WEBINAR: From Classic Control to Complex Mechatronic System Design

Traditional control systems courses are based on the mathematical and signal science framework developed in the mid twentieth century. The standard undergraduate course is based largely on characterizing and analyzing system dynamics through differential equations and Laplace transform-based transfer functions. Modern control systems are complex combination of such models and analysis, and system-level considerations from computer control. Often we call such computer control techniques mechatronics and at most institutions, mechatronic design focuses on the embedded programming aspect disassociated from system dynamics.

In the upcoming webinar on June 10, we will present some novel initiatives of Quanser, in collaboration with leading universities, to unify conventional, classic control with systems-oriented mechatronic design.

Join us to discuss best ways to revitalize the undergraduate control systems lab experience. Register today!

Queen's University Students Put Quanser’s Digital Control Curriculum to a Test

As an engineering student, I always loved to play with lab equipment. I have fond memories of building my very first controller to swing-up and balance an inverted pendulum in the last year of my undergrad. We were tasked to design a controller from scratch in Matlab/Simulink, test it with a system model and eventually implement it on the real hardware. I remember how I had discussions with other students about what assumptions we are using about the systems, how we could improve our model to get a better response and how to make our controller more “robust” for the real implementation. In the end, it all worked wonderfully well and I was hooked on Control Engineering.

Fast forward several years, lectures and hours in various labs and I am more and more amazed that it all worked. The one thing nobody seemed to have considered at the time was that we’re actually dealing with a discrete system and are using a digital controller to drive the hardware and stabilize the pendulum. Nobody was worried that their controllers designed for a continuous model would not work (or work well) in a digital implementation or that we didn’t have to design analog circuits to get real continuous controllers. Even nowadays, with superfast microprocessors available for only a few dollars, all they do in the end is running according to a (very fast) clock signal, but by no means in actual real-time.

Intuitively, it is clear that a controller’s performance running at a few megahertz will be hardly distinguishable from one that is purely continuous. However, it is also clear that implementing a continuous controller at very slow sampling rates will inevitably fail. In particular for a PID controller, we know that we are happy to deal with the discrete equivalents of the proportional and integral part of the controller, but what about the derivative part, in particular with respect to measurement/system noise and quantization errors in the feedback signal?

Students at Queen's University test the new digital control
curriculum during their Modeling and Computer Control of
Mechatronic Systems Course

To answer these questions (and more), Quanser has started to design a lab sequence to introduce students to common problems that are inherent to digital controller implementations. In particular, we’re investigating what effects different sampling rates have on the performance of a continuous PD position controller for the SRV02 Rotary Servo, how a continuous control design can be used as a starting point for a purely digital controller using the Matched-Zero-Pole mapping method for different sampling rates, and how to design a pure digital controller directly (and what the implications of different sampling rates on the design process). Furthermore, there is also a lab that investigates typical hardware implementation issues such as quantized measurement signals and buffer overruns. The overall goal is to enable the students to deal with real-world control constraints in their own hardware implementations, and therefore include discussions on how the lab material can be implemented in a programming environment (in high level pseudo-code).

My colleague Amir Haddadi and I had the chance to present the first part of the new lab sequence as part of Prof. Keyvan Hashtrudi-Zaad’s course on Modeling and Computer Control of Mechatronic Systems at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario last week. We were able to get the students started with the new curriculum in a hands-on lab on digital control, and the consensus seemed quite positive. A few students pointed out how the lab has helped them understand some of the theory discussed during the lectures and that they believe the labs will be beneficial for their upcoming design and research projects. We’ve also received valuable feedback from the students and TAs on the lab material and will implement it over the upcoming weeks.

At the moment, the first draft of the digital control labs is only available for the SRV02 Rotary Servo MATLAB/Simulink platform. Future releases will include an offering for LabVIEW, as well as for the Quanser QUBE-Servo platform (both MATLAB/Simulink and LabVIEW).

The Challenges in Engineering Education - and How To Solve Them

In a recent interview, Dr. Hans Hoyer, the Secretary General of the International Federation of Engineering  Education Societies (IFEES) and a member of the prestigious Global Engineering Deans Council (GEDC), offers his perspective on the major issues facing engineering education, along with the new approaches he favours to help overcome those challenges.

As a member of both GEDC and IFEES, Quanser is proud to partner with these organizations to improve engineering education worldwide and strongly supports the strategies Dr. Hoyer highlights to ensure the graduation of larger numbers of globally-prepared engineers. Read the full interview.

Making Sense out of the "Flipped" Campus: ECEDHA Webinar

The so-called "flipped" campus prescribes that the mechanical details of engineering concepts be learned independently, while the faculty-led classroom experience be focused on synthesis and application of core concepts. In many academic circles, this is generating vigorous debate as we try to reconcile what we are all used to and have been trained to do, with the promised benefits of the flipped world.

