Responsible Design: Engineering Engagement (HPSC0142)

This module is the second part of a three-part minor, entitled, Engineering Design for Society. This part of the minor provides students with in-depth practical design experience that straddles theory and practice to deepen students’ creative problem-solving capacities in ways that are sensitive to societal contexts and real-world complexities.


The module is structured around the early stages of the engineering design process and will explore how engineers can engage with and respond to societal concerns through a variety of iterative techniques. The learning journey in this module will move from the identification of needs, through engagement with the user community to proof of concept and future scoping.  In the process, students will deepen their understanding of responsibility, learning how to apply this knowledge to their design practices through research and creative problem solving.
 

The world of imperial Rome, which stretched from the Forth and Clyde at one extreme to the Farasan islands of the southern Red Sea at the other, is the common...

The Roman Empire from Augustus to Theodosius I (HIST0152)

The world of imperial Rome, which stretched from the Forth and Clyde at one extreme to the Farasan islands of the southern Red Sea at the other, is the common heritage not just of Christendom (Catholic and Orthodox) but also of Islam. An understanding of Roman society thus provides fundamental background to much of medieval and modern history. This survey module serves to explain the main outlines of the social, political, economic, and religious history of the Roman world under the rule of the emperors from the creation of the new régime by Augustus (c. 31 BC) to the establishment of Christianity and the separation of the eastern and western empires at the death of Theodosius (AD 395).

The module examines the nature and limitations of the historical tradition and looks beyond it to the other sources of information for Roman life in this period to explore topics including: the system of imperial administration; the development of an imperial economy and the reasons for its failure to develop further; the nature of town-life, the question of ‘Romanization’, and the extension of citizen rights; social and religious change, before and after the troubles of the mid-third century AD; the causes and extent of the transformation of the empire in the fourth century, as marked by Christianization, the marginalisation of paganism, and the introduction of settlers and mercenaries from outside the empire’s boundaries. In doing so this module also ventures beyond the classroom to exploit the holdings of the British Museum as illustration of the plentiful but scattered evidence about everyday life beyond Rome and below the level of the ruling élite. As an epilogue the reasons for the collapse of the western and the survival of the eastern imperial systems are considered.