Systems and Control Engineering:

Automatic and systems control engineers create much of the complex and fun technologies on the planet. From consumer electric toys to the Saturn V rocket, control engineers use a base of knowledge in materials, mechanics, physics and chemistry to make things work. Robots, cars, airplane engines, submarines, and assembly lines all need a control engineer to design and maintain them.

Careers:

If you thinking about choosing a career in engineering, and you like mechanical things, consider control engineering. If you like tinkering (hands on work) but you want to take things to a whole new level, control engineering will allow you to accomplish incredible tasks.

Schools known for control engineering include: MIT, RPI, Stanford, UC Davis, Purdue, Georgia Tech, UCSB, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Embry-Riddle, and more.

WHAT IS CONTROL ENGINEERING?

Wikipedia definition:

Control engineering or Control systems engineering is the engineering discipline that applies control theory to design systems with predictable behaviors. The practice uses sensors to measure the output performance of the device being controlled (often a vehicle) and those measurements can be used to give feedback to the input actuators that can make corrections toward desired performance. When a device is designed to perform without the need of human inputs for correction it is called automatic control (such as cruise control for regulating a car's speed).

Control engineering is a large field and there are many specialties. Some engineers are more into physics and chemistry, designing things that use better materials in order to get things smaller. Other control engineers focus on the mechanical engineering side of things, knowing more about moving parts, aerodynamics and combustion. There are many places where one can focus, so we have provided a number of videos to help you learn about the origin of automatic control and some successful examples of people who have made amazing things.

Brief history of automatic control technologies:

 

James Jensen talks about the fun of being a control engineer:

 

Harold Chestnut - pioneer in Control and Systems Engineering during WW2 and the Cold War eras:

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