Scope & Tasks

• University education and continuing education issues in control
• Methodology for improving the theory, practice and accessibility of control systems education
• Control education laboratories, experiments, computer aided design, distance and virtual education technologies.
• General awareness among pre-college students and teachers of the importance of systems and control technology and its cross-disciplinary nature

• To promote control with its cross-boundary nature as a field that spans science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
• To provide students at all levels, including pre-college, undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate, the opportunity to explore the world of control engineering
• To organize workshops and special sessions on education bringing academia and industry together to facilitate learning experiences to attract students to control engineering
• To communicate to the public at large the control field
• To engage all technical committees in control education issues and activities
• To organize semiannual meetings of the committee and use them as a platform to promote the control field

News

• Activities of the Technical Committee on Control Education. The IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS) Technical Committee (TC) on Control Education has a broad mandate, focusing on modern curricula in control science and technology, continuing education programs, control laboratories and equipment, and industry-education interfaces. Outreach events are often organized during the American Control Conference and the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control. [read more]
  
  
• On Recent Activities of Control Education Committee: 10 Years of AACC Outreach Efforts and Educational Activities. This year marked the tenth anniversary of the Ideas and Technology Control Systems workshop for middle and high school teachers and students. These workshops are held twice a year in conjunction with the American Control Conference and the Conference on Decision and Control. [read more, see pg. 4]
  
  
• 10 years of the CSS sponsored and co-sponsored Education Activities / Outreach Efforts. The first NSF/Control workshop for high school teachers of mathematics and science in Chicago in June of 2000. NSF, IEEE Control Society and KU Math Department sponsored this national workshop. The workshop was very successful and NSF and IEEE Control Society decided to continue with similar, but local, workshops for high school students and teachers of mathematics and science. [read more].

Recent Meetings

• December 12, 2013.
  • Meeting Invitation/Agenda with Attachments.
  • 2014 ACC Workshop on Control Education Proposal.
  • 2014 ACC Invited Session Proposal.


• June 17, 2013.
  • Meeting Invitation/Agenda and Attachments: A, B, C, D, E.
  • Minutes, prepared and submitted by Cody Clifton.

Reports

• May 2013 Report.
  
  
• December 2011 - June 2012 Report.

Activities

• Workshop for Middle and High School Students and Teachers: "The Beauty of Controls," ACC, Portland, OR, June 3, 2014. [photos]
  
  
• Special Session: "History of Workshops for Middle and High School Students And Teachers: Ideas and Technology of Control Systems," ACC, Washington, D.C., June 19, 2013. [photos]
  
  
• Special Session: "History of Women in Control," ACC, Washington, D.C., June 18, 2013. [photos]
  
  
• Workshop for Middle and High School Students and Teachers: "The Beauty of Controls," ACC, Washington, D.C., June 17, 2013. [photos]
  
  
• Workshop for Middle and High School Students and Teachers: "The Ideas and Technology of Control Systems: The Power and Beauty of a Field that Spans Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)," CDC, Maui, HI, December 12, 2012 (150 participants). [report] [photos] [video]
  
  
• Workshop for High School Students and Teachers: "Ideas and Technology of Control Systems," 2012 IEEE MSC, Dubrovnik, Croatia, October 2, 2012. [PowerPoint presentation: "Feedback and Control for Everyone"]
  
  
• Special Education Session: "New Challenges and Opportunities in Control Education: Control for Physicists," ACC, Montreal, Canada, June 28, 2012.
  
  
• Special Education Session: "New Challenges and Opportunities in Control Education," CDC/ECC, Orlando, FL, December 14, 2011 (100 participants).
  
  
• Workshop for High School Teachers and Students: "Ideas and Technology of Control Systems," CDC/ECC, Orlando, FL, December 12, 2011 (150 participants). [speakers] [report] [photos]
  
  
• Special Education Session: "Emerging Control Education Issues. Plain Talks on Systems & Control for a Wide Range of the Public (Revisited)," ACC, San Francisco, CA, June 29, 2011.
  
  
• Special Education Session: "Preparing Tomorrow's Scientists and Engineers for the Challenges of the 21st Century," CDC, Altanta, GA, December 16, 2010.
  
  
• Pre-Conference Workshop for High School Students and Teachers: "The Ideas and Technology of Control Systems: The Power and Beauty of a Field that Spans Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)," CDC, Atlanta, GA, December 14, 2010 (550 participants). [speakers] [photos]
  
  
• Special Education Session: "Discussion on Control Textbooks at Undergraduate and Graduate Levels and Control Resources Publications," ACC, Baltimore, MD, July 1, 2010.
  
  
• Pre-Conference Workshop for High School Teachers and Students: "The Ideas and Technology of Control The Power and Beauty of a Field that Spans Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)," ACC, Baltimore, MD, June 29, 2010. [program]
  
  
• Special Session on Education, CDC and Chinese Control Conference, Shanghai, China, December 2009.
  
