Building Sustainability into Control Systems: Preliminary assessment of a new facilities-based and hands-on teaching approach

This paper presents an overview and preliminary assessment of an NSF TUES funded project, “Building Sustainability into Control Systems Courses.” The new inductive teaching strategy utilizes an energy efficient academic building to provide students with direct, practical exposure to modern heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) and building automation systems. Students are taken on tours of the building's HVAC mechanical rooms and partake in process control laboratory experiments. New curriculum materials introduce basic operational principles of central HVAC systems and provide an overview of the control systems theory involved. A value-added, mixed-method assessment strategy uses both qualitative and quantitative techniques to closely track student performance and outcomes. Preliminary direct and indirect assessment results reveal this new facilities-based and hands-on teaching approach helps students appreciate the real-world applicability of control systems theory.