In the area of systems control, the objective is to make a physical system act in a desired manner through the use of an automatic feedback controller; for example, an autopilot (the controller) is used on an aircraft to maintain speed, altitude and direction. Feedback is a fundamental concept in engineering, and systems control harnesses its power to achieve desired system behaviours.
Control systems are found in abundance in industry, and include the control of assembly lines, machine tools, robotics, aerospace systems and the process control widely used in chemical processing industry. As society continues to move towards computerization, use of control systems is becoming pervasive, and plays an increasingly important role. Expertise in the Systems and Controls area covers a wide range of topics, including linear control and nonlinear control, networked and distributed control, adaptive control, robust control, autonomous systems, stochastic algorithms, and discrete event systems. Areas of application include robotics, smart power grids, computer networks, financial economics, autonomous aerial and ground vehicles, multi-agent systems, humanoid robots, environmental monitoring, transportation networks, and psychological systems. Since most topics in systems control require advanced mathematical abilities, graduate students not only become skilled control systems practitioners, but also skilled in analysis.