Overview 2024
This course may not be available to international students. Please see the list of distance courses (i.e. online and taken outside Australia) that are offered to international students
View archived years for this course
For years prior to 2015, please view the Course and Unit Handbook Archive
View the current year's course page
Engineering is one of the most sought-after degrees by employers world-wide because engineers solve problems in almost every facet of our lives.
They do this by balancing creative design, analysis and applied science, and are involved in making key decisions within almost every industry on earth, including the construction of buildings, roads and major infrastructure projects, alternative energy system development, electronics and transport, biomedical implants and much more!
Engineers play a major role in improving living standards and the quality of life in our community, and in the protection of the environment.
If you are interested in the design, building and management of structures, machines, manufacturing processes and infrastructure, this is the degree for you.
Course objectives
You will gain a broad, practical foundation of engineering skills and knowledge, covering physical sciences, mathematics and engineering science, followed by specific theory and practice in one of the specialised engineering fields.
Group work, projects and competitions provide extra challenges and opportunities to work alongside world-class academics and researchers. The university encourages students to find opportunities for international exchange and they are required to complete a prescribed amount of industrial experience work during vacations.
The degree is desired by employers world-wide, with graduates being highly sought after due to the hands-on and multi-disciplinary nature of their education.
Practical experience
Your Engineering learning experience goes beyond lectures, labs and tutorials.
The university has a commitment to providing hands-on training, a breadth of knowledge, and to conducting inter-disciplinary research. We have particular expertise in alternative energy systems, high-speed catamarans and biomedical implants. We also have strong industry partnerships across a variety of industries including TasNetworks, Hydro Tasmania, Incat, Tasmania Police, Entura, Shree Minerals, Mineral Resources Tasmania and Copper Mines of Tasmania, to name a few!
Industry Work Placement
12 weeks of industrial experience via work placement, typically undertaken in the summer between your third and fourth year, is an essential component of your studies. Where possible, the work experience placements are arranged through the University, and in most cases you’ll even be paid by your employer at the appropriate award rate.
Formula SAE and the UTAS Motorsport Team
The Formula SAE Competition is a national competition between universities. The UTAS Motorsport team brings together students from engineering and other areas of the University conceive, design, fabricate and compete with a small, formula-style racing car. The group work, projects and competitions provide extra challenges and opportunities to work alongside world-class academics and researchers. While this competition is particularly relevant for those who wish to pursue mechanical or mechatronic engineering, the UTAS Motorsport Team needs and attracts cross-discipline interest.
Getting Hands-on
A major feature of your Engineering studies is the emphasis placed on laboratory work. The design classes provide you with opportunities to learn the techniques of developing safe and reliable designs, and the reports you create improve your communication skills. For both the laboratory and the design classes, extensive use is made of computers, as well our range of specialist technology and machines.
Within our dedicated labs and workshops we provide you with a huge range of technology and dedicated testing environments no matter what engineering discipline you are interested in.
These include:
- Aerodynamics lab
- Applied Mechanics lab
- Biomedical lab
- Communications Engineering lab
- Concrete and Structural Testing lab
- Control Systems Laboratory
- Dynamics lab
- Electronics lab
- Geomechanics lab
- Hydraulics lab
- Mechanical workshop
- Mechatronics lab
- Power lab
- Renewable Energy Lab
- Stress Analysis lab
- Thermodynamics lab
STEM Student Ambassadors
Undergraduates can also serve as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Student Ambassadors. The goals of the program are to provide exceptional STEM education, outreach and community engagement in schools and elsewhere. The program provides opportunities and experiences that will lead to personal and professional growth for participants, particularly improving public speaking skills.
Overseas Exchange
Our international exchange program offers opportunities for a semester of study at universities around the world. Exchange can allow students to have an affordable educational and cultural experience in a foreign country for a semester or a full year. To facilitate this, we offer a range of scholarships and financial assistance. Participants may be eligible for OS-HELP Loans or scholarship funding to assist with their airfares, accommodation and other expenses.
Find out more about Student Exchange.
Career outcomes
"You can do so many different things. You have so many job options. You come out with a career path, but it’s also really easy to recreate your career later."
The University of Tasmania's focus on hands-on training and inter-disciplinary research makes our degree highly desirable in the international landscape.
Students work alongside our team of world-class academics and researchers, gaining practical knowledge that can be applied in a wide variety of careers. These opportunities cover a broad range of disciplines and skills in a world where there is an ever increasing demand for people in the profession.
Engineers are well paid and get interesting positions in government, private companies, industry and consulting firms. After starting in technical positions, Engineers often move into management roles within companies and organisations.
