A subject area of increasing importance to mechanical engineers is control systems and microcontrollers. Mechanical engineers must often be able to translate the algorithmic processes used to control devices into the language of microcontrollers. A controls curriculum is being developed for undergraduate mechanical engineers, and as part of this curriculum project two microcontroller laboratory courses are developed. In these courses, the students learn about microcontroller architecture and interfacing, assembly and high-level language programming, advanced debugging techniques, analog and digital electronics, and industrial control systems and algorithms.
