Outline of all Modules

Environmental Management [WW1101A]

• Environmental management systems – the options e.g. ISO14001, EMAS, BS8555.
• Applying elements of ISO14001 to a virtual industrial plant.
• Environmental Impact Assessment – an overview
• Life Cycle Analysis – an overview
• Economic foundation of environmental policy
• Risk+ assessment as decision making tools
• Economic regulation of UK water industry
• Statistical approach to pollution modelling

Project Management and Health & Safety [WW1102A]

• Project context, project processes and participants
• Organisational management, organisational forms and human resources
• Project development, design management, procurement, project execution
• Asset management principles
• Management techniques, operational research and planning tools.
• Health & Safety issues related to environmental management

Environmental Systems & Sustainability [WW1103A]

• Natural systems and disruptive mechanisms
• Ecological systems, Biodiversity
• Environmental impact of human activities
• Ecology of population and organisational growth
• Resource generation/utilisation/conservation/recycling
• Life Cycle Assessment as an environmental management tool

Case Study - Industrial Location [WW1104A]

• A concentrated period of problem-solving based work
• Allows students to integrate their knowledge in the context of a real problem
• To present and defend an environmental issue in the context of a debate

Advanced Catchment Planning [WW1105A]

• Urban and rural catchments - the issues
• Assessment, impact and control of discharges
• Hydraulic and quality modelling of discharges
• Pollution management on catchments, BPEOs, BMPs/SUDS
• Combined sewer overflows and ancillaries
• Biochemical processes in drainage systems
• Transport and deposition of solids in drainage systems
• Design of drainage systems to minimise effects of pollutants

Wastewater Management & Treatment [WW1106A]

• Water quality management and standards – UK, EU, WHO standards
• Legal and institutional arrangement for wastewaters
• Regulatory organisations and their roles, setting effluent discharge standards
• Physical, chemical and biological wastewater treatment processes and systems
• Design and operation of small and large sewage treatment plants
• Application, design and operation of wetland systems
• Advanced (or tertiary) wastewater treatment processes
• Industrial wastewater management and treatment
• Introduction to sludge management systems

Water Quality & Pollution Control [WW1108A]

• Water quality and (land) use
• Pollution sources, impacts and control
• Pollution control regulations and policies – UK, EU and International Agreements
• Discharge consents – application procedures, processes and grants
• Methods for determination of discharge consents – empirical, stochastic and mathematical modelling, Streeter Phelps equations
• Quality monitoring and enforcement methods
• Quality reporting- statutory, voluntary, EU and International requirements

Waste & Contaminated Land Management [WW1109A]

• Land and waste regulation and planning, sustainable development
• Management approaches: UK/EU waste management hierarchy, policies
• Economic and statutory impacts of waste production and management
• Waste production, collection and transport
• Waste minimisation and recycling
• Treatment and recovery: Landfill technology, Anaerobic digestion, Composting & Thermal reduction technologies
• Contaminated land and remediation techniques
• Risk assessment of contaminated land

Water Resources [WW1110A]

• Water policy and regulations
• The EU Water Framework Directive, responsible organisations
• Water resources planning at local, regional and national levels
• Water demand forecasting and yield estimation techniques
• Environmental aspects of water resources management
• Catchment management
• Structures for water conservation, storage and transport
• Water use, conservation and re-use options

Environmental Systems Modelling  [WW1111A]

• Modelling concepts and types of models. Simulation techniques and limitations. 
• Data management - Collecting and interpreting data. Characteristics and analysis of time series. Time series models. Estimating confidence and uncertainty in model data.
•  Models of Ambient Air Quality - Atmospheric dispersion. Modelling of releases.
• Models of River / Urban Drainage Systems - Advection-diffusion equation; analytical and numerical solutions, application of finite-difference models. Types of models and their applications in environmental management.
• Models for Predicting Groundwater Contamination - Mass transport of solutes. Diffusion, advection, mechanical dispersion, hydrodynamic dispersion, retardation, degradation of organic compounds.
• Environmental GIS Modelling – Mapping and application to environmental problems.

