StudyQA — Master: Cloud Computing

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Description Contents Requirements

Our MSc Cloud Computing course targets a known need in industry, providing an opportunity for you to study this exciting underlying technology. Our course is supported by the strong research interest and expertise in cloud and related technologies within our School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, ensuring you will learn the most up-to-date information in an engaging manner. We equip you with the knowledge and understanding to contribute fully to this quickly changing and developing area.

You gain hands on experience with various types of cloud models and explore areas such as application development for cloud systems, cloud management technologies and the underlying system architectures. Additional modules in topics such as security, high-performance computing, and social networking application development, provide a wider view of modern computing systems that use or support cloud computing. We prepare our graduates to enter a range of employment roles related to cloud systems, including developing cloud based applications, managing cloud systems and designing cloud infrastructures.

Why study MSc Cloud Computing at Essex?
Our School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering has an international reputation for outstanding teaching and research, in the most recent Research Assessment Exercise (RAE, December 2008) 95 per cent of our computer science research was rated of internationally recognised quality, with 15 per cent rated as world-leading.
We are one of the largest and best resourced schools in the UK. Our work is supported by extensive networked computer facilities and software aids, together with a wide range of test and instrumentation equipment. Our research covers a range of topics, from materials science and semiconductor device physics, to the theory of computation and the philosophy of computer science, with most of our research groups based around laboratories offering world-class facilities. Our impressive external research funding stands at over £4 million and we participate in a number of EU initiatives and undertake projects under contract to many outside bodies, including government and industrial organisations.

Our facilities
Within our School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, we provide six laboratories of typically 25 or more machines, which are designed to allow one-to-one interaction between our staff and students during scheduled class times. Our University is served by a Gigabit Ethernet LAN, and our students have free access to the internet, web and world-wide e-mail from all workstations. We have our own Gigabit backbone and standard network connectivity is 100Mbit/second. The specifications are kept up-to-date by renewing the machines on a rolling basis, and new systems are close to the highest specification possible at the time of purchase to cope with the computational demands of the latest application development environments.
Two of our labs are open for 24 hours a day, including weekends, and you have free access to the labs except when there is a scheduled practical class in progress. Our labs are managed by an experienced and dedicated team of technical support staff who can assist you with most practical aspects of the curriculum - for example, advising on how to overcome programming problems. In addition to our labs, our students are entitled to use all of the Computing Service's general access labs although our research students are provided with office space and dedicated equipment so do not need to use the labs.
Our six general computing laboratories run either Windows 7 or are dual boot with Linux. Much software is common to both systems (eg Java, Prolog, C++, Perl, Mysql, Vxworks, Matlab, DB2), but there is also platform-specific software such as Microsoft Office, Visual Studio dot NET and Project. These machines are all fitted with CD writers, and many have DVD writers. We also provide Linux systems for remote connection through either a secure shell (SSH) connection, or via a remote Xsession (a Windows-like graphical Interface). There is specialised software installed such as computer-aided design tools and simulators for chip design (Xilinx) and computer networks (Opnet). MSDNAA, a CES software service, allowing a considerable number of Microsoft packages to be freely available to our students, and staff.
Other facilities include our Brain-Computer Interfaces Lab (this is one of the best equipped facilities for non-invasive BCI research in Europe); our Brooker Robotics Lab (a PC environment with 30 dual boot PCs); our Robot Arena (a 100m² laboratory with a six metre ceiling height for flying robots, which has one of the worlds largest powered lab floors for long duration experiments of mobile robots); our video studio (with facilities for both live television production and video recording); our Embedded Systems Laboratory (this provides software and hardware facilities for the design, construction and prototyping of a variety of embedded system solutions); our electronics laboratory (equipped with state-of-the-art modern bench test equipment and home to our Amateur Radio Society); our MSc communications laboratory (this provides hands on experience in topics associated with modern telecommunications techniques); our computer controlled milling machine (this creates isolation channels around tracks and devices); a clean room (this contains the essential equipment needed to create semiconductor devices like light emitters and receivers from novel wafer structures); our optoelectronic materials and devices laboratory ( where experimental facilities exists to investigate electrical, optical and magnetic properties of semiconductors between 1.3K and 300K); our Audio Research Laboratory (which provides a bespoke facility for conducting research into multi-channel audio, audio coding, loudspeaker systems and system measurement); our RF and microwave research laboratory (equipped with a wide range of specialised equipment for radio-frequency measurement and testing); and our terahertz laboratory (this is concerned with the design, simulation and testing of high speed semiconductor lasers and with many aspects of THz technology).
Our teaching and research in networking requires you to configure and experiment with networks, which is, of course, not allowed in normal teaching laboratories. We therefore have a specialised computer and network laboratory designed so that you can reconfigure the networking. This lab has 45 workstations, which are PCs connected to Cisco Network Pods. The physical configuration of the network in the lab can be modified by you.

A Masters course is an academically rigorous programme during which you explore your subject in depth, reaching a high level of specialist knowledge. You draw on knowledge and skills from your undergraduate study or your professional life to produce work of a high academic standard, informed by current thinking and debate.
A Masters course lasts for twelve months (full-time), starting in October, and consists of taught modules during your autumn and spring terms, and normally a research-based dissertation or other project-based work submitted in September. Your balance of modules and research varies according to the subject but, typically, your research counts for 60 credits and there are 120 credits of modules, varying from 10 to 40 credits each. (If you are from the EU, then our Masters courses are regarded as second-cycle qualifications under the Bologna Declaration and consist of 90 ECTS credits).
Please note that module information on our course finder provides a guide to course content and may be subject to review on an annual basis.

Modules
Core modules
Msc Project And Dissertation

Compulsory modules
Cloud Technologies And Systems
Computer Security
Converged Networks And Services
Group Project
High Performance Computing
Professional Practice And Research Methodology

Optional modules
Advanced Web Technologies
Cloud Technologies And Systems
Creating And Growing A New Business Venture
E-Commerce Programming
Ip Networking And Applications
Management And Delivery Of Multimedia
Mobile & Social Application Programming
Network Security

Core modules must be taken and passed.
Core with options modules selected from limited lists must be taken and passed.
Compulsory modules must be taken.
Compulsory with options modules selected from limited lists must be taken.
Optional modules are selected from course specific lists.

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Our applicants should have a 1st, 2:1 or high 2:2 degree, or equivalent, in computer science, electronic engineering or a related discipline. If English is not your first language, then we require IELTS 6.0, or equivalent.