MSc Internet of Things

• Mobile & Wireless Networks: Mobile and wireless networking technologies are ubiquitous nowadays. A key issue facing enterprises today is how to harness the potential of mobile and wireless technologies to enhance the operational effectiveness of the business and illuminate potential opportunities. This unit reviews the broad spectrum of relevant technologies (e.g., WiFi, ad hoc networks, cellular networks, etc.), examines their operating principles/protocols and relevant standards as well as the use of these networks in different context and scenarios. The unit also explores the main challenges faced in these networks as well as how they fit into the latest networking paradigms.

• Wireless, Sensor and Actuator Networks: You will explore the operating principles, standards, design and configuration of WSANs. Future and emerging paradigms – such as Mobile Crowdsensing Systems, and technologies such as Wireless Power Transfer in ad-hoc networks will also be addressed.
• Security and Privacy in IoT: Smart objects, IoT applications, and their enabling platforms are often vulnerable to security attacks and changing operating and context conditions that can compromise the security of some of their components (e.g., local sensors, network components, application-level components). They also generate, make use of and inter-relate massive personal data in ways that can potentially breach legal and privacy requirements. This unit will develop your capability to understand and produce security architectures of IoT-related networks and systems.
• Research Methods & Professional Issues: Research requires a structured and disciplined approach at all stages. We will help you to develop key research skills in many areas from project proposals and planning to critical analysis of research findings, academic writing, and dissemination. Ensuring you give due consideration to professional standards and ethical issues in research.
• Individual Masters Project: You will develop an understanding of the characteristics and implications inherent in the solution of a complex, real-world problem within the context of a substantial, independently-conducted piece of work.

Option units (choose one semester 1)

• Cloud Computing: Cloud computing provides a secure infrastructure for systems integration, data processing and manipulation as well as storage. The concept of virtualisation including servers, storage and networks, as well as the cloud structure, services and deployment models will be discussed. Locally-based networks, IT resources/services and their migration to the cloud are elaborated and strategies for migration to the cloud will be explored.
• Blockchain & Digital Futures: The objective of this unit is to develop your skills and knowledge about the Blockchain technology and its usage. The material, lectures and seminars includes defining the Blockchain technology, its business aspect, issues, objectives, and challenges, covering Blockchain horizontal and vertical scaling, key basics of cryptography required for understanding the Blockchain technology concepts, different cryptocurrencies, and their issues, challenges, and networks. The unit also covers a few data analysis-based Blockchain technology scenarios and case studies. The aim is to develop related skills and an understanding of critically evaluating the key issues, challenges, and existing solutions.

Option units (choose one semester 2)

• Human Centred Design: Computer-based interactive systems refers to as a spectrum of digital products, services and solutions interact with human users in business, social and global contexts. The primary success factor in implementing such systems is to involve the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process. You will learn how to design and develop such systems by applying human centred design principles and techniques and carrying out relevant activities in the planning and management to satisfy both business needs and its user requirements. It will also help you develop an understanding of interaction design process and best practices through the exposure to usability, user experience and other related fields.
• Smart Systems: Artificial Intelligence is being embedded in various systems and tools to achieve better decision making and more autonomy.   The unit draws on a large spectrum of smart systems technologies. It covers basic as well as advanced topics with the goal of providing an overall introduction into these technologies. Positioned at the cross of many disciplines, this unit introduces various facets of smart systems technology and illustrates how they apply to different environments. A selected set of innovative applications will be discussed to provide a practical insight into such technology covering in particular the underlying modelling, perception, reasoning and learning techniques.

You have the option to undertake a 30-week placement at the end of the course, providing an opportunity to apply your acquired knowledge and skills in the workplace. You are required to find your own placement; however, our Careers & Employability Service and your faculty placements office are on hand to support you.

Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry.

If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. Alternatively please contact us for assistance.

The normal requirements for embarking upon a postgraduate taught degree are:

• A Bachelors Honours degree with 2:2 or equivalent in any subject.