Dr. Tom Lee, Quanser's Chief Education Officer explores the concept of "flipped" campus and how it can enhance traditional undergraduate labs and help trigger improvements in education and research in an ECE Webinar on November 12.

Making sense out of the "flipped" campus with new approaches to hands on labs
In his webinar, Dr. Lee will present a case for modern interpretations of the traditional hands-on undergraduate labs which can still offer a great opportunity for engineering schools to efficiently flip their classrooms and trigger improvements in education and potentially even research.

The hands-on lab was, from the outset, an effort to introduce concept synthesis into the curriculum and it is the place where theory meets reality and practical insights emerge from the foundational theoretical knowledge. In essence, this is what the flipped classroom promises to do. The key difference, today, is that the flipped strategy inherently takes advantage of modern technology and media frameworks and if we are not careful, even the best among the traditional labs will become stale and ineffective. Dr. Lee will present new techniques emerging from institutions and industry that are enriching the modern concept of the lab and additionally, make these labs of the near future, a vibrant dimension of the flipped campus. He will discuss some of the techniques, including bonding strong industrially-relevant concepts to undergrad labs; frameworks for off-campus hands-on labs; and the role of mathematics and modelling in an enriched lab experience and illustrate them with case studies.

Quanser is proud to partner with Electrical and Computer Engineering Department Heads Association (ECEDHA) to launch the association's new ECE Webinar series with an event on November 12.

Click here to register for the webinar.

As Chief Education Officer at Quanser, Tom Lee is focused on spearheading the development of Quanser's global academic community. He is closely involved with Quanser's technology and solution development process and the company's partner and alliance programs. He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, and an MASc and BASc in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

What Does the Undergraduate Lab of the Future Look Like?

A generation ago, the first real exposure that engineering students would get to sophisticated engineering tools and processes occurred only after they entered university. Back then, complex, affordable engineering equipment was not widely available to young techies.

That’s not true anymore. Today, high school students have access to all kinds of advanced technology – everything from embedded systems and tablets, mobile devices, small scale robotics systems, even UAVs. They’re all part of the fabric of teenagers’ everyday lives.

What Students Expect… and What They Get

Once they enter a university engineering program, these high school students are expecting, at the very least, to continue doing hands-on work with high tech tools and systems that run the gamut from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and solar power to advanced space systems and robotics.

Unfortunately, for too many students, this is where the process of disillusionment begins. Their engineering courses in first and second year have them doing math, learning theory and engaging in rigorous, low level foundational engineering. This is absolutely necessary, but, typically, students don’t quite understand that. Their appetite has been whetted for tangible, hands-on projects involving robotics, unmanned vehicles and the like. Being restricted to textbooks and mathematical theories fails to excite them.

A New Kind of Engineering Lab

Today the question for engineering educators is how do we motivate and retain our students while still ensuring that they have the rigorous theoretical background they need? Our answer has been to create a new kind of engineering lab. This lab is based on modular, purpose-built educational hardware and software that recognizes the needs and skills of a new generation of engineering students who grew up entirely in the computer era. To better understand them, we considered where they fit within the entire history of engineering education. 

See what the Undergraduate Lab of the Future can look like in practice.

An Exciting Future Builds on the Past

In its infancy, engineering education was very closely related to industry and hands-on application of specific skills. Studying engineering amounted to doing an apprenticeship. This was the beginning of an extended mechanical era, when students studied how to make things with their hands, how to build roads, bridges, locomotives and other tangible industrial applications. In other words, what they learned in the engineering classroom was closely tied to the real world and the real world technologies of the time.

In the early to middle 20th century technology and our engineering projects became more complex. We entered a theoretical era that required heavy reliance on mathematics. With the dawn of the computer age, the pendulum swung again and engineering’s educational emphasis returned to the more practical skills that were in demand in industry. However, despite the increasing wealth of experience that was available to students at that time, dynamic modeling and controlsystem curriculum remained firmly entrenched in a math-centered, simulated context.

Presenting the Undergraduate Lab of the Future

As we see it, the Undergraduate Lab of the Future has already arrived. It is the expression, in the classroom and university lab, of this latest pendulum swing. It is a hands-on, applications-based lab that delivers a learning experience that is theoretically rigorous, yet practical, effective and highly motivating. It touches all the bases and creates engineers that will be well-suited to find the engineering solutions suited for the 21st century.

The Quanser Method: A Way to Make Engineering Education More Effective and Relevant

The need for a truly modern framework for engineering education has never been greater. The Quanser Method™ was developed to answer that need and make teaching and research of modern control systems and mechatronic concepts more effective, relevant and efficient. 

