Orange background with world globe in foreground and icons related to engineering

This highly interactive subject will expose you to a variety of engineering disciplines. Through specialist workshops, lectures and seminars, you will develop key skills and work in groups to find solutions to current engineering challenges. The programme will provide unique insight from Imperial academics with different engineering backgrounds, to help you understand the many applications of engineering in the real world. 

In 2025, students will: 

  • Explore a range of disciplines and facilities within the Faculty of Engineering. 
  • Conduct practical experiments, collect and analyse data. 
  • Work as part of a team to solve real-world engineering problems. 
  • Test their design skills in a series of team-based activities. 
  • Build and tested models and prototypes using a range of materials.  

Students are split into one of two streams once they arrive on campus. Both streams cover the same course content and we are unable to facilitate requests to change streams or to be allocated with friends. 

Week one: Sample session outline

Welcome to Engineering

An introductory session welcoming students to the subject of Engineering at Imperial. Learn about the various engineering departments across the college and what to expect on your two-week programme.

Teaching staff

  • Staff member to be confirmed. 
Aeronautical Engineering

The Department of Aeronautics at Imperial has achieved an outstanding reputation for its research in the aeronautical engineering field. You will be introduced to Aeronautical Engineering, meet a student panel and have the opportunity to learn about aerodynamics from staff who lead a research group in experimental high-speed aerodynamics at Imperial, utilising Imperial’s supersonic and hypersonic wind tunnels.

Teaching staff

  • Dr Ajit Panesar
    Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Aeronautics
  • Dr Paul Bruce
    Reader in High-Speed Aerodynamics, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Aeronautics
Chemical Engineering

Get ready to learn what chemical engineering is all about – they are the ones designing, operating, and continuously improving the manufacturing processes to make all kinds of things from green hydrogen to COVID-19 vaccines. They do so while also helping to manage the world’s resources and protecting the environment. In this session you will be introduced to some key principles of how chemical processes are modelled and operated and how chemical engineers combine physics, chemistry, mathematics, and computer simulations for this purpose.

You will:

  • Learn about the challenges of operating chemical processes and how chemical engineers are helping to automate tedious tasks while also ensuring safety of operations

  • Carry out hands on simulations to see how to control a process yourself and what difference automation tools can make to help make your job easier

  • Get to explore the Carbon Capture Pilot Plant of the Chemical Engineering Department – which is the most sophisticated of its kind in the world at a university

  • Get to see a how a hydrogen cannon can fire a ping-pong ball up into the air and learn all about hydrogen and how this new green fuel can change our world

Teaching staff

  • Dr Mehmet Mercangöz
    ABB Reader in Autonomous Industrial Systems, Department of Chemical Engineering
Civil Engineering
In this session, you will be asked to design a railway bridge for High Speed 2, a new high-speed railway linking London to the Midlands, the North and Scotland. You will set the geometry of the bridge and explore multiple constraints and impact associated with this choice within the following parameter considerations, geometry constraints, geology of the site, flooding risk, environmental and social constraints. The session will be divided into two parts.
 
Part one
In the first part of the activity, you will set the geometry of the bridge and explore the multiple constraints and impacts associated with this choice. The parameters to consider are:
  • Geometric constraints
  • Geology of the site
  • Risk of flooding
  • Environmental and social constraints
You will evaluate and prioritise these constraints to decide on the bridge type.
 
Part two
In the second part of the activity, you will design the bridge considering the following aspects:
  • Bridge typology
  • Construction materials
  • Construction methods
  • Estimated costs
You will finish by making a model of your bridge and testing its capability.
Teaching staff
  • Dr Sunday Popo-Ola
    Research and Teaching Fellow, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  • Alalea Kia
    Advanced Research Fellow, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering 
Design Engineering

Design engineering turns ideas into feasible, functional, user-centric, and market-ready solutions. Design engineers conceptualise, prototype, and create innovative products or improve existing ones. They use design tools, modelling software, systems thinking, and both conventional and emerging technologies, such as electronics and computing. Their goal is to solve real-world problems tailored to user and industry needs.

Attendees will:

  • discover the dynamic world of design engineering and experience what it’s like to study at Imperial College London.
  • dive into key principles of creative design, ideation, and rapid prototyping while exploring vital topics such as human factors and sustainability.
  • collaborate in teams to tackle a real-world design engineering challenge and bring innovative solutions to life.

Teaching staff

Earth Science and Engineering

This information session will cover what it's like to study Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial. You will learn about the various benefits of the course and get a true taste of the student experience at the university. 

Teaching staff

Dr Valentin Laurent
Senior Teaching Fellow, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Earth Science & Engineering

Materials Science (July programme only)
This session will provide an introduction to Materials Science through an exciting programme of live demonstrations planned by our Department of Materials.
Teaching staff
  • Dr Eleonora D'Elia
    Senior Teaching Fellow, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Materials

Please note, this session will only take place during the July 2025 programme.

Mechanical Engineering

After an introduction to Mechanical Engineering at Imperial, you will take part in a ‘Design, Make and Test’ challenge in teams. Your design will be tested to failure as you compete for the ‘heaviest lifter’ and ‘best design features’ awards.

You will:

  • Gain an appreciation of what Mechanical Engineering is.
  • Get to know other students better by working in a group.
  • Test your creativity, design and manufacturing skills.

 

Teaching staff

  • Dr Linda Stringer
    Senior Teaching Fellow, Department of Mechanical Engineering
  • Idris Mohammed
    Senior Teaching Fellow, Department of Mechanical Engineering 

Week two: Innovation Challenge

In week two of the programme, you will come together with students from other academic subjects to share expertise and to help solve a real-world challenge.  
  
The Innovation Challenge is led by the Imperial Enterprise Lab, a group of industry experts, and is a chance for you to develop vital skills you will need at university such as presentation, communication and group work.  

Find out more about the Innovation Challenge.

Student cutting cardboard

Engineering student building a sumobot

Student building a science experiment.

Students building an engineering sumobot

The students sat around a table planning their project.

Students building a second prototype robot

Students building their second prototype sumo-bot.

Students starting to build their sumo-bot.

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