Water & Sanitation in Developing Countries [WW1112A]

• Socio-economic considerations
• Health-related sanitation problems
• Provision of safe water supplies, WHO Guidelines
• Seweral and non-seweral waste disposal
• Appropriate water supply and waste management systems
• Re-use of wastewater and organic wastes
• Sanitation problems in the transition countries

Environmental Regulation & Business Strategy [WW1114A]

• Environmental Law, Liability & Regulation -National and international laws and treaties; Liability and remedies for environmental harm; Environmental policy principles; Regulators and the ethos of enforcement: licensing and prohibition; Use of environmental standards; Environmental justice and access to information
• Substantive Law - Climate change, air pollution and air quality, IPPC; Water resource management, water pollution; Models for water services; Waste management licensing.
• Environmental Business & Strategy- Business strategies and marketing concepts; Operation management and product/services development; Environmental issues such as Health and Safety, intellectual property rights, patenting, carbon footprinting, etc; Management tools.
• Environmental Communication - Regulatory reporting requirements; Communicating environmental performance to internal and external stakeholders; Stakeholder perception and evaluation of environmental risk.

Accounting and Finance [AC1101A]

• Management and financial accounting
• Financial Statements, framework of financial accounting, accounting principles, concepts and creativity, interpretation of financial statements
• Working capital and its management
• Short-term and long-term decision making - Cost Volume Profit Analysis. Traditional and discounting methods of capital investment appraisal
• Sources of Finance - Equity and debt as sources of long term finance; evaluation of the cost of capital and associated risks
• Budgeting - Principles of effective budgeting and budgetary control

Social and Environmental Accounting [AC1006A]

• Intellectual and ethical foundations and critique of conventional accounting
• Social and Environmental Accounting – theories, and developments.
• Social and Environmental Accounting and Auditing Practice – Impact of social, ethical and green investment movement. Reporting and environmental interactions, Social bookkeeping and social/environmental audit.
• Management Accounting – Environmental management,, policy and audit. Accounting and control of energy and waste costs. Incororating environmental factors factors into capital investment appraisal. Life Cycle Analysis.
• Accounting for Sustainability - The triple bottom line approach: inventory, costs and resource flow-trough approaches. Accountability and transparence, organisational change.

Consultancy in Practice [IT1120A]

• Organisational development from manufacturing to 'smart enterprises';
• The new e-business and 'knowledge' context. New theories, globalisation and business creativity
• Improving Business Performance - Strategic management issues; Business Excellence models
• Market Capability & Knowledge
• Client Engagement Process - project initiation, problem definition and scooping, recommending a solution; the quality framework, etc.
• Consultancy Practices - accreditation and professional development; tendering, vetting, selecting, ethical issues, etc.
• Critical Reflection and Career Development -  gap analysis for enhancement of skills/learning, researching employment opportunities, etc.
  

Microbial Biotechnology [BI1001A]

• Microbial ecology
• Biological control: microbiological aspects
• Introduction to yeasts; Yeast physiology and biotechnology; Yeast genetics and biotechnology
• Yeasts in biomedical research
• Prokaryotic Cell Signalling

Food Biotechnology [BI1007A]

• Roles of microorganisms in food. Review of beneficial and detrimental aspects of bacteria, yeasts, fungi in relation to food. Important microbes in food microbiology
• Potable alcohol production. Science and technology of malting and brewing, winemaking and distilled spirits production.
• Food fermentations. Microbial biomass as sources of food. Dairy biotechnology.
• Microbially-produced food additives. Probiotics. Nutraceuticals. Food processing enzymes. Food ingredients from microorganisms (thickners, flavouring agents, acidulants, colourants etc.)
• Genetic engineering for food applications. Food fermentations using GM microbes. Food additives/processing aids from GM microbes. GM plant products and ethical and consumer issues surrounding them. Public perceptions. Regulatory and safety aspects.
• Current issues affecting industry, government, supermarkets, general public.

Perspectives of Biotechnology  [BI1101A]

• A review of current science and associated issues in biology/biotechnology
• Recent research developments and current issues in biotechnology and their impact upon society. Guidance on relevant literature published during the previous 12-15 months.

Analytical Biotechnology [ BI1102A]

• Practical laboratory work and data analysis
• Representative examples of techniques: Electrophoretic separation and western blotting of proteins; gene cloning and PCR; plant micropropagation; animal cell culture, karyotyping and immunocytochemistry; aseptic technique, microbial fermentation.
• Health & Safety and Basic numerical Skills for lab work. COSHH regulations. Basic numerical skills for laboratory work,  Micro- pipette skills. Report writing skills.