Of particular relevance for the 21^st century, the Quanser Method gives institutions that follow the conventional lecture + lab + project teaching structure a new, more engaging way of teaching engineering concepts – a way that closes the gap between theory and practice,  energizes a new and technically sophisticated generation of engineering students and aligns with current industry R & D practices.

The Quanser Method reflects the key engineering workflow found in industry, and thus provides a modern, rigorous framework for teaching and learning in academia. 

With the Quanser Method, algorithms on the page are a beginning not an end - a launch point for students to bring their control design theories to life through the use of a modern, interactive curriculum and real-time hardware-in-the-loop testbeds. 

Structured as a circle, the Quanser Method reflects the key engineering workflow found in industry, and thus provides a logical and rigorous framework for teaching and learning in academia. The workflow involves numerous steps, from mathematical modeling to control design, hardware-in-the-loop simulation and more, with all the steps resulting in a system that’s efficient, effective and ready to deploy.

To learn more, download the whitepaper “The Quanser Method”, written by Dr. Tom Lee, Ph.D., Chief Education Officer, Quanser. 

Student-developed Driver Assistance Controls Reveal Students’ Creativity and Skills

Just as we threw out a challenge to students at the University of New Mexico to build a better flight simulator, we recently challenged some University of Toronto graduate students to use the Quanser immersive 3D environment and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) vehicle simulation to design and test advanced driver assistance algorithms.

We did so for two reasons. First, we believe that hands-on learning using real hardware and immersive visualizations allows students to test and refine their otherwise “perfect” theoretical solutions in a real-world or near real-world context. Second, the design and integration of driver assistance systems through massive sensor fusion has been identified by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) as one of the grand challenges for control. By making this challenge so timely and relevant, we gave the students valuable exposure to the kinds of engineering problems they might encounter in their future careers.

We began by providing students with the basic platform and walking them through some fundamental control system labs to get them familiar with the platform. Then we asked them to think up some driver assistance challenges of their own and apply the collective engineering skills they’ve learned to a creative and relevant project. We didn’t hand-hold; we tried to get the students to work through the research, design and development themselves.

The students implemented some truly creative systems while following the recommended Quanser method throughout their development lifecycle from preliminary mathematical modeling, through simulation, HIL testing, and final deployment. Here are some of the most noteworthy results.

Car Following and Obstacle Avoidance:

One team chose to develop a series of algorithms to replicate a particular driving challenge, namely tracking and systematically passing a target vehicle while simultaneously avoiding randomly placed obstacles. This objective introduced several interesting control challenges and approaches including hybrid control, artificial potential field obstacle avoidance, state-feedback control, and the control of a steered vehicle. 

Visualization provided by the immersive 3D environment gave students an intuitive sense of worked and what didn’t.  This facilitated their development of algorithms that allowed one car to track and pass a target vehicle, while avoiding randomly place obstacles.

Once again, the students followed a systematic design process which began with the development of a mathematical model and control design, continued with the validation of their algorithms in simulation, before implementation on the test platform with actual servomotors as HIL components. Overall the students gained experience working on algorithms and techniques that have the potential to revolutionize the transportation industry. The feedback we received from the students indicated their use of the visualization tool helped them implement their mathematical models and see what worked and what didn’t.

Forward and Reverse Path Tracking with a Front-Wheel Steered Bicycle Model:

This team decided to design and compare controls systems for autonomous forward and reverse driving. Their emphasis was on the development of an accurate non-linear vehicle model to replicate a bicycle tracking an arbitrary path. The students were able to successfully implement their algorithms, and show some very impressive results and performance. 

Students discovered that developing algorithms with dynamic simulation models and hardware in the loop components helped to better predict controller performance once implemented in reality.

More important than their results, however, were their experiences working through the design process itself. The students made several critical observations including the need for accurate dynamic models for preliminary simulations, and HIL components when designing and testing control systems. The students remarked in their final report that, “Developing with these additions (e.g. dynamics, HIL) in mind can help to reduce the time required to tune real controllers once implemented, and can help to better predict the performance of a controller once implemented in reality. This is important because a controller might show very promising performance in a kinematic simulation without HIL, but performs very poorly even when tuned, once implemented on a real system.”

Success in engineering is only achieved when a challenge is met in theory AND in practice. The algorithms being designed have to work in the real world. To that end, the more we can bring engineering labs and projects into the real world through hands-on experiments, visualization and hardware-in-the-loop testing, the richer and more industry-relevant that education will be. That has been and always will be Quanser’s main focus.

Is Engineering Education Moving In The Right Direction?

