UCL Faculty of Engineering Sciences

Engineers turn discoveries into solutions. Whether they are improving medical treatments, houses or transportation, the products, processes and students we produce change the world. Independent studies rate UCL a top university for research - engineering is no exception. Our work saves money, energy and lives, as well as adding to the body of human knowledge.

Biochemical Engineering

The UCL Department of Biochemical Engineering is at the forefront of bioprocess research and is the largest centre in the UK. In the 2014 REF, 75% of academic staff were rated as 'world-leading' or 'internationally excellent'.

Our interdisciplinary Advanced Centre for Biochemical Engineering (ACBE) coordinates bioprocess research and training collaborations with more than a dozen UCL departments, a similar number of external university partners and over 60 international companies.  Our research aims continually to innovate towards the sustainable biomanufacturing of chemicals, materials, medicines, vaccines and therapies, by harnessing biological systems and biotechnology.

Chemical Engineering

The Department of Chemical Engineering is routinely recognised among the top chemical engineering departments in Europe and was ranked 24th globally in the 2021 QS World University Subject Rankings. Research is a major departmental activity with 90% of staff rated as world leading or of internationally excellent quality in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF2014). At the heart of chemical engineering are chemical transformations, by which raw materials are converted to products such as fuels, commodity and specialty chemicals, pharmaceuticals, advanced materials and consumer products.

Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering

The 21st century presents us with a complex world of continuous change. Turbulence in our environment, economic and societal structures challenge our ingenuity as engineers. CEGE is famous for its innovative problem-based learning approach to education and its interdisciplinary research breadth and reach with constant reference to the human needs which drive the requirement for engineering solutions.

Computer Science

UCL Computer Science is a world-leading centre for research, impact and innovation. We are one of the UK’s major centres for Computer Science research, and internationally one of the leaders in the field. As of 2021, the department has 103 academic staff (51 professors), 96 research staff, and 220 PhD students. Our research is motivated by an ambitious intellectual and practice-oriented mission and underpinned by external funding from a variety of sources. We collaborate on projects and initiatives with a wide range of bio-medical, banking, technology and governmental organisations in a range of countries and cities and have a breadth of interdisciplinary activity.

Electronic and Electrical Engineering

The Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering (EEE) has a strategic research focus on Information. Research topics include: information sensing (from nerve impulses to radar); information processing (from specialised analogue and digital signal processing to quantum information processing and neuromorphic systems); information transmission (coding, advanced wireless systems, optical communications, and networks); and information output (from nerve amplifiers to advanced display modelling).

Our research areas comprise the following five Research Groups:

• Communications and Information Systems;
• Electronic Materials and Devices;
• Photonics;
• Optical Networks;
• Sensors, Systems and Circuits.
• Since 2014, long-term support for our research included an RCUK Basic Technology Programme and four EPSRC Programme Grants, with a total value of £18M.

Mechanical Engineering

The Department of Mechanical Engineering consists of some 42 FTE research active academics, 40 researchers mainly at the postdoctoral level, and 140 PhD students across four major research areas: The ‘Biomechanical Research Division; ‘Materials, Structures and Manufacturing Research Division’; the ‘Energy & Environment Research Division’, and the ‘Marine Research Division’. We have research income in excess of £12M per annum. We continue to expand our research with new activities at UCL East Campus.

Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering

We are a research-intensive department. The majority of our research sits within UCL’s Institute of Healthcare Engineering and covers the entire research pathway from basic science through proof of principle to translation to healthcare and industry. Exemplars of our priority research areas include interventional & surgical sciences, phase contrast x-ray imaging, photoacoustic imaging, and proton therapy. We prioritise the development of early career researchers as evidenced by our outstanding success at attracting externally funded 5-year Fellowships.

School of Management

The UCL School of Management conducts theoretical, empirical and experimental analyses of managerial, organisational, and operational dynamics in innovation-intensive organisations. The School has 78 faculty members (42 academic staff, 36 education-focussed staff), 6 research fellows and 24 MRes/PhD students.

In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), the latest assessment of the quality of research performed by UK universities, 55% of the research outputs of the UCL School of Management were rated as world-leading (4*), placing us in joint first place among UK business schools.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy

The Department of STEaPP is a centre of fundamental and applied research expertise, working at the intersection of science, technology, engineering and public policy to change the world for the better.

STEaPP strives to generate, mobilise and integrate different types of knowledge to enhance the capacity of public decision‐makers to address complex societal issues.

STEaPP researchers have an explicit mandate to bring together national and international networks of academic, policy, civil society and industry partners to co-develop and deliver impactful and evidence-informed solutions to global challenges.

Security and Crime Science

The Department of Security and Crime Science (SCS) is devoted to reducing crime and other risks to personal and national security. It does so by producing cutting-edge research and translating this into practice and policy through active engagement with research end-users. The term ‘crime science’ was coined to describe the empirically-based approach taken and the location of the Department within the Faculty of Engineering Sciences reinforces the problem-oriented underpinnings of crime science and facilitates the goal of integrating the social, physical and engineering sciences in the quest for community safety.

The Department has six research priority research areas (crime analysis, crime reduction policy and practice, emerging technology, forensic science, policing practice, and terrorism, serious and organised crime), which shapes its mission, and is home to five research Institutes and Centres. These coordinate research activities and help to deliver large scale projects, facilitating collaboration across UCL, with other universities, and with stakeholders and end-users.