Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Controls Laboratory

Abstract An interdisciplinary controls laboratory has been developed at Lehigh University for teaching system dynamics and controls to senior undergraduate students from the various departments in the engineering college. A team effort was successful in planning, designing, funding, and constructing the experiments. After students learn control theory in courses offered in the individual departments, they jointly conduct experiments on realistic processes and devices that represent common control problems in the three engineering disciplines: chemical, electrical and mechanical. The students sare grouped into interdisciplinary teams to encourage cross‐fertilization. The laboratory has been operational for three years, and the response from the students has been very positive.