Controls
Undergraduate · Engineering
Syllabus focus
Standard syllabus · STEM / applied
Pricing calculator
Choose materials, tutoring, or both — or book a single session as needed. Customize your plan on the subscribe page.
Billed in 15-minute increments (15-minute minimum, up to 4 hours). No subscription required.
$60.00 · 60 min · Undergraduate · Online ($60/hr)
Book through intake or schedule a session.
Topics typically covered
Standard syllabus
Modeling and dynamic response
- Open-loop versus closed-loop control architectures
- Transfer functions from ODEs via Laplace transform
- Block diagram algebra and signal-flow graphs
- Standard first- and second-order system models
- Poles, zeros, and their effect on time response
- Time-domain specs: rise time, overshoot, settling time
- Steady-state error and system type numbers
- PID control: proportional, integral, derivative action
- Root locus construction rules and interpretation
- Stability: Routh-Hurwitz criterion
Frequency domain and state space
- Bode plots: gain and phase margins
- Nyquist stability criterion (intro)
- Stability margins and robustness concepts
- State-space models: ẋ = Ax + Bu
- Controllability and observability (definitions)
- Pole placement via state feedback (intro)
- Observers and estimator concepts (survey)
- Digital control: sampling and Z-transform intro
- Discrete-time PID implementation issues
- Nonlinear effects: saturation and anti-windup (intro)
STEM / applied
Design and implementation
- Ziegler-Nichols and tuning heuristics for PID
- Lead-lag compensator design in frequency domain
- MATLAB/Simulink modeling and simulation
- Microcontroller implementation of discrete controllers
- Sensor selection, noise, and filtering
- Actuator dynamics and bandwidth limitations
- MIMO systems and decoupling (overview)
- Robotic joint control and trajectory tracking
- Process control: level, flow, temperature loops
- Lab: motor speed or position control project
Modern control survey
- Optimal control LQR problem statement
- Model predictive control at conceptual level
- Adaptive control when plant parameters drift
- Robust control and uncertainty modeling (intro)
- Networked control and time delays
- Autonomous vehicle lateral control case study
- Aerospace attitude control overview
- Safety-critical control and fault detection
- FE controls topic mapping
- Industry tools: PLC and DCS control layers
Notes
Topics reflect common engineering syllabi at US colleges and universities. Exact order, depth, and applied emphasis vary by institution, department, and instructor.