ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING

Control Engineering
CONTROL ENGINEERING

Contents
03 Why Cambridge
Advance Online?
04 Welcome to
Control Engineering
05 What you will learn 
on the course?
08 The learning journey 
09 Learning breakdown 
10 Course modules 
12 Meet your course lead
13 Technical requirements 
13 Course certification

advanceonline.cam.ac.uk
Why Cambridge
Advance Online?
We are delighted to offer this exciting programme of short online courses for
03

ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING

professionals, giving you the opportunity to harness the latest research, innovation and
thinking that the University of Cambridge has to offer.

Cambridge Advance Online brings together the academic strength of the University, and
the publishing and assessment strengths of Cambridge University Press and Cambridge
Assessment, allowing you to develop your skills and specialise in emerging areas that
address global challenges.

Our certificated courses will reflect the Cambridge experience and values, with low
student to tutor ratios and academically rigorous standards. They will allow you to engage
directly with academics at Cambridge and are centred on rich interaction between
students and subject experts. Each course will offer you the opportunity to join live
sessions with academics and interact in collaborative exercises with learners worldwide.

The University of Cambridge is committed to supporting lifelong learning and, through

Cambridge Advance Online, has invested in the latest education technology to provide
professionals with the very best experience wherever they are in the world and at any
stage of their career.

We look forward to welcoming you onto one of our courses and to our global
community of learners.

Professor Andy Neely OBE

Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise and Business Relations
 CONTROL ENGINEERING

Welcome to
Control Engineering

04
Control engineering is needed in all sectors of industry. It will
be an essential enabling tool if we are to successfully meet
environmental and climate change targets.
Whether it is battery management on an electric car, control of a smart grid with
renewable generation, or production of chemicals in a hydrogen economy, advanced
control engineering algorithms are going to be needed. We already make much use of
control engineering in our manufacturing and process industries, in the aerospace and
automotive industries, throughout the electronics and IT industries (in phones, games,
internet routing) and increasingly in surgery and medical procedures, as well as in
home automation.

This course is designed for graduate engineers from any engineering discipline
who want to become more familiar with control engineering. We do not assume any
specialist knowledge or skills in control and aim to give a good overview of the field,
with corresponding skills and competencies. The course will familiarise you with
modern software tools for modelling, simulation and analysis, of the type used in
many industries.

Professor Jan Maciejowski

Professor Emeritus of Control Engineering,
University of Cambridge

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Course summary

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ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING

Timetable: Discover the what, when and why of control
September | January | April | June engineering. Learn to design and analyse
control solutions.

Subject area: Participants will learn to identify opportunities

Engineering and Manufacturing for feedback and control in their professional
context and develop the skills needed to
Format and length: effectively use Matlab and Simulink to analyse
8 weeks | 6-10 hours per week* and design control systems. They will look at
performance specifications and theoretical
limits on what can be achieved, as well as
discuss sensors and actuators.

Although much of the course will centre on

the basic workhorse control algorithm known
as Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID)
control, participants will also go beyond
PID control to explore ‘loop shaping’ and
multivariable control, as well as some standard
algorithms, including state feedback, linear-
quadratic optimal control, state observers
and Kalman filters.

Relevant examples will be drawn from a

range of applications to give context to
conceptual information and participants
will be encouraged to apply their learning
to their own work through discussions and
project work.

*Times are estimated and may be influenced by individual learner circumstances.

 CONTROL ENGINEERING

What you will learn

on the course?

06
By the end of the course, participants will
be able to:

– Recognise needs and opportunities for

control in their engineering projects or
products.
– Assess which control method and
technology is most appropriate to their
project or product.
– Design and analyse a control solution.
– Model dynamic systems.
– Select and use appropriate software tools,
including simulation software, to test,
validate and iterate their control solutions.
Is this course
right for you?
This course is aimed at the
following roles in industry:
– Professional engineers faced with
a control engineering problem
who need to enhance their
knowledge of the field
– Managers who have control
engineers working for them and
who wish to better understand
their job role

– Individuals wanting to broaden

their skill set to enhance their
career opportunities

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 07

ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING

Key learning
objectives

– Formulate a performance
specification for a control system.

– Tune a PID controller.

– Gain an overview of multivariable

control, optimal control and model
predictive control.

– Appreciate state observers and

Kalman filters.

– Understand the stability of

a control system.

– Interpret Nyquist and Bode

diagrams.
 CONTROL ENGINEERING

The learning
journey

08
Cambridge Advance Online courses are delivered over 6 to 8
consecutive weeks (dependent on the programme), with each week’s
content following a clear, deliverable path to help facilitate learning. 

Orientation Week 1 Week 2 Week 3

You will get access to
familiarise yourself with
our learning platform,
Canvas, start networking
with peers and hear from
your course leader.

Week 6 Week 5 Week 4

Week 7* Week 8* Join our

Alumni network

*The duration of the programme is dependent on the course.

Please check the course summary for information regarding course length.

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Learning
breakdown

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ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING

Our online courses combine several different elements to create a
balanced blend of learning. Participants will be able to learn at their
own pace during the week, viewing content, engaging in discussions
and completing any assignments. On average, our courses take
8 to 10 hours per week. 

