Teaching Vibration And Control Courses Using Animation, Simulation, And Experimentation

Vibration and control theories are both subjects that encompass almost all fields of engineering applications. Understanding the theory of vibration is essential to understanding of control theory for undergraduate engineering students. The traditional treatment in teaching both theories tend to be highly theoretical and mathematically complex and may not be beneficial for some undergraduate students who can be classified as sensing, or visual learners. Modern computation tools equipped with simulation and visual capability can ease explanation of topics in vibration and control theories in the classroom and laboratory. Through the use of these modern visualization and simulation tools, it is possible to teach “mathematically advanced concepts in vibration and control courses in engineering” more efficiently and make it more interesting for them to understand. This paper describes teaching vibration and automatic control courses in the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering departments at the West Virginia University Institute of Technology. Experiments are designed to give student thorough understanding of basic concepts in vibration and control theories using animation, simulation, and experimentation. A series of lab sessions are introduced to the class to complement the lecture materials and to guide the students to understand vibration and control theory together and explore different important parameters that exist in both theories.