Enhancing Undergraduate Education in Control Engineering

Abstract

This paper discusses the content of two basic courses in control engineering: Feedback Control Systems and Process Control and their associated Lab (laboratory) sessions. Such undergraduate level courses are lectured at the Electronic and Mechatronic Engineering Department (EMED) of UTEC (Universidad de Ingenieria y Tecnologia, Peru). The Lab sessions are carried out in the Control Systems and Process Automation Labs (Laboratories). The structured experiments with their rubrics are carried out by the students after covering the corresponding theory classes. This methodology permits students to bridge the gap between theory and practice by means of hands-on and open (reconfigurable and reprogrammable) plants. An open plant permits the renewal of experiments. UTEC employs a methodology to engage undergraduate students to perform research. Based on various experiments performed in the Lab sessions, several published papers in indexed international conferences were developed by the students. Some topics of the Process Control course employ works developed in the EMED of UTEC.