An Effective Approach to Teach Instrumentation and Control Systems for Engineering Students

Abstract

<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Contribution:</i> This article presents an Instrumentation and Control (I&C) prototype for engineering postgraduate laboratory program designed to fulfill the quality objectives of the institution. <p xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <i>Background:</i> The syllabus and teaching methodology for engineering students have been periodically updated by universities and higher education institutes to meet the demand of industries and accreditation. I&amp;C systems are widely used in several industries. This article seeks to further understand ways that a multidisciplinary approach for teaching in an undergraduate and postgraduate course related to I&amp;C Systems can earn a systematic knowledge to meet industrial demands and accreditation. <p xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <i>Intended Outcomes:</i> A lab environment that motivates postgraduate students to create their fundamental concepts of I&amp;C systems engineering, so that they can apply them in real applications. The intended outcomes are: teach multidisciplinary aspects of the subject, to enrich the students’ learning process and understanding, in designing robust I&amp;C systems, and meet the criteria laid by ABET. <p xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <i>Application Design:</i> Many practical exercises were formulated to teach different aspects of I&amp;C systems engineering. It incorporates multidisciplinary knowledge as required. An I&amp;C systems engineering course taught at the department of Systems and Control at Indian Institute of Technology, is presented as a case study in which the evaluation process was based on institute criteria and the corresponding student outcomes. A student survey was also conducted to know the effectiveness of the teaching approach. <p xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <i>Findings:</i> The impact analysis of the proposed method was carried out with respect to the understanding of the students on the designing of I&amp;C systems. An analysis of student’s <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$T$</tex-math> </inline-formula>-test before and after introducing prototype in the course shows the effectiveness of the approach.