Does engineering education need an overhaul?  How do educators ensure the next generation of engineers is ready to meet the complex challenges of the 21^st century?  Dr. Tom Lee, Chief Education Officer at Quanser, Inc, offers insights into these all-important questions in “Why Can't Johnny Design?”, a four-part series of articles in EEWeb-Pulse magazine.

Engineering students' "fear of math" is one of several issues impacting modern engineering education, according to Dr. Tom Lee, Chief Education Officer of Quanser.  Read the article  to learn ways this problem is being addressed. 

In “Part 1: The Challenges in Modern Engineering Education”, Tom looks at the modern engineering curriculum and how it prepares – or doesn’t prepare – students about to enter the industry.

In Part 2, “Re-Inventing the Engineering Lab”, Tom examines the undergraduate lab and outlines how it’s changing to provide more effective learning. 

In Part 3, “Doing the Math”, Tom looks at the challenge mathematics still presents to many students and suggest ways this problem can being addressed.

Part 4, “Motivating Younger Students”, will round out the series in a future issue. 

We encourage you to read these articles and give us your feedback.  Happy reading!

Crossing the Chasm

In many ways, Quanser is in the midst of an epic business challenge as we systematically transition from our hard-earned reputation as the company with the best open-architecture control system plants, to the company delivering effective, practical technology solutions for a broad range of critical problems in modern engineering education and research. Last week at the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) annual conference in San Antonio, Texas, the company debuted its new generation of solution concepts built on our core technology platform and generated a lot of buzz in a typically, well-behaved conference.



Business folks will use the term “Crossing the Chasm[1]” in reference to the challenges that technology companies face as they strive to grow from a small company surviving on the vision of “early adopters” who intuitively understand the benefit and value of a new technology, to a large diversified company that has figured out how to transform a unique new technology to a more richer offering that appeals to a broader audience – “the majority”. Companies who successfully do this cross the proverbial chasm. The reality is most small technology companies fail to do this and indeed they crash and burn in that same chasm.

Dr. Tom Lee, Quanser's Chief Education Officer addresses the audience at the Quasner Innovation Hub and outlines the pedagogy and technology behind the Quanser Driving Simulator.

Prior to joining Quanser last year, I had seen the Quanser exhibits at previous ASEE conferences and, in general, was impressed by the overall creativity and richness of the presentation. But definitely, this year, our presence was markedly different in both tone and impact.

Quanser had two primary exhibits. The first was the big red display that usually adorns the conferences we attend. But the most memorable exhibit was the Quanser Innovation Hub: a large theater area highlighting the creative application of new technology to enhance engineering education. This year, Quanser focused on the Quanser Driving Simulator (QDS) that mapped an exciting race car simulation experience to a rigorous Hardware In the Loop (HIL) framework using Quanser hardware and software and LabVIEW™ software from National Instruments.


As a conference attendee puts the QDS through its paces, Quanser's Derry Cyrmble outlines her real-time progress with engaging Hardware-in-the-Loop race car simulation.

The audience was presented with an overview of the pedagogy and technology of the system and then was invited to take a test drive, which challenged their driving ability (the fun part) and their engineering intuition (the rigorous part). The drivers with the best lap times at the end of the conference were rewarded with gifts and the eternal adoration of their peers!

You couldn’t miss the spectacle. It was one of the largest displays at the conference. It had a genuine NASCAR racing car as a part of the display, and every square inch was decorated to support the theme of an exciting autorace. The visuals notwithstanding, the most impressive quality of the Innovation Hub was audience engagement. As expected, the audience enjoyed both the thought-provoking formal presentation and the hands-on competition. What we didn’t expect was the raw emotional response of many individuals who really took the challenge to heart.

There were many who returned to the display to take a second, or third drive. Some dragged their colleagues to the Hub, not only take a test drive, but to show them the rich education potential of the system. Many kept popping back in simply to check the emerging lap times to ensure that they were still competitive. In the end a young student won the grand prize. But he didn’t win because he was a video game wizard with years spent in his teen-cave in his parents’ basement, honing his game control skills. He won because he augmented his natural gaming skills with real engineering insight by manually tuning the vehicle dynamics parameters to give him a competitive edge. Yes, this was not only legal but encouraged. When he noticed that others were catching up, he pestered Quanser resident automotive simulation expert Peter Martin on the meaning and influence of the core engineering parameters… in other words, he used engineering concepts to win in a competitive situation. We couldn’t have asked for a better validation of the educational principles of the QDS.

The Quanser Innovation Hub drew enthusiastic crowds through all three days of the conference.

From a business perspective, what we experienced with the Innovation Hub is very much the kind of thing you do to help a company cross the chasm. Creatively reconfiguring abstract technology to one that intuitively connects with critical challenges that your constituents face. And the positive reaction we received from the audience definitely bodes well for the future. In our case, however, we actually had a double chasm to cross. I often remark about the chasms in the university curriculum where tradition has yet to catch up to modern reality. One of the biggest among such curricular chasms is the one between the high school experience and the first year university or freshman experience in undergraduate engineering.

