This transfer minor is designed for all students who would like to deepen their knowledge within the field of mechanical engineering and are interested in a scientific approach.

This minor’s goal is to prepare you for the Master programme. This means you will be taught various scientific skills and your skills in mathematics will be improved. You will also attend several courses related to mechanical engineering. With this transfer minor you will be able to start immediately with the Master programme after having obtained your degree from a Higher Professional Education institute (HBO).

Topics which will be treated in this minor:

• Academic and research skills with a focus on writing a research proposal, conducting research and using it to write a scientific article;
• In-depth courses related to mechanical engineering, such as system analysis, engineering thermodynamics and elasticity theory;
• Mathematics: calculus and linear algebra;
• MatLAB

After successfully completing this transfer minor, the student is able to:

• With respect to System Analysis:
  • Analyse the dynamic behaviour and a mechanical system, both in the time domain and the frequency domain (step- and impulse response, Bode plot);
  • Compose dynamical models in various forms (differential equations, equations of state, transfer functions and block diagrams);
  • Conduct a dynamic analysis of a mechanical system (kinematics, free body diagrams, equations of motion, work and energy, impulse and impulse moments and rotations);
  • Conduct an analysis of an electrical and electro-mechanical system (constituent equations, Kirchhoff’s circuit laws);
  • Apply the basic principles of precision mechanisms during the design of a new mechanism).
• With respect to Elasticity Theory:
  • Calculate stresses (force equilibrium, etc.) and use tensors;
  • Explain deformations that occur using material theory;
  • Apply 3D elasticity theory to constructive parts;
  • Evaluate and understand the result of a calculation;
  • Recognise problems and simply them through interpretation of theory.
• With respect to Engineering Thermodynamics:
  • Understand thermodynamic concepts, processes and definitions;
  • Distinguish various simple forms of thermodynamic energies and explain how these are transformed;
  • Understand the behaviour of gasses and fluids at different temperature regimes and make phase diagrams;
  • Apply the concept of entropy in the analysis of a thermodynamic system;
  • Reproduce the laws of thermodynamics and apply these to thermodynamic systems;
  • Describe a thermodynamic cycle or system used to produce work, cold or heat.
  • Conduct an analysis of the energy-technical aspects of a thermodynamic system using the first law of thermodynamics;
  • Interpret and evaluate the results of an analysis of an thermodynamic system.
• With respect to Academic Research Skills:
  • Explain what (academic) research is, which kinds of research and which phases can be distinguished and how quality of the research can be guaranteed.
  • To formulate research questions and objectives, based on an existing problem.
  • To carry out a thorough literature study and specify research questions/objectives, based on this.
  • To produce a plan for technological research, based on the formulated questions and/or objectives.
  • To systematically process the results of scientific research:
  • Interpretation of the results
  • Clear and sound conclusions
  • To answer the research question, including a reflection on the original objective.
  • To write a scientific paper on the research results (in English).
  • To orally present the results (in English) to an audience of supervisors and peers.
  • To critically reflect on the results of their own research and that of fellow students (peer review).
• With respect to Calculus:
  • Formulate definitions and properties of functions of one variable;
  • Calculate limits, for instance to demonstrate continuity or to calculate the derivative with the definition;
  • Calculate the derivative of a function, and also to calculate extreme values and inflection points;
  • Reproduce the definition of continuity, differentiability and integrability of functions of two variables;
  • Reproduce the definition of the partial derivative of a function of two or more variables;
  • Apply the chain rule for functions of more than one variable;
  • Calculate the directional derivative and the gradient vector, and to apply the rules for the gradient;
  • Find the extreme values of functions of more than one variable;
  • Solve first and second order (linear) differential equations.
  • calculate double and triple integrals over a general defined region;
  • Apply standard coordinate transformations (polar, cylindrical and spherical) to multiple integrals;
  • Work with divergence and curl of a vector field;
  • Calculate line and surface integrals of functions and vector fields over general regions;
  • Apply the theorems of Green, Stokes and Gauss;
  • Formulate the notions of series, sequences and absolute and relative convergence;
  • Determine the convergence of series and sequences.
• With respect to Linear Algebra:
  • Work with systems of linear equations, vectors, matrices, subspaces of the n-dimensional real space, and explain the connections between these concepts;
  • Work with determinants, eigenvalues, eigenvectors, linear transformations and connect these to the previous concepts.
• With respect to MatLAB:
  • Program in MatLAB.

This transfer minor prepares you for the Master programme Mechanical Engineering. If you manage to successfully complete the transfer minor within one year, you will be able to enrol this Master programme after obtaining your degree from a Higher Professional Education institute (HBO).

After obtaining your Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, you will be a mechanical engineer capable of proposing and designing high-tech solutions in a societal context. Depending on your specialisation, you can find jobs in a great variety of businesses and institutions, from large-scale installations to cutting-edge medical instruments.

This transfer minor is recommended only to those students of Higher Professional Education (HBO) who have obtained relatively good grades (average 7-7.5) throughout their educational programme. We expect you to evaluate yourself on this. The transfer minor is designed for students who have the motivation and capacities to obtain an academic degree from an English-taught Master’s programme.

Only students enrolled in a related educational programme, such as Mechanical Engineering, Applied Physics and Engineering, Design and Innovation are admitted to this transfer minor, see also www.doorstroommatrix.nl. In some cases where the student’s prior education is not related to the Master’s programme ME, the examination board can make exceptions. An individual request for this must be submitted to the contact person below.

The University of Twente assumes that all students who sign up for a transfer minor have a minimum level of English and Mathematics (VWO-level English and Mathematics B). This is the student’s own responsibility. Previous experiences have shown that hardly any students manage to successfully complete the transfer minor is they do not comply with these requirements. If necessary, additional courses are available at Boswell-Bèta or the Open University.

Moreover, students must have obtained at least 120 ECTS at their Higher Professional Education institution to be admitted to the transfer minor in September.

The books used for each course can be found in the course descriptions of the individual courses in the course catalogue.

The transfer minor entails a full time programme of 30 ECTS and there is only one term of enrolment in September.

An introduction period for prospective students takes place in the week before the programme starts: in August.

Quartile 1

Calculus A (5 ECTS)                              Written exam

Linear Algebra (3 ECTS)                        Written exam

System Analysis (4 ECTS)                      Written exam

 

Quartile 2

Calculus B (3 ECTS)                               Written exam

Matlab (2,5 ECTS)                                  Computer exam

Engineering Thermodynamics (3 ECTS) Written exam

Elasticity Theory (2 ECTS)                       Written exam

 

Quartile 1 and 2

Academic Research Skills (7,5 ECTS)

Research proposal, scientific article and oral presentation.

The programme is entirely in English, as is the required literature.

For more information, please contact E.C.M. Luijkx: premastercoordinator-et@utwente.nl

The learning agreement, signed by the student and his Examination Board must have reached the UT-contactperson before the enrolment ends.