Undergrad Research in Control Engineering

This paper presents the structure of two basic courses in control engineering: Automatic Control and Process Control with their respective session Labs which are carried out in the Control System and Automation Labs. Those courses establish the theoretical and experimental bases that allow the students of the sixth and seventh semesters of the Electronic Engineering Program at UTEC (Universidad de Ingenieria y Tecnologia) to perform research in the field of control engineering. In Lab sessions, students perform structured experiments with their rubrics after covering the corresponding theory in order to bridge the gap between theory and practice employing hands-on Labs containing reconfigurable and reprogrammable plants, which permit the renewal of experiments. One section is dedicated to explain the methodology applied at UTEC to develop skills in undergraduate students to perform research and write papers. Undergrad research in control engineering is evidenced by the published papers in international indexed conferences.