Career Opportunities with Engineering
Engineers are involved in key decisions of almost every industry, including the construction of buildings, roads and major infrastructure projects, alternative energy system development, electronics and transport, biomedical implants and much more. They adopt current thinking, science and technology to solve problems in almost every facet of our lives.
Graduates qualify for technical positions but often move into management roles within companies, organisations or consultancies across many industries. Career options in Engineering include the following jobs and industries:
- Aerospace
- Biomedical
- Building and construction
- Civil and environmental engineering
- Computer systems
- Government agencies
- Health industry
- Industrial electronics
- International development
- Manufacturing
- Mining and exploration
- Petrochemical
- Power generation and transmission
- Property development
- Robotics and automation
- Software engineering
- Telecommunications
- Transport
Course structure
Year 1
Choice of Hobart or Launceston
Engineers are required to work with many different materials in their professional lives. This unit is designed therefore to provide students with the level of knowledge required to understand the science of materials and their diverse role in engineering applications.…
Credit Points: 12.5
This unit is currently unavailable.
This unit introduces fundamental programming skills, developing students' ability to think algorithmically to solve problems and to express their ideas in well-constructed Python code. Beginning with the fundamental characteristics of computers and how they represent information, the unit develops the…
Credit Points: 12.5
Location | Study period | Attendance options | Available to | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hobart | Semester 1 | ||||
Hobart | Semester 2 | ||||
Launceston | Semester 1 | ||||
Launceston | Semester 2 | ||||
Online | Semester 1 | ||||
Online | Semester 2 | ||||
ECA Melbourne | Semester 1 | ||||
ECA Melbourne | Semester 2 |
The applicability of calculus and linear algebra is so broad that fluency in it is essential for a successful career in a variety of areas including science and engineering. This unit is devoted to the conceptual and logical development of…
Credit Points: 12.5
Location | Study period | Attendance options | Available to | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hobart | Semester 1 | ||||
Launceston | Semester 1 | ||||
Online | Semester 1 |
This unit is a continuation of KMA152, with emphasis on the application of single-variable calculus and linear algebra to problems in mathematics, the physical and biological sciences, economics, and engineering. The units KMA152 and KMA154 also provide an excellent introduction…
Credit Points: 12.5
Location | Study period | Attendance options | Available to | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hobart | Semester 2 | ||||
Launceston | Semester 2 | ||||
Online | Semester 2 |
Specialisations
Civil Engineering
Compulsory Units
Modern geospatial data collection and analysis is a critical component of civil engineering projects. Whilst much of this work is undertaken by geospatial professionals, it is important for civil engineers to understand and appraise geospatial measurements and outcomes in the…
Credit Points: 12.5
Location | Study period | Attendance options | Available to | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hobart | Semester 2 |
View all details for KGG315 Introduction to Geospatial Science
Civil and Environmental
Compulsory Units
Society needs professional environmental managers who have the knowledge and skills to effectively tackle problems of sustainable resource use, climate change and biodiversity conservation. Environmental managers also play an important role in helping communities identify and move towards sustainable and…
Credit Points: 12.5
Location | Study period | Attendance options | Available to | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hobart | Semester 2 | ||||
Online | Semester 2 |
This unit introduces legal, administrative, social and scientific aspects of environmental impact assessment using case studies. The unit emphasises the practical aspects of environmental impact assessment in Tasmanian contexts, but environmental impact assessment processes and legislation are similar in many…
Credit Points: 12.5
Location | Study period | Attendance options | Available to | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hobart | Semester 2 | ||||
Online | Semester 2 |
Modern geospatial data collection and analysis is a critical component of civil engineering projects. Whilst much of this work is undertaken by geospatial professionals, it is important for civil engineers to understand and appraise geospatial measurements and outcomes in the…
Credit Points: 12.5
Location | Study period | Attendance options | Available to | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hobart | Semester 2 |
View all details for KGG315 Introduction to Geospatial Science
This unit aims to develop your understanding of key physical and chemical properties and processes of soils and how these attributes relate to and inform land use and management. This unit will develop your ability to critically analyse soil data…
Credit Points: 12.5
Location | Study period | Attendance options | Available to | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hobart | Semester 2 |
Understanding the sources, fates and transport mechanisms of chemicals in the environment is critical to our ability to minimise or avoid anthropogenic impacts on the environment that we live and work in. Many industrial and everyday practices have had, or…
Credit Points: 12.5
Location | Study period | Attendance options | Available to | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hobart | Semester 1 |
Computer Systems Engineering
Compulsory Units
This unit extends the first year treatment in KIT107 of standard data structures and algorithms for solving computational problems. Topics include: data structures (such as balanced trees and hash tables) for collections, (binary heaps for) priority queues, sorting algorithms (e.g.…
Credit Points: 12.5
Location | Study period | Attendance options | Available to | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hobart | Semester 1 | ||||
Hobart | Semester 2 | ||||
Launceston | Semester 1 | ||||
Launceston | Semester 2 |
This unit focuses on the design, implementation and testing phases of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). The unit develops practical skills in designing, implementing and testing desktop computer programs, focusing on ones having graphical user interfaces that communicate with data…
Credit Points: 12.5
This unit is currently unavailable.
