A first course in feedback, dynamics and control : findings from 2019 online survey of the international control community

This paper summarizes the results from a large-scale survey on the content and teaching philosophy of the first, and in many cases the only, control course taken by undergraduate students in engineering and applied sciences around the world. The IFAC Technical Committee on Education developed and administered the survey in 2019. At the time of writing, 201 control professionals have responded to the survey. The majority view is that the first course in control should focus on concepts and avoid excessive mathematical proofs. The responders ranked the depth of coverage of 63 topics commonly found in introductory control texts. Based on the ranking results, a sample curriculum for a first control course is outlined.