Priorities: it was agreed at the July 2020 meeting to focus energies in the next year on developing resources and good practice for outreach activities to a variety of groups. Initially, this will be led by Danny, but with continuing support from Bozenna and many others, including the IFAC community. Curriculum Survey: The Technical Committees on Education (IFAC and IEEE) coordinated a survey to help the global community share its views on what control-related topics we should be including in an engineering curriculum. The results have now been published in the IFAC Journal of Systems and Control (2020). The next IFAC Symposium on Advances in Control Education was held in conjunction with the 2019 ACC in Philadelphia (July 7-9), with Bozenna as the chair. Thank you to those who helped Bozenna in making this a successful and worthwhile event. Please see www.ifac-ace2019.org for more information. An IEEE Young Professionals/ WIE Workshop was held at ACE2019. Bozenna made arrangements with IEEE Philadelphia Section YP/WIE Leaders. Control Curriculum: Following the committee meeting in Melbourne (Dec. 2017) and subsequent discussions of the partner IFAC TC in Ghent (May 2018), it was decided to make the main project for the short term focus on the control curriculum. The main aim is to produce a survey of the control curriculum across the globe to gain some insight into what should be the priorities for a 21st-century engineer. The intention is to release the survey in Spring/Summer of 2019 and report the results in 2020. The results will be used as guidance for the next step which is modernizing a repository of learning resources that staff and students can access. Discussions are ongoing in the senior levels of IFAC/IEEE on how such a repository should be maintained. Workshop for Middle & High School Students and Teachers 2018: The Power, Beauty and Excitement of Cross-Boundaries Nature of Control, a Field that Spans Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM). This year marks the 18th anniversary of the Ideas and Technology Control Systems workshops for middle and high school teachers and students, renamed recently as the Power, Beauty and Excitement of Cross-Boundaries Nature of Control, a Field that Spans Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM). These workshops are held twice a year in conjunction with the ACC, CDC and IFAC Meetings and Congresses. During the last seventeen years, over 15,000 middle and high school students and their teachers, as well as undergraduate students, have been reached through our control educational activities. Over 170 academic and industry representatives have shared their passion and have given inspirational talks at these workshops. The purpose of these workshops is to increase awareness among students and teachers of the importance and cross-disciplinary nature of control and systems technology in everyday life. The workshops show the power of cross boundaries research and have been presented to students and teachers in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Maui, New Orleans, Orlando, Portland, San Diego, Seattle, St. Louis and Washington, D.C. Boston, and have been held in the Czech Republic, Cyprus, South Korea, Poland, Spain and South Africa. The longevity of the control field, which spans science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, depends on its continuous success in attracting the most gifted young people to the profession. Early exposure is the key to that goal. The idea is that education is at all levels an inclusive process: it should integrate scholarship, teaching, and learning both horizontally and vertically—creating a learning experience for students of all ages, from K-12 to higher education and beyond. Through those seventeen years, the model of a sustainable outreach partnership among our control communities and the school districts at the places where our major conferences are held was established and subsequently followed by other organizations and societies. This outreach partnership has provided a vehicle for demonstrating the importance of control. The workshop activities include presentations by control systems experts from the control community, informal discussions, and the opportunity for teachers to meet passionate researchers and educators from academia and industry. Our “ Plain Talks” initiative was closely related to the outreach efforts. The goal was to develop short and inspirational presentations for teachers and students but also for non-control engineering communities. One of the major challenges for the control communities is to enhance its own public image and convey the essence and contribution of the field to outsiders. The recent workshops for middle and high school students were held at the 2016 & 2017 ACC in Boston & Seattle. The workshops were created to attract students and teachers to automation by demonstrating the importance, power, beauty, diversity, and excitement of control, a field that spans STEM. Older News Activities of the Technical Committee on Control Education. The IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS) Technical Committee (TC) on Control Education has a broad mandate, focusing on modern curricula in control science and technology, continuing education programs, control laboratories and equipment, and industry-education interfaces. Outreach events are often organized during the American Control Conference and the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control. [read more] On Recent Activities of Control Education Committee: 10 Years of AACC Outreach Efforts and Educational Activities. This year marked the tenth anniversary of the Ideas and Technology Control Systems workshop for middle and high school teachers and students. These workshops are held twice a year in conjunction with the American Control Conference and the Conference on Decision and Control. [read more, see pg. 4] 10 years of CSS-sponsored and co-sponsored Education Activities / Outreach Efforts. The first NSF/Control workshop for high school teachers of mathematics and science in Chicago in June of 2000. NSF, IEEE Control Society and KU Math Department sponsored this national workshop. The workshop was very successful and NSF and IEEE Control Society decided to continue with similar, but local, workshops for high school students and teachers of mathematics and science. [read more].