Various organizations have done a remarkable job in raising the awareness of engineering and other technical professions. If you look at the prevalence of robotics activities or technology-themed TV series, a generation of students who are leaving high school with energy and enthusiasm about a future career in engineering, we have an unprecedented opportunity as a society to nurture the next generation of leaders. Once they get onto campus however, all too many students are “welcomed” with an intense mix of classical mathematics, science, programming, along with generally dry and abstract treatments of the foundational techniques of engineering. Consequently, we have alarming dropout rates from engineering programs. In many ways, a large number of students fall off the freshman cliff and into the chasm.

Academic Solutions Advisor Leor Grebler talks with one of the many attendees who dropped by the Quanser Booth in the Exhibit Hall. 

The QDS, from a pedagogical perspective, takes a bold step in helping students cross this particular chasm. Part of the story we told at the Innovation Hub was that of using strong applications properly integrated with real engineering hardware systems to truly motivate students. Not just in the control systems courses in their senior year but right into the freshman curriculum. “Let them do real engineering from day one!” is the message, and we at Quanser, believe that modern technology has all of the flexibility needed to bring advanced, hands-on enrichment to the freshman experience in a way that is motivating and conceptually reinforcing. Motivation can come from very emotional elements like fun and familiarity. In contrast, the same fun application also does a great job in introducing some very serious concepts in measurement, data analysis, modeling, and control. In this sense, fun and motivation are part of the framework that we can use to finally build a bridge across that curriculum chasm.

I have been a part of countless conference exhibits in my career and I must say that the Quanser ASEE exhibits were the most enjoyable and fulfilling for me. As a business veteran of 25 years, I sensed that the company had reached some very significant milestones. As someone immersed in the education scene, and as a parent of teenage children, I sensed that some very important concepts have now been introduced to a broad audience and the hard work of discussing, refining, and deploying these great new ideas can now begin in collaboration with our academic partners. For a brief few days, I completely forgot about the Alamo in San Antonio, and San Antonio became the center of the education universe.

- Tom Lee
As Chief Education Officer at Quanser, Tom Lee is focused on spearheading the development of Quanser's global academic community. He is closely involved with Quanser's technology and solution development process and the company's partner and alliance programs. He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, and an MASc and BASc in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

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[1] Geoffrey A. Moore, Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to Mainstream Customers, Harper Collins, 2002.

A special visitor at the Quanser Center of Excellence at CoE Pune

The Quanser Center of Excellence at the College of Engineering Pune (CoEP), India officially opened its door only few months ago, but it is already getting international attention and proves its role as a regional - and international - hub of engineering collaboration and innovation. As such, it was an important stop for the delegates of the India Mission 2012, a joint business mission of the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce (ICCC) and the Town of Markham led by Mayor of Markham Frank Scarpitti.

Welcomed by the Director of the CoEP, Dr. A.D. Sahasrabudhe, Mayor Scarpitti and the delegates toured the college campus and laboratories. "The Quanser Center of Excellence is a regional hub of engineering education and expertise for knowledge dissemination and collaboration," Oye!Times quoted Carolina Moretti, Markham Councillor and Chair of the Economic Development Committee. "Quanser built a laboratory that supports everything from teaching basic engineering concepts to enabling advanced research in aerospace, robotics, mechatronics, structural dynamics and other engineering fields." CoEP is proud to be the first institution in India to host the Quanser Center of Excellence, and is ready to share its knowledge, expertise and best practices in engineering education with other institutions in the region.

Frank Scarpitti, Mayor of Markham, Ontario is welcomed at the College of Engineering Pune by its Director, Dr. A.D. Sahasrabudhe.

The drive for innovation is what CoEP and the Town of Markham share - with close to 900 high-technology and life sciences companies, Markham is known as Canada's high-technology capital. Growing the next generation of innovators is where Dr. Sahasrabudhe and Mayor Scarpitti see the potential for the future cooperation, focusing on various student-centric programs.

Mayor Scarpitti toured the Quanser Center of Excellence at CoEP, a regional hub of engineering expertise and collaboration.

 The visit by the delegation from Canada to the Quanser Center of Excellence at CoEP was short, but confirms the words of Paul Gilbert, CEO of Quanser: "A Quanser Center of Excellence will become a focal point of creative collaboration and best practices in engineering education. It will quickly become a magnet of information and inspiration for other institutions in the region."

Delegates of the Mission India 2012 during their visit at the Quanser Center of Excellence at CoEP.