5-6hrs 1hr

Built content Discussion

(e.g. videos, animations,
quizzes, case studies,
worked experiments)

1-2hrs 1hr

Reading Live session

and research
(e.g. reading,
looking for info
online etc.)
 CONTROL ENGINEERING
Course modules
10
Introduction to
Module 1
Module 2
control systems
Week 1 contains examples of feedback
control from history, from different
domains and from participants’ own
experience, and then looks at the use of
block diagrams to represent systems. This
is a discussion of why we use feedback
and the ‘reduction of uncertainty’ formula
S=1/(1+G), as well as the dangers of
feedback and an introduction to Matlab
and Simulink software. Participants
will build simple feedback simulations
themselves and explore instability and
performance. The week will end with a
look at feed forward control.
PID controller, dynamical
Module 3
Module 4
systems and transfer
functions
Week 3 explores Proportional-Integral-
Derivative (PID) controllers and the
motivation for each term. The content will
explore the practical realisations of PID
controllers as well as how to tune a PID
controller, focusing on Ziegler-Nichols
rules. There will be more systematic
analysis and design and a discussion of
Laplace transforms and transfer functions.
Students will create and manipulate models
in these forms, using Matlab software and
’by hand’ exercises.
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Performance, tuning,
sensors and actuators
Week 2 looks at whether control of
unmeasured variables is possible and
how this can be done if a good model is
available. There will be discussion of how
to specify performance and unavoidable
trade-offs. Participants will try trial-and-error
tuning of simple control systems using
Simulink and look at examples of sensors
and actuators. Week 2 will also look at
cascade structure and ask students to
research how sensors and actuators work
in their own industries.
Modelling, linearisation,
stability
Week 4 explains how we get the
equations, from first-principles modelling,
step-response experiments, other input-
output tests, or operating records (using
correlation analysis). Participants will learn
why, for computer-based control, we
need discrete-time models of systems.
There will also be a discussion on how
to use linearising nonlinear models and
when this is useful, as well as how to get
frequency response from a model or from
experiments. The week will also look at
the stability of linear feedback systems:
the Nyquist theorem, Bode plots, stability
margins.

PID control continued
Module 5
Module 6
Week 5 shows students how to use
Matlab and Simulink software to analyse
and design a control system with a PID
controller, aiming to achieve a given
performance specification. Participants
will also learn how to auto-tune a PID
controller from scratch, without a
model, and look at real-world actuator
saturation. Week 5 will also discuss
when PID is not enough to achieve the
specification.
Horizon scan: what else
Module 7
Module 8
is out there?
Week 7 will conduct a tour d’horizon
(broad-but-shallow) scan of a number
of topics that have not yet been treated
in detail. This will include anti-aliasing
filters for interfacing to the digital world
as well as more general optimal control,
including time-optimal bang-bang control.
Participants will be introduced to model
predictive control, adaptive control and
robust control.
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ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING
Beyond PID
Week 6 looks at the options if a PID
controller is insufficient to achieve the
specification. The content will explore
phase-lead and phase-lag compensators as
well as multivariable control. Participants
will consider state feedback and linear-
quadratic optimal control, state observers,
Luenberger (reduced-order) observers and
Kalman filters (non-statistical treatment).
Week 6 discusses the separation principle
and participants will simulate and analyse a
linear-quadratic-Gaussian feedback system
to investigate the effects of disturbances
and noise, and of parameter choices.
Major assignment
Week 8 will contain a structured analysis
and design exercise involving; formulating
a performance specification; selecting and
assessing a suitable control strategy; and
designing and analysing a control system
(possibly iteratively). This exercise will form
the major assessed assignment at the end
of the course. Participants will use Matlab
and Simulink software. The problem may be
based on the ’evaporator control’ project that
has been used successfully in the third year
of the Engineering Tripos at the University
of Cambridge for many years, or it may
be possible to use participants’ own work-
based problems. The same problem will be
introduced gradually in the assignments in
earlier weeks, so that students will already
have some familiarity with it.
 CONTROL ENGINEERING

Meet your course lead

12
Professor Jan Maciejowski
Professor Emeritus of Control Engineering,
University of Cambridge

Professor Jan Maciejowski was a Systems Engineer with

Marconi Space and Defence Systems Ltd. From 1971 to
1974. At the University of Cambridge, he was a Professor
of Control Engineering until November 2018, the Head
of the Information Engineering Division from 2009 to
2014, and the President of Pembroke College from 2008
to 2018.
Jan was President of the European Union Control Association from 2003 to
2005, and President of the Institute of Measurement and Control for 2002.
He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and
Technology (IET), the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE),
the Institute of Measurement and Control (InstMC), and of the International
Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC). He was a Distinguished Lecturer of
the IEEE Control Systems Society from 2001 to 2007.

Jan has consulted in the aerospace and process control sectors and has
published two prize-winning graduate-level textbooks on control. Recently
he has been working with economists on the optimal control of the
Covid-19 pandemic.

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Technical
requirements
– Sufficient internet speed and
stability for video streaming
(2 Mbps up/down)
– Please see our recommendations
on web browsers:
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ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING
Course
certification
You’ll be assessed using a range
of modalities that emphasise
real-world application of course
material. On completion of your
Cambridge Advance Online course,
you will be eligible for a Certificate
of Achievement and digital badge.
To get your Certificate you must
achieve a minimum grade of
70% on course activities and your
final tutor-marked project.
If you have any questions or would like more
information about our online courses, please
contact our Enrolment Advisors at
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