Engineering minors
Complement your engineering specialisation with a minor and tailor your studies to explore your interests and expand your career opportunities.
If you are completing a single degree course, you can use electives to complete one of the engineering minors from a different engineering discipline and/or approved minors from Arts, Business and Economics, IT or Science.
An engineering minor will diversify your skill set and add versatility. Gain knowledge in another field outside of your chosen specialisation and understand other engineering disciplines to incorporate technical skills to deliver better solutions. You’ll have a more holistic approach to project engineering and be well-positioned to communicate across specialisation areas. Skills highly valued and sought after by industry.
A minor has four units studied over at least two years and is listed on your transcript. Minors from another faculty are undertaken in year 1 and 2, and engineering minors are completed in year 3 or 4 of your studies.
Explore the engineering minors
Artificial intelligence in engineering
Artificial intelligence (AI) is used by engineers to develop driverless vehicles, meaningful human machine interaction and image recognition. This minor allows engineers to develop new designs involving robotics, deep learning, computer vision and autonomous vehicles. Understand how to construct computer vision systems for surveillance, robotics and medical imaging. Learn how deep learning can solve problems in classification and natural language processing and take a closer look at personal cognitive assistants and driverless car designs. AI, machine learning and robotics are fast-growing industries with technology constantly evolving and pushing boundaries and engineers with these skills are in high demand.
Civil engineering
Civil engineers design and improve systems and processes that allow humans and nature to coexist with minimal impact. Modern society couldn’t function without them. We need civil engineers to design and build higher-capacity transportation systems; to construct larger commercial and industrial complexes; for water supply and pollution control; and to repair or replace roads, bridges and other structures. The core areas of civil engineering are structural, transport, water and geomechanics.
Computational engineering
Computational engineering is a new and rapidly growing multidisciplinary field that simulates the physical world using computers to solve engineering design problems. The use of computational tools is at the heart of almost all modern engineering practice. Engineers rely on computational simulation techniques to develop new technologies and shape the world we live in. Biomedical devices, submarines and wind turbines are just a few examples where computer models are used to predict how new designs will behave in reality.
Computational models are powerful, but their proper use requires an understanding of their fundamentals and their limitations. This minor will provide training in both fundamental and applied computational analysis, including optimisation, numerical methods, data visualisation, and the modelling of thermofluid and solid systems.
Environmental engineering
Environmental engineering involves the implementation and management of solutions that are in harmony with the principles of sustainable development. It’s concerned with reducing energy and minimising waste, while providing the community with the development opportunities it needs to grow. Environmental engineers make a genuine difference to our world. By improving the knowledge on air, water and land quality, they help restore the environment and protect our natural world.
Micro and nano technologies
Micro and nano technologies form the basis of any modern miniaturised system including electronic devices containing computer chips, sensors and actuators in smartphones and vehicles and diagnostic systems, biomedical devices and devices for environmental monitoring. This minor equips engineers with the knowledge of the properties and applications of nanomaterials and the fabrication techniques required to engineer these materials.
Learn about lithography, biomimicry and bionanotechnology-inspired nanostructures using biological building blocks in self-assembling processes.
Explore how the design properties of nanostructured materials may be exploited for every day applications, ranging from food packaging and sunscreens to sensors and energy-related areas. Get hands-on experience of working in a state-of-the-art cleanroom environment at the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication, where you can design and fabricate your own microdevice.
Mining engineering
Mining engineering involves environmentally-safe extraction and processing of natural minerals from the earth. Mining engineers supply critical materials like copper, iron, lithium and gold, that are essential for modern society and the world’s economy. They develop innovative and sustainable ways to make mining cleaner and safer, and help to sustain the future supply of the world’s natural resources. Mining engineers work in all aspects of the resources industry from exploration and planning, to extraction, processing and rehabilitation. Automation and digital technologies are modernising the mining industry and transforming mining careers.