Bridges To Better Engineering Education

I often use the metaphor of the bridge when I speak on many of our projects at Quanser. Not only is it entirely appropriate and colorful for an engineering audience but it is a very useful metaphor when one discusses some of the most pressing challenges in global engineering education. Take for example, the challenge of building a strong conceptual and experiential bridge between the typical high school experience and the typical university program in engineering. It is true that most preparatory high school curricula will include the fundamental sciences and mathematics and the idea has always been the first year university curriculum will build upon this foundation using its own math and science courses. Following that would be the series of application courses which will take the student from the abstract to the concrete.

Bridging the gap between high school and university is essential.
The reality is that many engineering educators are experiencing significant disconnects between the high school experience and the university expectations. For them, this is a chasm that must be bridged. The consequences of doing nothing are actually quite severe. Not only is enrollment into the Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) programs dropping in many jurisdictions, but the retention rate once students arrive is also disconcerting. Many universities have reported on the order of a third or more of these students dropping out or changing majors. These issues of qualified student recruitment and retaining the intellectual and emotional connection with young students on-campus is the highest priority challenges for many institutions.

Extra-curricular engineering experiences in high school are valuable.
Over the past week, I had the opportunity to meet and explore bridge-building ideas with individuals who are neck-deep into this very murky situation.

First stop was St. Louis to attend the annual Judge Advisor training session of the FIRST Robotics program. The Judge Advisor is the chief judge of each of the regional competitions as well as a participating judge in the national championships. Our group consists of primarily senior professionals from industry with a few forward-looking professors in the mix. All of us are volunteers and all of us believe in the positive benefit of a highly charged and ambitious extra-curricular engineering experience for high school students. The Judging Team is responsible for encouraging and rewarding those teams who not only excel in the technical dimensions of the competition but also the "big picture" aspects of engineering including ethics, entrepreneurship, and societal responsibility. At the annual training sessions, we converge, learn about changes in the competition, and most importantly, we welcome and train the cohort of new Judge Advisors who have been recruited during the previous year.

Alan and Cindy, Chief Judge Advisor for FIRST, moderate one of the more controversial moments during the sesson: "Why is it so bloody cold in St. Louis and how do we move next year's session to Hawaii"?

I'd like to report that we made huge progress and launched outrageous new ideas that will propel FIRST to new heights … but I can't. For the most part it was fairly well-organized and no-nonsense. The reality is, the FIRST concept works. It has found the formula for triggering a passion among an entire generation of young people who may not have had any opportunity to experience real world science and engineering. And it has also successfully integrated a richly multidimensional framework that promotes the complete experience and not just making robots dance. The annual training weekend is really a chance for us to reaffirm our belief and commitment to the values of FIRST and with a bit of luck come up with a few clever ideas for the upcoming season.

Teaching more rigorous engineering concepts in high school is seen as key.
Following St. Louis, I moved on to Albuquerque, New Mexico, home of the famed University of New Mexico (UNM). Over the years, it has earned a reputation as a top tier research university in the US and boasts a broad range of academic achievements.

A couple of months ago, Professor Ramiro Jordan of UNM's Electrical and Computer Engineering Department visited the Quanser offices to discuss our potential participation in a new UNM initiative to introduce more rigorous engineering concepts into the high school system. Their model is the Advanced Placement (AP) system. In the AP system, high school students can take more challenging versions of English, physics, math and so on - the so-called core courses - and receive university level credit for them prior to entering the freshman year. This allows the student to either take a broader range of courses or accelerates their time in university.

The faculty at UNM felt that they could apply the same concept with the primary freshman engineering courses. That is, have students study engineering computing, design, and other key concepts in high school. So an AP student can theoretically complete an entire semester's worth of engineering studies prior to arrival on campus. The first step was an exploratory session with university and high school officials. Joining me for this leg of the trip was Quanser founder Jacob Apkarian.

We were invited to the discussion because of our work in developing new education concepts in undergraduate engineering. In addition to the many logistical challenges of this initiative, there is also a parallel set of issues surrounding the relevance of the existing freshman engineering curriculum for the modern world. If we're going to go through the effort of shifting courses down to the high school, we might as well reflect on the quality of the courses, some of which are over twenty years old.

Modern engineering education requires an engaging, hands-on approach.
The Quanser perspective is fairly straightforward. You cannot have effective engineering education without thoroughly modern, engaging, hands-on lab experiences. This was the founding principle of the company and, over time, we've developed a strong reputation as an industrial partner who is genuinely active and forward-thinking on matters of engineering education. Jacob and I were delighted find that our strong opinions on the importance of the lab were shared by all at the table.

The core questions of "What should be the primary concepts of freshman engineering?" and "How can labs bring these labs to life?" consumed the larger part of our two day visit and in the end, we were given an opportunity to explore these concepts in more detail back at Quanser and return with a complete proposal.

