Student-written control application case studies

This paper describes a graduate-level control course at the University of Pretoria, the aim of which is to develop case studies on industrial control applications. Groups of students are given a specific industrial control problem to study, as facilitated by experts from industry. Students study the process via a literature survey, by spending time on the plant in question, and by interviewing operators and technical personnel. They then formulate the control problem, provide a conceptual solution, quantitatively test their proposed solutions in a simulated environment, and write a case study on the assigned problem. Cases are finally presented to a panel of experts.