Lectures
Mon/Wed/Fri, 1:00-1:50pm, C6 LC
Instructor
Shuo Han (hanshuo@uic.edu)
Office hour: Mon/Wed, 2:00-2:45pm, 1110 SEO
Teaching Assistant
TBA
Course Description
The course is an introductory course in control for undergraduates.
The course mainly focuses on the analysis and design of control systems
using frequency-domain methods. Topics to be covered include: Modeling
of dynamical systems; Block diagrams and signal-flow graphs; Stability
of linear control systems; Transient and steady-state responses; Root
locus; Bode and Nyquist plots; Loopshaping.
Prerequisites
MATH 310 and grade of C or better in ECE 310.
Topics
- Mathematical modeling of control systems
- Analysis of the behaviors of control systems
- Design of control systems
Grading
- Homework (15%): Homework sets are issued every Friday and are due
8pm the following Friday.
- Homework will be graded on a scale from 0 to 4 based on effort and
completion.
- The lowest one will be dropped towards calculating your total
homework grade. Namely, if there are X homework sets in total, then the
best X-1 sets will be used.
- There will be about 11 homework sets in total.
- Labs (15%): Lab instructions will issued every Friday before the lab
week. Lab reports are due 8pm the Friday after the lab week (same
deadline for both sections).
- Grading scheme: Same as homework.
- There will be about 10 labs in total.
- You can submit the report on your own or as a group of no more than
three students.
- Two midterm exams (20% + 20%) and one final exam (30%):
- The midterm exams will likely take place in class during Week 6 and
Week 11, respectively. The exact date(s) will be announced later. The
final exam will take place during the final exam week (Week 16).
- All the exams are closed-book and closed-notes.
- You may use a single handwritten letter-sized double-sided "cheat
sheet" during the first midterm exam, and two for the second midterm
exam. The cheat sheets may contain formulas, facts, definitions, and
theorems. However, your cheat sheets may not contain worked examples.
You must hand in your cheat sheets along with your completed exam.
- You may use a standalone calculator. No phones or computers are
allowed in the exam.
- There will be no make-up exams or substitutions. If you need to miss
an exam due to extenuating circumstances, please notify the instructor
as soon as possible. With appropriate supporting documentation, the
other two exams will be reweighted when calculating the exam portion of
your final grade. Please note that this reweighting option is available
only if one exam is missed.
- Incomplete grades are given according to the UIC
policy. For this course, "satisfactory progress" means that you are
currently receiving a grade of D or better at the time of requesting an
incomplete grade.
- Guaranteed cutoff grades: A-85%, B-75%, C-65%, D-55%.
Course Logistics
We will use a number of websites throughout this course, each of
which has a different purpose.
- This website: course syllabus
- UIC Blackboard: viewing grades
- Piazza: course announcements, downloading problem sets and course
materials, Q&A
- Gradescope: submitting homework and lab reports
Homework Policy
- You are required to submit your homework and lab reports on
Gradescope. You are encouraged (but not required) to typeset your
homework using LaTeX. See the section "LaTeX resources" on this page if
you are new to LaTeX. If you choose to write your solution by hand, we
ask that you digitize it using a high-quality scanner (as opposed to
taking photos), which is available and free at the Daley Library. This
will ensure that the submitted copy is legible.
- All solutions handed in should be written up individually (or as a
group for group-submitted lab reports) and reflect your own
understanding of the subject matter at the time of writing. You may
consult the lecture notes, the textbooks listed below, references
mentioned in class, other students (see the "Collaboration" section
below), or the instructor. You may also consult outside references not
listed on the course webpage, provided that you cite those references in
your submissions. This includes the use of online forums and generative
AI. You cannot consult solutions from prior years or solution
manuals.
- Show all your work to receive credits. We prefer correct and concise
solutions. If you find that your solution to a problem goes on and on
for many pages, you should try to come up with a simpler one. One useful
way to shorten your solutions is to cite results derived in class or
from the textbooks.
- Late homework or lab reports: Late homework or lab
reports will not be accepted under any circumstances. The policy of
dropping the lowest grade is meant to cover emergencies. Use it
wisely.
Collaboration
- Collaboration on homework assignments is encouraged. Notes taken
during the discussions cannot be used at the time of writing your own
solutions.
- MATLAB scripts and plots are considered part of your writeup and
should be done individually (you can share ideas, but not code).
- If you have collaborated with others, include their names, the
problems you have collaborated on, and to what extent. Also, be explicit
that you have written your solution on your own and that you have not
shared code. No statement will be treated as no collaboration.
- Example: "I collaborated with [names] on Problems 1 and 3,
discussing related concepts and solution strategies. The solutions that
I submit reflect my own understanding at the time of writing. I have not
shared my code with others."
Academic Integrity
- We treat academic dishonesty seriously. All offenses are reportable
to the University.
- For any violation of the course policy in homework or the final
report, the homework assignment or the report will receive a grade of
zero, and a warning will be issued to the offender. For homework
assignments, the zero grade will not be dropped when calculating the
letter grade.
- For two violations of the course policy, the final letter grade of
the offender will be lowered by one tier, e.g., from A to B.
- For more than two violations of the course policy, the offender will
receive a letter grade of F.
- The penalty applies to all parties involved.
- You can read this
page by Jeff Erickson (UIUC) and UIC's official
page to learn more about academic integrity.
Others
- You should keep the course material (lecture notes, audio
recordings, homework problems and solutions, lab assignments) for
personal use only and not post them on public websites (e.g., Course
Hero).
- Students who wish to observe their religious holidays should notify
the instructor by the tenth day of the semester of the date when they
will be absent unless the religious holiday is observed on or before the
tenth day of the semester. In such cases, the students should notify the
instructor at least five days in advance of the date when they will be
absent. Every reasonable effort will be made to honor the request.
- UIC is committed to full inclusion and participation of people with
disabilities in all aspects of university life. To receive
accommodations, you will need to disclose the disability to the
Disability Resource Center (DRC), complete an interactive registration
process with the DRC, and provide me with a Letter of Accommodation
(LOA). Upon receipt of an LOA, I will gladly work with you and the DRC
to implement approved accommodations.
Course Text and References
The main textbook for the course is
- [DB] Richard C. Dorf and Robert H. Bishop, Modern Control
Systems (14th Edition), 2022. (On reserve at the Daley
library)
Other references
For textbooks with "UIC access", you need to connect to the UIC
campus network or VPN. Alternatively, you can search for the textbook on
the UIC library website and click
the eBook link therein.
- [AM] K. J. Astrom and Richard M. Murray, Feedback Systems: An
Introduction for Scientists and Engineers (2nd Edition), Princeton
University Press, 2021. Online
access
- [GK] Golnaraghi and Kuo, Automatic Control Systems (10th
Edition), McGraw-Hill, 2017. UIC
access
LaTeX Resources
- Installation: See a list of LaTeX
distributions for common operating systems.
- LaTeX editors
- Because the LaTeX source files are in plain text, you can always use
your favorite text editor.
- For a WYSIWYG document processor (similar to MS Word) based on
LaTeX: LyX
- Alternatively, you can use an online browser-based LaTeX editor: Overleaf
- LaTeX usage
- If you are new to LaTeX, the best way to begin is by typesetting
using an existing template. You can find a LaTeX template useful for
this course on this
page. Read
template_notes.pdf and use
template_notes.tex as a start.
- For how to compile a PDF from LaTeX source, see this
page. We recommend using pdfLaTeX.
- If you do not know how to type a mathematical symbol, you can get
help from Detexify.
- Comprehensive usage guides are available on the following websites: