Appendix A
NSF/CSS Workshop on
New Directions in Control
Engineering Education
The National Science Foundation (NSF) and the IEEE Control Systems Society
(CSS) held a workshop in October 1998 to identify the future needs in control sys-
tems education [1]. The executive summary of the report is presented here. The full
report is available from the CDS Panel homepage.
Executive Summary
The field of control systems science and engineering is entering a golden age of un-
precedented growth and opportunity that will likely dwarf the advancements stim-
ulated by the space program of the 1960s. These opportunities for growth are being
spurred by enormous advances in computer technology, material science, sensor and
actuator technology, as well as in the theoretical foundations of dynamical systems
and control. Many of the opportunities for future growth are at the boundaries
of traditional disciplines, particularly at the boundary of computer science with
other engineering disciplines. Control systems technology is the cornerstone of the
new automation revolution occurring in such diverse areas as household appliances,
consumer electronics, automotive and aerospace systems, manufacturing systems,
chemical processes, civil and environmental systems, transportation systems, and
even biological, economic, and medical systems.
The needs of industry for well trained control systems scientists and engineers
are changing, due to marketplace pressures and advances in technology. Future
generations of engineering students will have to be broadly educated to cope with
cross-disciplinary applications and rapidly changing technology. At the same time,
the backgrounds of students are changing. Many come from nontraditional back-
grounds; they often are less well prepared in mathematics and the sciences while
being better prepared to work with modern computing technologies. The time is
thus ripe for major renovations in control and systems engineering education.
To address these emerging challenges and opportunities, the IEEE Control
Systems Society initiated the idea of holding a workshop that would bring together
leading control systems researchers to identify the future needs in control systems
97
98
Appendix A. NSF/CSS Workshop on Education
education. The workshop was held on the campus of the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, October 2–3, 1998. It attracted sixty-eight participants.
This report summarizes the major conclusions and recommendations that
emerged from the workshop. A slightly modified version of the main body of this
report will also appear in the October, 1999, issue of the IEEE Control Systems
Magazine. These recommendations, which cover a broad spectrum of educational
issues, are addressed to several constituencies, including the National Science Foun-
dation, control systems professional organizations, and control systems researchers
and educators.
1. General Recommendation
1 Enhance cooperation among various control organizations and control disci-
plines throughout the world to give attention to control systems education is-
sues and to increase the general awareness of the importance of control systems
technology in society.
Mechanisms to accomplish this include joint sponsorship of conferences, workshops,
conference sessions, and publications devoted to control systems education as well as
the development of books, websites, videotapes, and so on, devoted to the promotion
of control systems technology.
2. Additional Recommendations
2 Provide practical experience in control systems engineering to freshmen to
stimulate future interest and to introduce fundamental notions like feedback
and the systems approach to engineering.
This can be accomplished by incorporating modules and/or projects that involve
principles of control systems into freshmen courses that already exist in many en-
gineering schools and colleges.
3 Encourage the development of new courses and course materials that will sig-
nificantly broaden the standard first introductory control systems course at the
undergraduate level.
Such new courses would be accessible to all third year engineering students and
would deal with fundamental principles of system modeling, planning, design, opti-
mization, hardware and software implementation, computer aided control systems
design and simulation, and systems performance evaluation. Equally important,
such courses would stress the fundamental applications and importance of feedback
control as well as the limits of feedback, and would provide a bridge between control
systems engineering and other branches of engineering that benefit from systems
engineering concepts such as networks and communications, biomedical engineering,
computer science, economics. etc.
4 Develop follow on courses at the undergraduate level that provide the neces-
sary breadth and depth to prepare students both for industrial careers and for
graduate studies in systems and control.
99
Advanced courses in both traditional control methodologies, like digital control, and
courses treating innovative control applications should be available to undergradu-
ate students in order to convey the excitement of control systems engineering while
still providing the fundamentals needed in practice.
5 Promote control systems laboratory development, especially the concept of
shared laboratories, and make experimental projects an integral part of control
education for all students, including graduate students.
Mechanisms to accomplish this include increased support for the development of
hands-on control systems laboratories, as well as the development of benchmark
control systems examples that are accessible via the Internet. Shared laboratories
within individual colleges or universities as well as shared laboratories among differ-
ent universities makes more efficient use of resources, increases exposure of students
to the multidisciplinary nature of control, and promotes the interaction of faculty
and students across disciplines.
The promotion of laboratory development also includes mechanisms for con-
tinued support. Too often, laboratories are developed and then abandoned after a
few years because faculty do not have time or funds for continued support. It is
equally important, therefore, to provide continuity of support for periodic hardware
and software upgrades, maintenance, and the development of new experiments.
The National Science Foundation and IEEE Control Systems Society can also
help realize this goal by developing workshops and short courses for laboratory
development and instruction to promote interaction and sharing of laboratory de-
velopment experiences among faculty from different universities.
6 Emphasize the integration of control systems education and research at all
levels of instruction.
The National Science Foundation program, Research Experiences for Undergradu-
ates, exemplifies an excellent mechanism to accomplish this at the undergraduate
level and should be continued. Sponsorship of student competitions in control is
another such mechanism that should be encouraged. At the graduate level control
educators should take advantage of National Science Foundation programs such as
the Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training Program (IGERT) and
the Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement Program (CCLI).
7 Improve information exchange by developing a centralized Internet repository
for educational materials.
These materials should include tutorials, exercises, case studies, examples, and his-
tories, as well as laboratory exercises, software, manuals, etc. The IEEE Control
Systems Society can play a leadership role in the development of such a repository
by coordinating the efforts among various public and private agencies.
8 Promote the development of a set of standards for Internet based control sys-
tems materials and identify pricing mechanisms to provide financial compen-
sation to Internet laboratory providers and educational materials providers.
100
Appendix A. NSF/CSS Workshop on Education
A mechanism to accomplish this could be a National Science Foundation sponsored
workshop devoted to Internet standards for control education materials and pricing.
9 Develop WWW-based peer reviewed electronic journal on control education
and laboratory development.
Control systems professional organizations can play leadership roles, perhaps work-
ing with the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) to accomplish this
goal.
10 Encourage the development of initiatives for technical information dissemi-
nation to industrial users of control systems and encourage the transfer of
practical industrial experience to the classroom.
Mechanisms to accomplish this include special issues of journals and magazines de-
voted to industrial applications of control, programs to bring speakers from industry
to the classroom, and programs that allow university faculty to spend extended pe-
riods of time in industry.
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