Industrial Biotechnology [BI1103A]

• Biobusiness perspectives. General business strategies and marketing concepts relating particularly to the health-care market. Operations management. New bioproduct development. Biotechnology and legal issues (eg. regulatory/safety issues, intellectual property rights, biopatenting).
• Bioindustry perspectives. Industrial case studies based on visits and guest seminars covering a range of biotechnological, food & drink and biomedical companies and research institutes.
• Report writing and seminar presentation skills. Writing and structuring scientific reports, citing and listing references. Powerpoint-based seminar presentation.
• Job/project placement-seeking skills.

Biotechnology Case Study [BI1104A]

• Case review preparation. An area of modern biotechnology will be chosen by individual students (following discussions with appointed tutors) and research/literature reviews of the area conducted.
• Case Review writing. The Review will include: major and current scientific developments and research; commercial activities; social/political/legislative aspects; and predictions for future developments. All centred on the chosen area of modern biotechnology.

Molecular Biology and Bioinformatics [BI1117A]

• Genome organisation and expression. Flow of genetic information in cells. Concept of the genome and transcriptome. Analysis of data obtained from analysis of genome structure and expression. Information storage and retrieval from appropriate databases.
• Nucleic acid sequence analysis. Analysis of genome structure and DNA sequences with particular reference to genome projects. Database searches using BLAST. Genome comparison and Gene identification using Ensembl, Genscan, ECR browser and other genomic database resources.
• Protein sequence analysis. Primary protein sequence database identity and similarity searches. Identification of structural and functional motifs - PROSITE. Structural and fold pattern classification.Application of selected web- based tools (e.g. Swiss-PDBViewer)to problems of protein structure modelling. Functional analysis of protein structures and protein-ligand interaction prediction and modelling.
• Phylogenetic analyses. Using multiple sequence alignment algorithms and the Phylip package to generate statistically significant phylogenetic trees from evolutionary related nucleic acid and protein sequences

Computational Biology and Statistics [BI1140A]

• Statistical methods. Data modelling in a range of contexts. Probability, analysis and classification of biological data. Statistical inference. Application of statistical methods
• Sequence analysis. Statistical methods and phylogenetic tree estimation.
• Computational biology. Data visualisation using a range of software tools. Design of protocols for predictive modelling of biological data. Modelling of metabolic pathways and networks (e.g. GEPASI- based). Representation of pathways and networks.
• Bioimaging. State-of-the-art imaging methods for biological research. Principles and applications of X-ray microtomography. Principles and applications of NMR, MRI, PET.
• Probability. Fundamental properties, conditional probability. Probaility trees.
• Discrete Random Variables. Mean, standard deviation. Binomial and Poisson distributions. Applications to shotgun processing.
• Chi-squared Tests. Introduction to statistical inference. 
• Continuous Random Variables. Exponential and Normal distributions. One-sample t- test.
• ANOVA. One way ANOVA, assumptions and diagnostic tests. Multiple comparisons.
• Cluster Analysis. Similarity and dissimilarity, linkage algorithms, dendograms, distances.

MSc Project [WW1120A]

• Undertake an investigation and gather data, working individually
• Collate, present and analyse information and use the information to make decisions
• Author a dissertation of approximately 15,000 words, working to a prescribed format
• Defend the statement and conclusions at a Viva Voce examination.

MSc Project - Environmental Biotechnology [BI1108A]

• Plan, arrange and execute a programme of original research in theoretical and applied environmental biotechnology.
• Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of the underlying scientific theory of the chosen subject matter
• Demonstrate an ability to analyse the results and appreciate the implications of the research
• Demonstrate an ability to communicate the findings and implications of the research programme in a written thesis and a seminar.

MTech Project - Environmental Biotechnology [BI1109A]

• Plan, arrange and execute a programme of research in the applied and technological aspects of environmental biotechnology.
• Demonstrate good knowledge of the technical application of the chosen area of study
• Collate, present and analyse information and use the information to make deductions.
• Demonstrate an ability to communicate the findings and implications of the research programme in a written thesis and during Viva Voce examination.

Click here for examples of past MSc Project titles

For more detailed information, please contact the Programme Tutor:

Dr Joseph Akunna

Urban Water Technology Centre

University of Abertay Dundee

Level 5   Kydd Building       

Bell Street                                                   

Dundee                                                        

DD1 1HG           

Tel:    +44 (0) 1382 308141

Fax:   +44 (0) 1382 308117

Email: j.akunna@abertay.ac.uk