REPORT OF THE TECHNICAL COMMITTEE
on CONTROL EDUCATION


prepared by Bozenna Pasik- Duncan, chair
May 15, 2003

for the BoG Meeting in Denver, Colorado

 

The committee met at the 2002 CDC in Las Vegas. The minutes from the meeting are posted on the committee's web page.

The Committee's focus since the last meeting of the BOG in December, 2002 has been on the following activities:

  • Control Engineers and Control Engineering Students Team Up to Show High School Students that Control is Everywhere.

    • Over 130 High School Students and 10 Teachers from Las Vegas Magnet High Schools attended the Workshop at 2002 CDC. The mini preparation course offered at the school, before the workshop was recognized and very highly appreciated by students. The Workshop was very successful and has built an important network between students/teachers and control researchers. The professionally prepared evaluation was given to participants at the end of the Workshop and the results have been very important for improvements of future workshops.
  • The committee received many thank you messages from students and teachers, three have been selected and listed below:

    • Dr. Pasik-Duncan,
      What a wonderful day, my students and I all agreed that listening and thinking so hard truly wore us out. I have had my ears open for the candid comments among the students, because I was listening so intently I had not closely followed my student's responses. They were all were greatly impressed with the level of knowledge presented, the achievements of the young students, and the many ways that math could be applied. Of course, the soccer team was the favorite, but among my students it seems that most of the presentations were a favorite with a smaller group of students. Also you were high on the list of favorites, they loved your enthusiasm. Education is a very hard sell in Las Vegas. We compete with some very high paying jobs that require only strong feet or maybe an extra curvaceous body so the kind of exposure you offered our students was most welcome. Thank you again for the invitation. Karlene McCurry Anatomy/Genetics Instructor CHS A.M.S.A.T.

    • Bozenna,
      It was wonderful meeting last week. The students had wonderful things to say about you and the speakers we heard at the Venetian. Thank you for taking the time to arrange this very worthwhile event for us. One of the teachers wrote an article about the event for our newsletter. I will e-mail you the article with picture and I'll send you a newsletter when it is printed in January. Hope your trip home was safe. Have a wonderful holiday season! Shirley McLees, Magnet Coordinator, Clark High School.

    • Dear Professor Pasik- Duncan,
      My name is Keith English and I talked to you at the 2002 Control Awareness Program.  I discussed briefly about how I wanted to study epileptics and find a way to have them play video games. I wanted to search for a way to have them wear glasses or something to where they can't see all of the flashes and play. I was told that this would be to dangerous because this could harm many subjects. Professor Pasik-Duncan, I ask you to help me start this I am willing to find a way to help the many people that would like to have the fun like I have. I enjoyed talking with you and the Presentations today were very impressive. I was very happy to attend this event. Thank you and I will be waiting for your reply. Thank you from myself and all at Clark High School ....

  • The students asked for assistance on research/science fair projects and the committee has started building students/researchers networks.

    • The Committee will organize the Second NSF Workshop for High School Teachers of Math, Science and Technology on "Ideas and Technology of Control Systems," at 2003 ACC (see 2nd NSF Workshop Poster). Teachers were invited by recommendation or from the list of 2002 Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.

    • Complete information about the Workshop is at: http://www.math.ku.edu/ksacg/NSF2/HSWkshop0603.html

    • The Committee will also organize the Second Workshop for High School Students at the 2003 CDC in Hawaii.

      The First NSF Workshop for High School Teachers of Math and Science was held in Chicago in 2000, and it was a big success, visit the web site: http://www.math.ku.edu/ksacg/nsf_hswkshop.html. The proceedings are available. The photos from the First NSF Workshop can be viewed at http://www.math.ku.edu/ksacg/nsf1clips.html. The program of the First Workshop for High School Students in Las Vegas as well as the abstracts of the talks can be found at http://www.math.ku.edu/ksacg/CSS/caworkshop1202.html.