If you are in doubt if you lack the formal academic qualifications needed to enter a postgraduate or post-experience degree, please get in touch with the Future Students Enquiry Team.

You can find details of the international qualifications we accept, and what level of study they apply to, on our entry requirements for non-UK students' page.

Please see below some examples of the qualifications for entry:

• India: Bachelor’s degree (4 years) from a recognised HE institution with a minimum overall result of 55%
• Nigeria:  Bachelor's degree from a recognised institution with a minimum classification of 2:2
• Thailand:  Thai Bachelor's (Honours) degree from a recognised higher education institution with a minimum GPA of 2.5/4.0
• Turkey: Bachelor’s degree (Lisans Diplomasi - four years) with a minimum overall GPA of 2.3/4.0
• Vietnam:  Bachelor's degree/Bang tot nghiep dai hoc with an average score of 6.5/10, or a Master’s degree/Thac si.

All applications will be subject to a minimum grade and your degree may need to be in a relevant subject area.

English language requirements

If English is not your first language, you will need to provide evidence that you understand English to a satisfactory level. English language requirements for this course are normally:

IELTS (Academic) 6.0 with minimum 5.5 in each component, or equivalent.

View further information about our English language requirements.

Bournemouth University International College offers a number of pre-sessional English and preparatory programmes to prepare international students for postgraduate study at BU. Admission to the degree is guaranteed on successful completion of your course to the required level. 

There is no application deadline for this course. However, if you will need a visa to come to the UK to study, think carefully about the length of time it will take for your visa application to be processed and make sure your visa will be ready in time for the beginning of your course. 

December and January is one of our busiest application periods and therefore it may take us a little longer to process incoming applications. For courses with a January start date, we recommend submitting your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Click the green ‘Apply now’ button to submit your application free of charge online through myHub, our application portal. You will create your own myHub account so that you can track the progress of your application. Don’t forget to save your application as you go; you can return to it at as many times as you want before you submit it. For more information visit our How to apply section.

Employment prospects are now truly international and BU encourages students to consider an international work placement or volunteering experience during their degree. One way could be through the EU funded Erasmus mobility programme which supports placements or study exchanges in Europe.

Students can also participate in international placements outside of Europe. There are opportunities to engage with summer schools and volunteering projects. These experiences help students to enhance their global employability skills.

Our Careers & Employability Service and your faculty placements office will support you in finding an appropriate role and help you with your application, and we’ll support you throughout your time working in industry. 

There is an increasing wide range of opportunities within the fast-growing Internet of Things (IoT) line of business which are dynamically evolving and have recently included:

• Product Manager, Consumer IoT
• IoT Global Partner Manager
• Computer Vision Developer/Programmer
• Test Engineer - Manual, Embedded Systems
• New Technologies & Innovation Manager
• Business Transformation Manager
• Head of Connected Cities
• IoT Proposition Manager

Further study

If you want to continue your studies after achieving your Master’s, you can look into our range of doctoral programmes.

What's included in your tuition fee?

Your tuition fee covers expenses associated with your course including tuition materials, access to facilities, mandatory field trips and the following:

• Support for finding placements (UK or abroad) and fieldwork, and non-financial support whilst on placement.
• A range of student services – advisors, help desks, counsellors, placement support and careers service.
• Access to Brightspace, our virtual learning environment, which offers a responsive and personalised learning experience with powerful learning analytics capabilities, integrated social media and advanced video features.
• The Library – access to a wide range of electronic resources (databases, e-journals and e-books), print and multimedia collections, subject librarians and study spaces.
• IT labs (some open 24/7), wireless network, AV equipment to borrow.
• Disability and additional learning support.
• The BU Language Centre to help you develop/improve foreign or English language skills.
• 24 hours a day, 365 days a year security team.

