Curious about studying Neural Engineering with Psychology - BEng (Hons)at University of Essex? We've gathered all the key details—entry requirements, modules, fees, and more. Hear from real students by checking out reviews, or take the next step by booking an open day to explore it for yourself.
Bachelor of Engineering (with Honours) - BEng (Hon)
Colchester Campus
Full Time
Oct 2026
3 Year
You’ll build a strong foundation in core engineering and computer science theory, as well as the skills and tools to resolve existing problems and create new neural technologies.
WHY THIS COURSEThe BEng (Hons) Neural Engineering with Psychology gives you the theory and practical knowledge to understand – and create – neural technology that make a real impact on people's lives, such as those with chronic conditions and neurological disorders. You’ll learn about brain-computer and neural interfaces, brain-activity recording and simulation, AI and machine learning. You’ll learn from active computer scientists and engineers whose work and teaching are driven by creativity and imagination as well as technical excellence. You’ll also be taught in collaboration with the Department of Psychology, which will give you a foundation in the cognitive processes within the human brain. You’ll also be able to undertake a project or product development specified by a member of academic staff or a partner company. Add a placement year or study abroad to put your learning into practice, expand your perspective and build confidence in professional or international settings. You’ll graduate as a creative, experimental and focused engineer, in high demand from the IT and engineering sectors, ready to explore further how electronics can impact the world around you.
Discover how the discipline of psychology informs and shapes five psychological professions: clinical psychology; educational psychology; forensic psychology; occupational psychology; and sports and exercise psychology. In a mixture of lectures and classes, you will evaluate how psychological theories and knowledge gained from research are used in each of these aspects of human behaviour, and how they can be used to solve some of the problems encountered in different areas of life.
Our Team Project Challenge gives you the opportunity to develop a range of professional skills by working as part of a small student team on a specific project. The projects are research-based and incorporate the concepts of specifications, design, and implementation. You’ll learn about sustainability, project and time management, design, legal issues, health and safety, data analysis and presentation, team reporting, and self-evaluation. You’ll also develop skills such as critical thinking and problem solving, agility, leadership, collaboration across networks, and effective oral and written communication, as well as curiosity and imagination, all of which will enhance your knowledge, confidence and social skills necessary to innovate and succeed in a competitive global environment.
The aim of this module is to provide an introduction to the fundamental concepts of computer programming. After completing this module, students will be expected to be able to demonstrate an understanding of the basic principles and concepts that underlie the procedural programming model, explain and make use of high-level programming language features that support control, data and procedural abstraction. Also, they will be able to analyse and explain the behaviour of simple programs that incorporate standard control structures, parameterised functions, arrays, structures and I/O.
This module develops the fundamental concepts introduced in the Digital Systems Architecture. We examine how data are represented within digital systems, including floating point, 'text' and 'data' files, and how the conversions between internal and human-readable forms are performed. The design and applications of higher-level logic elements such as counters, registers and multiplexers are discussed, as well as the more general concept of the finite state machine and its design. Transmission of digital data between systems is introduced by examination of the RS232 protocol. Further, fundamental decisions on how such sources should be represented in digital format include sample rates and quantization accuracy are discussed. In the case of audio and video especially, the possibilities for signal processing and data compression are investigated
This module is one of two concerned with scientific and engineering foundations on which electronics is based. All electronics components are based on physical principles that relate voltage, current flow and the storage or loss of energy. All the theory we need to learn about how circuits behave is based on the fact that electric charge cannot be created or destroyed, and that the energy of each electron just depends on where it is, and how fast it is moving. How charges move in materials depends on their crystal structures. From basic ideas, the main principles of electronics are built up so that they can be used in the wider study of electronics to solve problems.
This module provides an introduction to neural-engineering research, design and methodology, including ethical aspects, and a step-by-step introduction to essential statistical research techniques. You will be introduced to the basic principles of research design, and to a variety of experimental and correlational techniques for studying neural and physiological measurements of human mental activities and behaviours.
Artificial intelligence will be a great driver of change in the coming decades. This module provides an introduction to three fundamental areas of artificial intelligence: search, knowledge representation, and machine learning. These underpin all more advanced areas of artificial intelligence and are of central importance to related fields such as computer games and robotics. Within each area, a range of methodologies and techniques are presented, with emphasis being placed on understanding their strengths and weaknesses and hence on assessing which is most suited to a particular task.
You will become familiar with most of the present-day neuroimaging and neuro-stimulation methods used in neuroscience and neural engineering and gain practical experience in applying some of these methodologies, including interpreting neuroimaging data.
This module provides an introduction to interfaces between the nervous system and computers as well as some of their applications. Neural interfaces take two forms: 1. brain computer interfaces (BCIs), which allow direct communication between the brain and a computer and other devices, 2. peripheral neural interfaces (PNIs), which provide a direct communication channel between the nerves that control muscles or that are responsible for sensing (e.g., touch) and other systems. The types of interfaces covered are non-invasive (they do not require the introduction of any external probes inside the body) and include: 1. BCIs based on electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, in particular relying on rhythmic brain activity and evoked activity, 2. BCIs based on near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS), 3. PNIs based on electromyography (EMG, neural signals from the brain to the muscles recorded from muscles). The types of applications introduced will include, for example, spellers, pointer control, games, VR, prosthetic control, robotic control. You will be exposed to the basic analysis and classification of neural data required to operate BCIs/PNIs and will gain hands-on experience with building a basic BCI.
This course covers the principles of project management, team working, communication, legal issues, finance, and company organisation. Working in small teams, students will go through the full project life-cycle of design, development and implementation, for a bespoke software requirement. In this course, students gain vital experience to enable them to enter the computer science/Electrical engineering workforce, with a degree backed by the British Computer Society, and by the Institute of Engineering and Technology.
The brain is an extremely complex organ, and there is much that we still have to learn about its processes and functions. This module will detail the psychological mechanisms that underlie human behaviour and highlight the possibility that even our deepest thoughts and feelings arise from electrical and chemical activity in our brains.
The highlight of our undergraduate degree courses is the individual capstone project. This project module provides students with the opportunity to bring together all the skills they have gained during their degree and demonstrate that they can develop a product from the starting point of a single 1/2 page description, provided either by an academic member of staff or an external company. In all the student spends 450 hours throughout the academic year, reporting to their academic tutor, and in the case of company projects, to a company mentor. All projects are demonstrated to external companies on our Project Open Day.
This module builds gives you an in-depth introduction to a wide range of analysis and classification methods required by modern Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) and Peripheral Neural Interfaces (PNIs).
Discover the neuroscience behind key elements of human nature. These include, understanding the faces and bodies of others, how we copy body language to show empathy and the processes that drive motivation and emotion. You will also investigate autism and schizophrenia which occur when these processes aren’t working effectively.
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