Systems and Control (SysCon) Minor

Written by Akhilesh Hoskeri, B.Tech 3rd year (July 2021)

The minor is structured as 3 compulsory courses and 2 electives. The department’s website sc.iitb.ac.in has a list of courses they offer. Each compulsory course is mentioned as a prerequisite for the next and the three together as prerequisites for most other electives courses. While it’s good to cover the prerequisites so that learning in a course does not feel too steep, in some cases the professors just expect you to know the content (possibly through a similar course in another department).

The first course is completely mathematical and feels like a recap of the first year maths courses for the most part of it. The second course deals with Fourier and Laplace transforms and other ways to represent systems using diagrams or graphs. The third course delves into state space representation which is used often in modern control theory and also introduces Lyapunov, LaSalles and other theorems to describe the stability of systems. Most of the concepts in the first two courses are covered in some or the other core course in the Elec department. But the topics in the other SysCon courses aren’t covered in any core course. Some of the electives in SysCon have their counterparts among the Elec department as well but SysCon has a larger variety of electives in control theory and application particularly because it doesn’t have to restrict itself to electrical systems. In general systems and controls engineering has a lot of math involved which is clearly reflected in the courses as well.

Systems and controls engineering is highly multi-disciplinary because its techniques can be applied in various fields and is relevant to several departments like Aerospace, Electrical, Mechanical and Chemical Engineering. It is also fundamental for robotics and autonomous vehicles and would definitely benefit anyone interested in exploring these trending technologies. SysCon has a number of courses along those lines which Elec does not.