Jacob Apkarian, founder of Quanser, in discussions with Electrical and Computer Engineering faculty at the Univesity of New Mexico.

There are many things that we do at the company that are exciting and important but this particular discussion seems that much more exciting and important. First is the sheer intellectual challenge of adapting modern engineering practice to a level appropriate for high school students, while at the same time maintaining the high academic standards of a leading university. But there is also the human dimension. My children are 16 and 13 so I, like all parents, have developed some very strong opinions on high school education. As good as their school is, the deficiencies and disconnects are all too evident. This is especially pronounced in the context of STEM education. Extended to the societal level, most of us would agree, I believe, that creating a more cohesive and enriching education experience from K12 right on to grad school is one of the more noble quests in any society.

Our concepts are starting to take shape. And the totality of Quanser expertise is beginning to guide our thinking. At this early stage, we have no idea how far this initiative will go in making a real difference in the lives of our children but it's very satisfying to know that we have been recognized as part of the answer and I feel very privileged that we are going to vigorously take on this complex challenge.


- Tom Lee
As Chief Education Officer at Quanser, Tom Lee is focused on spearheading the development of Quanser's global academic community. He is closely involved with Quanser's technology and solution development process and the company's partner and alliance programs. He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, and an MASc and BASc in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

The Spotlight's On Quanser In the Latest Issue of EEWeb - Pulse Magazine

EEWeb-Pulse magazine, a leading e-zine for the electrical engineering community, features not one but two stories about Quanser in its January 17, 2012 issue.

The first article, an interview with Tom Lee, focuses on Tom's role as Quanser's Chief Education Officer and on how Quanser's engaged, hands-on approach to engineering education is designed to serve "the overall mandate of the university, as well as the emerging influences and trends of global industry."

The second article, authored by Tom himself, is titled, "What's New at Quanser?" and outlines some of our latest activities and initiatives. To read both stories, click here.

The Two Sides of Korea

No, this is not a commentary on the political situation in Korea, but an account of a series of events that transpired over a scant three months involving an intriguing combination of international meetings in China, Korea and Canada... yes, it still does sound like a political tale, doesn't it?

In October of 2011, Quanser CEO Paul Gilbert and I attended the Global Colloquium on Engineering Education in Shanghai. There, we, by chance, met with Professor Wonjong Joo of Seoul National University of Science and Technology (affectionately referred to as SeoulTech). Through various chats and coffee breaks, we discovered that he ws the director of a "Hub Center" in a national inititative called the Innovation Centers for Engineering Education (ICEE). This is a well-funded government initiative that identified 60 leading engineering universities in Korea and encouraged them to research and establish innovative practices to transform the engineering curriculum to better meet the needs of the roaring Korean industrial sector of the 21st century.

South Korea has earned the reputation of a "miracle" economy. Within a single generation, the nation innovated itself up from theashes of two brutal wars and foreign occupation. Since the 1960's when the basic infrasturcture stabilized, the average annual income climbed from $100 to the current $20,000 - from the extreme end of "third world" existence to one of the most respected and dynamic economies of today. To continue its progress, the country has concluded that it needed a community of modern engineers who not only escelled technically but were also innovative and global in their worldview. Indeed, mega-companies such as Samsung strongly expressed a desire to close the gap between the skill sets of engineering graduates with the needs of conttemporary Korean industry. ICEE was born out of these needs.

Side one of this tale was an invitation by Dr.Joo to me to speak at a conference of Korean engineering educators representing the network of ICEE institutions. This was held in early December of 2011 on the famous Jeju Island off the southern tip of Korea. This island has a very special place in the hearts of the people of the country. Volcanic in origin, it offers a startling comination of natural beauty and cultural uniqueness even within a larger context of the Korean nation which generally prides itself on its cutural uniqueness. In all, it was a very stimulating and collegial environment to engage in healthy discussions on pedagogy.

Professor Joo and I pose atop Seongsan volcanic peak, a landmark on Jeju Island

What I learned from my new friends was enlightening and heartening. The discussion were dominated by ideas and case studies on increasing the relevance and experiential dimensions in modern engineering education. Hands-on, application-driven, collaborative, immersive and interactive were the kind of words that framed all of the discussions. for a country whose traditional education paradigms enforced intensive absorption oand uncompromising discipline, this was indeed refreshing. Over the years my own views on education have generally challenged the traditional linearity of the North American curriculum; certainly ths success of the Quanser business is founded on this modern perspective as well.