  
• Special Education Session: "Preparing tomorrow's scientists and engineers for the challenges of the 21st century," ACC, St. Louis, MO, June, 2009. [report] [photos]
  
  
• Workshop for High School Teachers and Students: "The Power, Beauty and Excitement of a Field that Spans Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)," ACC, St. Louis, MO, June, 2009. [schedule] [report]
  
  
• Special Session on Education, CDC, Cancun, Mexico, December 2008.
  
  
• IEEE and IFAC Workshop on "The Power, Beauty and Excitement of the Cross-Boundaries Nature of Control," Seoul, Korea, July 6, 2008.
  
  
• Special Education Session: "America's Engineering Crisis: How can we attract more students to engineering?" ACC, Seattle, WA, June 12, 2008.
  
  
• NSF Workshop for High School Teachers, ACC, Seattle, WA, June 10, 2008.
  
  
• Special Education Session: "Plain Talk on Control for a Wide Range of the Public," CDC, New Orleans, LA, December 12, 2007.
  
  
• NSF High School Students and Teachers Workshop: "The Power, Beauty and Excitement of the Cross-Boundary Nature of Control," CDC, New Orleans, LA, December 11, 2007.
  
  
• Workshop for 650 Middle and High School Students and Teachers on "The Power, Beauty and Excitement of the Cross Boundary Nature of Control,” 45th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control, San Diego, CA, December 13, 2006. [complete program with abstracts]
  
  
• Session for IEEE CSS Women in Control, “Advancement for Women is Stil Slower Than for Men," at the ACC in June, 2006, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
  
  
• Panel Session on Control Engineering Education Initiatives, at the ACC in June, 2006, Minneapolis, Minnesota (100 participants).
  
  
• Session for IEEE CSS Women in Control, “Making Research Breakthroughs and Breaking Glass Ceilings: The Communication Challenges of Women in Higher Education,” 44th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control and European Control Conference (ECC'05), Seville, December 12-15, 2005. [photos]
  
  
• Panel Session on "Math, Science and Technology in Control Systems Education," 44th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control and European Control Conference (ECC'05), Seville, Spain, December 12-15, 2005.
  
  
• Workshop for Czech High School Students and Teachers at the World Congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control, Prague, Czech Republic, July 3, 2005.
  
  
• Workshop for Cyprus Students on "The Cross-Boundary Nature of Control, Its Power and Beauty," Joint IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control and Mediterranean Conference on Control and Automation, Limassol, Cyprus, June 27, 2005.
  
  
• June 2005 Mini Conference Announcement
  
  
• NSF Workshop for 300 Middle and High School Teachers and Students on "Ideas and Technology of Control Systems," Maui, Hawaii, December 2003 (300 students and 20 teachers).
  
  
• 1st NSF Workshop for Women in Control on "After Graduation: Women in Control Taking a Leadership Role," Maui, Hawaii, December 2003 (80 participants).
  
  
• 2nd Workshop for High School Teachers of Math and Science at the ACC in Denver, June, 2003 (50 teachers).
  
  
• Control Awareness Days Workshop for High School Students at the CDC in Las Vegas, December 11, 2002 (200 participants). [photos]
  
  
• Special Session at 2002 ACC for Research Experiences for Undergraduates
  
  
• First NSF National Workshop for High School Teachers of Math and Science, held at the ACC in Chicago, June 2000 (70 participants). [video]
  
  

Articles and Resources

• AACC (American Automatic Control Council)
  
  
• AACC Technical Committee on Education
  
  
• Control Systems Magazine
  
  
• TED Talk by Raffaello D'Andrea on "The astounding athletic power of quadcopters."
  
  
• TED Talk by Maarten Steinbuch on "Caring cars and curing robots."
  
  
• Control videos by Tansel Yucelen:
  • Noise suppressing via active feedback
  • How to stabilize an unstable aircraft through adaptive feedback
  • NASA flight test
  • Quadcopter flying
  • Environment-aware multiagent formation
  • How to call back mobile sensors from hostile environments


• "Bringing Control to Students and Teachers," by Molly H. Shor and Floyd B. Hanson.
  CDC03 Conference Report on "Ideas and Technology of Control Systems: NSF Workshop for Middle School and High School Students and Teachers" in Maui, Hawaii, December 2003.
  
  
• "Future Careers in Embedding Systems, Mechatronics, and Control," by Dr. Mark Sprong
  
  
• Guest Editorial by Geoffrey C. Orsa
  
  
• "Introducing Signals, Systems, and Control in K-12," written by Dennis S. Bernstein.
  The paper was motivated by the Workshop for High School Teachers of Mathematics and Science on "Ideas and Technology of Control Systems" in Chicago, June 2000.
  
  

Partnership with IFAC in Control Education

A partnership between two committees -- the IEEE CSS Technical Committee on Control Education and the IFAC Technical Committee on Control Education -- was established at the IFAC World Congress in Barcelona, July 2002. The Chairs of each Technical Committee on Control Education became co-Chairs of the other committee.

• See the Minutes from the 15th IFAC World Congress held in Barcelona, Spain.
• See the IFAC Technical Committee on Control Education Project Initiatives.

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