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MSc Ecology and Urban Engineering
| Programme Details | |
|---|---|
| Start Date | September entry |
| Awards Available | MSc |
| Duration | 1 year Full Time |
| Location | UCL East Campus |
About the course
The MSc in Ecology and Urban Engineering brings together ecological theory and practice and urban design and engineering to train a new generation of built environment professionals. This multi-disciplinary programme will cover foundational understanding of ecological theory, biodiversity monitoring and data handling, as well as climate-resilient urban design and green and blue infrastructure. Students will also work with professionals from industry, government, NGOs, and local communities to deliver real urban projects with long-term biodiversity benefits.
Designed and delivered by UCL’s award-winning ecologists in collaboration with spatial planning experts at the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, this brand-new MSc applies ecological expertise to the design of buildings and urban spaces. With this multidisciplinary master’s, you’ll learn ways to reduce the impact of human structures on natural living systems.
You’ll develop a strong foundational understanding of ecological science, along with the practical skills required to capture and analyse large datasets, using sensor technology.
You’ll practise experimental design, learning to investigate complex problems using field research techniques, and assess the impacts of building and infrastructure design and construction on natural systems.
You’ll also get to work on practical urban projects, tackling real-world challenges alongside programme partners from industry and local government agencies.
What you can look forward to
The MSc Ecology and Urban Engineering is taught in UCL’s purpose-built People and Nature Lab at the new UCL East campus in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford in East London.
- Learn from world-renowned expert academics from across UCL Life Sciences and the Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment.
- Acquire sought-after data analysis and programming skills, using widely-adopted programming languages like R and SQL.
- Enjoy practical fieldwork activities in the purpose-built People and Nature lab, located at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
- Test and assess new ecological approaches to spatial planning at the Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA).
- Design and implement your own practical research project, with guidance from expert UCL academics or industry partners.
Where the course can take you
By combining skillsets in ecological science, data science, urban design and engineering, your expertise will be in high demand across local and national government agencies, development and environmental consultancies.
The construction and civil engineering industries are striving to meet challenging new biodiversity and sustainability targets, so as a graduate of this master’s your skills and knowledge will be increasingly relevant across both the private and public sectors.
People and Nature Lab's First Project
Whilst the new UCL East campus was being built, the People and Nature Lab worked with colleagues at Intel to develop the world’s first automated smart detectors for monitoring bats through their echolocation calls. Our ‘Echo Boxes’ continuously record and identify bat calls using machine learning across the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park sending the results back in real-time to understand the health of the environment.