Leaving my mark on the rugged beaches of Jeju

Side two of this tale occurs on the other side of the world. In addition to the generous invitation that I received to address the Korean conference, I also received a request  from Professor Joo for help in facilitating a visit to Canada to learn more about how education innovation happens here. The fun part about this visit, as I quickly learned, was that the visit would not be one or two professors but a delegation of 23 people representing 11 institutions. Somehow we had to engineer an itinerary that combined visits to leading Canadian universities and industry... and this had to happen during a very short visit duration of two days. In the end we settled on a visit to York University, currently in the process of increasing its undergraduate engineering program from 500 to 2000 students; the University of Waterloo, arguably Canada's most successful engineering program; and a visit to our own headquarters to gain insight into progressive Canadian industry.

The delegation at the University of Waterloo's Student Design Center

With both universities, we received a rich and engaging series of sessions covering a vast range of education topics with respectively unique views from the two institutions. Waterloo has a 60 year history of doing the unconventional. From building the world's largest co-op program, to introducing new interdisciplinary programs at a blistering pace, to methodically expanding its positive influence through community outreach programs, it has set the standard for academic engineering innovation. York, being the rising star within the Canadian engineering scene, draws from its global reputation as a center for fundamental sciences, humanities and business and has attempted to redefine what the modern engineer should be.

Quanser curriculum developer Peter Martin demonstrates a new application concept for control systems labs

Yes, the modern engineer should be technically proficient, but she must also be interdisciplinary in thinking, entrepreneurial in ambition, creative in methodology, and global in attitude. At Quanser, the delegation had an opportunity to see and feel first hand some of the latest technology trends that, we believe, will transform the way universities deliver essential engineering experiences to students.

For me as a Korean-born Canadian, this was an amazing chance to experience the Korean academic community in the home country and in my adopted country. I felt privileged that the two sides of my heritage converged on the key context of education, a context that has been so important to me for many years. And in the end, I'm happy to report that, as the cliche goes, there seems to be more that draws us together than keeps us apart.

- Dr. Tom Lee

As Chief Education Officer at Quanser, Tom Lee is focused on spearheading the development of Quanser's global academic community. He is closely involved with Quanser's technology and solution development process and the company's partner and alliance programs. He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, and an MASc and BASc in Systems Design Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Quanser to Host Korean Academic Delegates Researching Best Practices in Engineering Education

Quanser will host a delegation of faculty members representing the Innovation Centers for Engineering Education (ICEE) Korea on Wednesday, January 4th.

The purpose of the Korean delegation's trip is to gain insight into best practices in engineering education in Canada, then adopt key practices to improve the quality and quantity of engineering graduates in their country. The itinerary includes visits to the engineering departments at the University of Waterloo and York University. Quanser will be their only industry visit.

"We're deeply honoured to be the only industry stop on the ICEE Korea itinerary," says Paul Gilbert, Quanser CEO. "As a company focused on educating the next generation of engineering innovators, we're keen to share our experience in enabling the kind of captivating laboratory teaching that not only brings engineering concepts to life, but motivates students to graduate and seek new solutions to engineering challenges."

Quanser's dedication to pace-setting education solutions was recently recognized when it was named "most innovative company" in Markham, one of Canada's leading high tech business zones.

The Korean delegation will tour Quanser headquarters, meet key staff and learn how Quanser educational solutions are assisting over 2000 universities worldwide to attract, motivate and graduate engineering students. The half day event will include demonstrations of popular and innovative engineering lab experiments, including a tele-operation robotic device.

Quanser's 2011 Holiday E-Card Is Here!

Quanser's E-Card has just been sent to the members of the global controls education and research community. This yearour card touches on some great global engineering challenges - and our collective progress in meeting them and engineering a better world. We encourage you to share the card with your friends and colleagues. Turn up the volume and enjoy!

Showcase your Course Syllabus to the Worldwide Engineering Education Community

Every year, professors around the world are creating course materials to teach control theory. How similar are those course materials? How different? Now imagine if you and other engineering educators were able to tap into the best of them, and learn from their similarities and differences. Without a doubt, such syllabus sharing would lead to significant improvements in global engineering education.

Why not share your course syllabus? It's an excellent opportunity to showcase your work to a worldwide network of controls professors and engineering institutions and get recognition for your controls course design.
 

Simply email us the material at editor@quanser.com. We'll make it available to the worldwide control community. In return, you'll gain access to a large network of controls professors, the course materials they have developed and other resources for the academic community.

Quanser solutions and course materials are in over 2000 universities worldwide so the reach of your contribution would be enormous. Leading controls professors such as Dr. Dennis Bernstein and Dr. Shirley Dyke use Quanser solutions and are in the forefront of the way controls are being taught. Submit your syllabus and join this exciting community of professors in ensuring better controls teaching and better educated, real-world-ready engineering graduates. It all begins with a simple “click”!