Teaching control theory to computing practitioners

Abstract

Although feedback control is an essential part of computing systems, computing practitioners rarely have knowledge of control theory. Further, computing practitioners interested in learning control theory are faced with the problem that introductory texts contain unfamiliar examples and unfamiliar mathematics. To remedy this situation, we have developed a tutorial, book, and spreadsheet based laboratory simulations to teach control theory to computing practitioners. Key considerations in the pedagogy are to use examples drawn from computing systems, provide a short, self-contained introduction to discrete time modeling and dynamic response, and incorporate case studies of how control theory has been used in commercial computing systems. Copyright © 2006 IFAC.