Introduction

A graduate level class on process control traditionally employs a standard lecture style course, possibly coupled with an independent course project carried out in a simulation environment. If one steps back to critique this approach, it is important to first address the skills required by a practicing process systems engineer. As a guide to the requisite abilities required of a process system engineer, one may consult the list of control design steps provided by Skogestad and Postlethwaite [4] shown in Table 1. Is the typical engineering graduate well-prepared to accomplish these tasks? There have been no comprehensive studies to answer this question, but Kheir et al. [3] reported the results of an informal survey of industrial employers of control engineers. The highest rated aspects of the current methods of control education were control system knowledge, job preparation, and curriculum. The analytical skills of the students were considered strong. Such responses seem to indicate some success for items 7 through 9 of Skogestad's list of control design steps, areas which correspond to skills typically emphasized by a theoretical, textbook-and-lecture control courses. Unfortunately, existing approaches to control engineering education are not necessarily producing engineers who are as knowledgeable in other areas. The Kheir survey respondents reported that control engineers received lower ratings in the areas of: laboratories, hands-on experience, and interpersonal skills. The course described in this paper uses both a standard lecture class and an experimental group project related to the course material. This provides the opportunity to address the deficiencies identified by Kheir and colleagues, while reinforcing the positive aspects of traditional control engineering education methods. 
1999-07-20