Additional costs

We are committed to offering you value for money and ensuring there are no hidden costs while you are studying with us, therefore we have listed below any additional costs you may incur that are not covered by your tuition fee:

• Laptops, Tablets and mobile devices and any software used on personal devices. Access to a personal computer is strongly recommended for your study. If you are experiencing financial difficulty, visit our website for information regarding hardship funds.
• Text books, general stationery and other supplies. Our award-winning library is stocked with a large range of text books and online resources, free of charge. The Students’ Union shops stock a wide range of stationery supplies on both campuses.
• Accommodation and living costs. Please visit our website for more information.
• Travel costs for optional field trips, outdoor wear and footwear for mandatory and optional field trips (if applicable).
• Travel costs to and from the University campus. An annual bus pass can be purchased alongside your rent if you are living in halls of residence/Unilet accommodation or may be purchased separately.
• Travel costs to and from your placement (both in the UK and overseas). Information about funding your placement year can be found on our website.
• Clothing or equipment costs required for your placement if this is part of your course of study.
• SportBU membership.

While all aspects of the programme, including required field trips, are included in the fee, additional, optional or extra curricula activities may be available for which a student contribution is required.

If you need to repeat one or more units during the course of your studies (with or without attendance) the pricing will be pro-rata of the full time fee.

We offer a range of scholarships and bursaries to eligible students who are beginning their studies at BU. Please visit www.bournemouth.ac.uk/funding for details on living costs, budgeting and paying your tuition fees.

International (not Rep. of Ireland) students need to pay a non-refundable £3,000 deposit to secure their place on a postgraduate course. You will need to pay your deposit by the date stated in your offer letter. The remainder of your fee will be payable on registration/enrolment. There are two exceptions to the non-refundable rule on the deposit:

• You fail to meet the academic or English requirements of your offer
• You are refused a visa to enter the UK, provided the reason for the refusal is not a fraudulent application.

Benjamin’s research focus is within Human Computer Interaction, specifically Accessibility where he focuses on developing technology to help people with hearing loss. His doctoral research focused on solutions to enhance the acquisition of speechreading (commonly called lipreading).

Dr Wei Koong Chai is a senior lecturer at Bournemouth University. He heads the Future and Complex Networks Research Group (FlexNet) in the Department of Computing and Informatics at BU. He is also currently a visiting academic in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University College London (UCL), UK.

Dr Sofia Meacham received her Diploma in Computer and Informatics Engineering, in 1994, and her PhD degree, in 2000, from University of Patras, Greece. Her research interests fall in the area of system-level design for embedded systems, and include specification techniques for complex embedded telecommunication systems, hardware-software co-design, formal refinement techniques, and reuse practices.

Dehao Wu is a senior lecturer in Bournemouth University (BU), UK. Before joining BU, he holds the role of Sussex research fellowship and was a senior research fellow in the department of engineering and design at University of Sussex since April 2018. Before joining Sussex, he was a postdoc research fellow at Nanyang Technological University of Singapore and University of Manchester, respectively. 

His current research work focuses on machine-learning algorithms and intelligent management of 5G and beyond-5G systems, artificial intelligence for 5G verticals and IoT. His other research interests include the area of optical wireless communications, free space optics, visible light communications, RF communications, indoor high-accuracy positioning, optical sensing and detecting, underwater RF and acoustic communications, information-centric networking, and information resilience. 

He has published more than 45 peer-reviewed papers in international conferences and journals, two book chapters and two patents in indoor high-accuracy positioning technology. He is an Executive Committee member of IET RF and Microwave Technical and Professional Networks (TPN), and service as the technical committee member for several IEEE conferences. He received a bachelor's degree in optical and information engineering in 2007, an MSc degree in microelectronics and telecommunication engineering in 2009 and a PhD in optical wireless communications from Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK, in 2013. 

Jiankang Zhang is a senior lecturer in Computer Science at Bournemouth University. Prior to joining in Bournemouth University, he was a senior research fellow at University of Southampton, UK. He was a lecturer and then an associate professor at Zhengzhou University from 2012 to 2014. 

Jiankang Zhang was a named researcher of HARNet project funded by Innovate UK, the project of "Next Generation Digital Subscriber Loops" funded by EPSRC and Savana project funded by Thales. His research interests are in the areas of artificial intelligence algorithms, ad-hoc networks, aeronautical communications and networks, wireless communications and networks.