer Science will continue to recruit new students, but the recruitment of new students to other programmes in SSE has ceased.

The majority of SSE academic staff have been retained and will be part of the new academic structures. Indeed, most of the staff will still be based in the old Systems Engineering Building. The Building itself will be refurbished over the coming year, with new and improved facilities.

The Vice-Chancellor, Sir David Bell, said: “I am very grateful to staff and students in the School of Systems Engineering for staying so focused over a difficult period. They have my thanks and I would like to wish everyone concerned all the best for the future.”

Robert Van de Noort (Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Academic Resource and Planning) also expressed his gratitude to SSE staff and students. “I recognise that this has not been an easy transition, but colleagues in the School of Systems Engineering have conducted themselves with the utmost professionalism during the last 12 months, and I wish to thank them all for this. The new Department for Computer Science in SMPCS and the department of Biomedical Engineering in SBS should be able to view the future with confidence, as is shown by the excellent recruitment to Computer Science for 2016 entry, and high levels of interest for the new degrees in Biomedical Engineering”.