Renewable energy engineering
Renewable energy engineering focuses on the fundamental conversion of solar radiation, wind, hydro, and bioenergy resources into electricity by designing, building and operating energy plants such as wind farms, solar farms and hydro power facilities. These engineers run the large-scale energy system incorporating renewables, and they provide expert advice in the development of energy policy to facilitate the transformation of the energy system, both domestically and internationally.
Smart manufacturing
Smart manufacturing is the core of Industry 4.0. which includes cyber-physical systems, internet of things, and augmented reality. This minor equips engineers with the knowledge of modern systems of telecommunication, mechatronics, cyber-physics, and manufacturing for the new era of industry.
Have the skills and knowledge to prepare for the impending digital transformation driving the convergence of technologies that result in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS). Understand the evolution of key technologies, transformation to digital chains and the need to seamlessly combine organisational and technological issues into a single framework.
Be introduced to underlying technologies, major components and system-wide architectures of modern telecommunication systems, such as the Internet, mobile telephony, digital TV and Digital Audio Broadcasting. Learn about design methods and tools for ideation and methodologies and undertake a team automation project to design and build a mechatronic system, based on a microcontroller with appropriate mechanical structure, sensors and actuators.
Sustainable engineering
The Sustainable engineering minor equips engineers with the knowledge and skills to understand the interplay between the environment and human activities. The goal is to provide solutions to the pressing environmental challenges in a sustainable manner. It takes a multidisciplinary approach based on industrial, materials, water and systems-based engineering management perspectives.
A growing multidisciplinary field of engineering, you’ll be introduced to life-cycle analysis, sustainability in the built environments include passive and active technologies, and the political, social and environmental background to materials usage. Examine the impact of population, affluence and technology changes on population and ecological footprints. Understand cleaner production technologies, sustainable resource processing and environmental technologies to create engineering solutions for a sustainable future.
Minors & specialisation combinations
| SPECIALISATIONS | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aerospace | Chemical | Civil | Electrical & computer systems | Environmental | Materials | Mechanical | Robotics & Mechatronics | |
| Artificial intelligence | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES^ |
| Civil | YES | |||||||
| Environmental | YES | |||||||
| Computational | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Micro and nano technologies | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Mining | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Renewable energy | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES |
| Smart manufacturing | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES+ |
| Sustainable | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | YES | |
^ Artificial Intelligence minor not available in the Artificial intelligence stream of Robotics & Mechatronics specialisation
+ Smart Manufacturing minor not available in the Automation stream of Robotics & Mechatronics specialisation
Engineering minors are not available in Biomedical and Software engineering specialisations. See the engineering minors framework for further criteria and compatibility with specialisations.
There are so many possibilities with civil engineering, and so many opportunities to be a part of something bigger - skyscrapers, bridges and dams are only the beginning. I want to contribute something of value to this world and work on solving real world problems.
Natalie Kho Tze Tzo
Bachelor of Civil Engineering (Honours)
I chose environmental engineering because I am passionate about making our world a better place. I was the co-found BorrowCup, a social impact venture that aims to reduce single-use coffee cups waste on campus and encourage making more sustainable choices.
Simone Pianko
Bachelor of Environmental Engineering (Honours) and Bachelor of Commerce
Founder of BorrowCup
I chose Mining Engineering because I have always had an interest in Earth science, and I wanted to be a part of developing new ways to make mining cleaner and safer. Mining is something that impacts everybody’s life, and I am excited to be a part of something so important.
Keely Simpson-Bell
Graduate Mining Engineer, Rio Tinto
Bachelor of Mining Engineering (Honours)^
The second I heard about Renewable Energy engineering I knew it was for me. I am driven to play a part in reducing greenhouse gases and creating a cleaner Australia and this course is going to enable me to do that.
Nick Kerwin
Bachelor of Resources Engineering (Honours)
Renewable Energy
Minors from other faculties
From astrophysics and accounting, to bioethics, cybersecurity or language studies there are a range of minors to choose from to explore an area of study that really excites or inspires you.
Complement your engineering degree with a minor from Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Business, Information Technology or Science fields and broaden your career options.
See the handbook for further details on all the approved minors available for you to complete while studying a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) single degree.