Curriculum change for control engineering education in a mechanical engineering undergrad program

This paper addresses the curriculum change performed for control engineering education in the mechanical engineering (ME) undergraduate program at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB), located in Medellin, Colombia. The new curriculum model of the UPB is based on learning, and promotes the achievement of outcome-related course learning objectives during the education process. The faculty of the ME department developed the Human Capabilities and Outcomes Map; such map explicitly shows the connection between general human capabilities that are strengthen through the ME program, the outcomes that are to be achieved, the way this outcomes are assessed, and the courses where the outcomes are addressed in the curriculum. The faculty responsible for the area of design, dynamic systems, and control, gathered during two years and defined educational objectives for all the courses in the area, considering the mechanical engineering program as a whole in order to provide the students with knowledge and skills necessary for their future professional career. As a result, three new courses to address control engineering education in the mechanical engineering curriculum were created: Measurement and Instrumentation, Control Engineering, and Control Engineering Lab. Since the courses have been recently created, faculty will assess the performance within a three-year period in order to quantify the impact of the curriculum change for control engineering education.