Choose from the following
This unit is concerned with the development of applications for mobile and ubiquitous computing platforms. Android, iOS, and cross-platform apps will be used as a basis for teaching programming techniques and design patterns related to the development of mobile and…
Credit Points: 12.5
Location | Study period | Attendance options | Available to | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hobart | Semester 1 | ||||
Launceston | Semester 1 |
Internet of Things (IoT) is rising set of technologies that provides access to a large quantity of data through sensors. Such devices are ubiquitous today in industrial processes, vehicles, robots, environmental monitoring, farms, hospitals, and on our personal item such…
Credit Points: 12.5
Location | Study period | Attendance options | Available to | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hobart | Semester 1 | ||||
Launceston | Semester 1 |
View all details for KIT317 Internet of Things and Distributed Artificial Intelligence
Geotechnical Engineering
Compulsory Units
Modern geospatial data collection and analysis is a critical component of civil engineering projects. Whilst much of this work is undertaken by geospatial professionals, it is important for civil engineers to understand and appraise geospatial measurements and outcomes in the…
Credit Points: 12.5
Location | Study period | Attendance options | Available to | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Hobart | Semester 2 |
View all details for KGG315 Introduction to Geospatial Science
Entry requirements
Detailed Admissions Information
Detailed admissions information and advice for all undergraduate courses, including comprehensive, course-level student profiles, is available from UTAS Admissions.
Fees & scholarships
Domestic students
This is a full-fee course, which means you’ll need to pay the full amount for your studies. Commonwealth Supported Places are not available in this course. However, there are still support options available for eligible students to help you manage the cost of studying this course.
You may be able to fund all or part of your tuition fees by accessing a FEE-HELP loan from the Australian Government. FEE-HELP is a loan scheme that assists domestic full-fee students to pay for University, which is repaid through the Australian Tax System once you earn above a repayment threshold. This means you’ll only have to start repaying the loan once you start earning above a specific amount
Our scholarships and prizes program also offers more than 400 scholarships across all areas of study. You can even apply for multiple scholarships in one easy application.
Further informationDetailed fee information for domestic students is available at Scholarships, fees and costs, including additional information in relation to the compulsory Student Services and Amenities Fee (SSAF).
Scholarships
Domestic Students
Each year, the University offers more than 900 awards to students from all walks of life, including those who have achieved high academic results; those from low socio-economic backgrounds; students with sporting ability; students undertaking overseas study; and students with a disability.
There are a number of scholarships available specifically for new Engineering students, including:
- Cement Australia West North-West Bursary
- DJ Motors Tasmania University Scholarship
- Larry Knight Memorial Scholarship
- TasPorts West North-West Bursary
- TasWater Steve Balcombe Scholarship
- Waratah Wynyard Council Bill French Memorial Bursary
As well as many for current students that you can apply for in your second, third and/or final year, including:
- Airmaster Australia Scholarship in Mechanical Engineering (second year and third year)
- City of Launceston Civil Engineering Cadetship (third year)
- Cromarty Scholarship in Engineering (third year)
- GHD Scholarship in Civil Engineering (third year)
- Hazell Bros Tasmania University Scholarship in Engineering (final year)
- pitt&sherry University of Tasmania Scholarship in Engineering (final)
For information on all scholarships available at the University of Tasmania, please visit the scholarships website.
There are two scholarship application rounds per year. Please see the Scholarships page for more information.
International students
There is a huge range of scholarships, bursaries and fee discounts available for international students studying at the University of Tasmania. For more information on these, visit the Tasmanian International Scholarships (TIS) website.
How can we help?
Do you have any questions about choosing a course or applying? Get in touch.
- Domestic
- 13 8827 (13 UTAS)
- International
- +61 3 6226 6200
- Course.Info@utas.edu.au
- Online
- Online enquiries