    • The purpose of these Workshops is to expose high school students and teachers to control applicatons and research, to initiate such workshops as regular events at each of the two major CSS conferences and also to initiate a series of similar workshops, organized by control groups at every University around the world. These workshops will bring together undergraduates, graduates and high school students.

    • The Workshops will also enhance cooperation among various control groups and high school teachers and students throughout the United States and the world. To give attention to control and systems, ideas and technology, and to increase the general awareness of the importance of control and systems technology and its cross-disciplinary nature among high school teachers and students.

    • FOUR proposals for the Workshops as well as for students travel for NSF funding have been prepared and submitted.

  • The Committee submitted the proposal for a Poster Session at the 2003 CDC in Hawaii.

  • The Committee on Control Education is planning to work on joint project with CSS Standing Committee on Women in Control, NSF-CSS Mentoring Travel Grant for Women.

    • The objective of the NSF-CSS Mentoring Travel Grant is to help junior women to develop a long-term working and mentoring relationship with a senior engineer. This relationship should help the junior engineer to establish her research program and eventually receive tenure.

    • Each grant will fund travel, accommodations, and other required expenses for an untenured woman engineer to travel to an institute or a department to do research with a specified individual for one month.

  • The First CSS Workshop for Women Graduate Students and Recent Ph.D.'s in Honor of Cheryl Schrader, 2003 President of CSS will be held at the 2003 CDC in Hawaii, and will be organized jointly with the Association of Women in Mathematics.

    • The Committee would like to initiate a series of Workshops for Women Graduate Students and Recent Ph.D's in conjuction with major control conferences.

    • The Workshops will consist of a poster session by graduate students and two or three mini-symposia featuring selected recent Ph.Ds, plus an informational mini-symposium directed at starting a career. The graduate student poster sessions will include all areas of research, but each mini-symposium will have a definite focus selected from the specified research areas. The committee has become a "dynamical system", it changes in time. The door to the Control Education Committee is open to all CSS members with new initiatives, who have a lot to offer to control education. The Committee promotes Collaborative Efforts in Control Education.

  • The Committee believes in collaborative work .

    • In recent years many new application areas of control have arisen, e.g. medicine and telecommunications. While researchers from CSS are involved in these applications, there does not seem to be courses for graduate students to develop a suitable expertise in control applications to these other important areas. Such courses seem to be very important for the next generation of control researchers.

    • The Committee is seeking for remarkable examples of collaboration between Engineering School and other schools or other departments. These examples should serve as models for others. We are looking for examples of new control engineering courses that has been created recently and have useful applications towards the future.

  • We want to have links to new courses, to conferences On Control Education, DISTINGUISHED LECTURES ON CONTROL EDUCATION , Society educational offerings.

  • The Committee needs to work closely with other Technical Committees. It is time for vertical and parallel collaboration.

    • Vertical means: engineers, graduate students, undergraduate students, high school students and elementary students. Parallel means: engineers, mathematicians, educators, medical doctors, and business schools, science and even fine arts researchers .

THE COMMITTEE IS SEEKING SUCCESS STORIES IN THESE TYPES OF COLLABORATIONS.

THE COMMITTEE WILL HIGHLY APPRECIATE NEW CONTRIBUTIONS. IT IS TIME FOR PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION AND PROGRESSIVE EDUCATORS. IT IS MOST EXCITING TIME FOR ALL OF US AND OUR PRESENT AND FUTURE STUDENTS.

 

------------------------------------------------------------

Professor Bozenna Pasik-Duncan
Department of Mathematics
University of Kansas
405 Snow Hall
Lawrence, KS 66045
phone: 785-864-5162 or 3651
fax: 785-864-5255
e-mail - bozenna@math.ku.edu
http://www.math.ku.edu/ksacg/Bozenna.html
http://www.math.ku.edu/ksacg/index.html

http://www.ieeecss.org/TAB/Technical/education/links.html

05/28/03