9351740 Bengiamin It has been nationally recognized that the nature of present day control engineering practices pose the challenging question of "how to educate engineers to span the multiple disciplines used in the control field". This project involves the implementation of scientific equipment for developing a cross- disciplinary controls laboratory. The objective is twofold: first, to broaden the horizon of electrical engineering students and further their understanding of multidisciplinary problems; second, to equally satisfy the desire of a cross- departmental student body in grasping realization concepts. The requested equipment, usually found in typical industrial processes, is used to design three work cells; an engine- generator system, a robot arm mechanism, and a variable speed AC drive with simulated fan/pump loads. The applications contribute in a coherent way to the understanding of fundamental concepts in feedback control, systems modeling and analysis, and instrumentation and data acquisition. EE and ME students indiscriminately are asked to look at both the electrical and mechanical engineering aspects of the system. To bridge the gap between EE and ME in a non-superficial way, the students work in groups and at their own pace on small projects. Many schools may find the developed experiments and facility of special interest by combining departmental resources and providing an effective controls education. The experiments will be documented and made available to other schools, and the outcomes will be communicated in professional society coferences. ***
