Control Engineering | Course catalogue

Objectives

Master's Degree in Control Engineering: General Objectives

The Master's degree in Control Engineering, unique of its kind offered by Sapienza within the Automation Engineering class (LM-25), stands out for its interdisciplinarity and rigorous methodological approach. For this reason, this course is suitable for students with a first-level degree in various fields of information and industrial engineering, as well as for graduates in mathematics and physics.

Control methodologies are pervasive in various fields of engineering and are often necessary for enhancing the effectiveness of many advanced technologies across multiple application sectors. In particular, automation plays a strategic role in the design, control, and management of robotic systems, communication networks, transportation networks, and conventional or alternative energy production and distribution, as well as aeronautical and aerospace systems, mechatronics, automotive, bioengineering, healthcare systems, and critical infrastructures. In these application sectors, complex processes arise that are hybrid and uncertain, with nonlinear dynamics and/or difficult to model, subject to exogenous and stochastic disturbances, requiring often distributed but mutually coordinated command and control actions, performed based on incomplete and/or noisy information—all aspects addressed with the methods and techniques specific to automatic control engineering.

The course, therefore, has the primary objective of teaching the fundamental methodologies of Automation:

Modeling and identification of dynamic systems.
Measurement and filtering of real-time sensory information.
Generalized use of feedback control to stabilize and optimize process performance.
Learning predictive commands (feedforward) based on data.
Development of adaptive schemes to robustly manage large uncertainties and temporal variability, also by integrating Artificial Intelligence techniques.

Secondly, the course aims to specialize the aforementioned methodologies and implement them in appropriate devices and software, making them usable and effective within the aforementioned application sectors. In other words, the methodological approach to the analysis and design of complex control systems and the ability to implement such systems while considering the specific nature of different application sectors are the two cornerstones of Control Engineering education.

The course aims to equip students with an interdisciplinary preparation and a mindset oriented towards maximum versatility, fundamental factors for the success of Master's graduates in most current and future increasingly heterogeneous work contexts.

Furthermore, fundamental objectives of the educational offering include the theoretical-scientific aspects necessary to describe and interpret engineering problems, such as:

Developing skills in ideation, planning, design, and management of systems, processes, and services.
Developing skills in experimentation and scientific innovation.
Knowledge and fluent use of the English language.

Finally, it is highlighted that the course has a close connection with the professional world, as evidenced by the large number and relevance of applied research projects in which faculty members are involved, projects carried out in collaboration with national and international companies.

The preparation of a Master's graduate in Control Engineering allows for their placement in research and/or design and/or management contexts, both at universities and scientific research centers, and at companies (in system and/or application research and development sectors), nationally and internationally. The usability of the Master's degree internationally is guaranteed by the delivery in English and by the quantity and quality of the international research relationships of the course faculty.

Structure of the Study Program

The educational activities offered by the study program are related to the following three training areas:

Robotics and Autonomous Vehicles: This training area aims to provide students with specialized knowledge and advanced skills to address the design and management of control systems in robotics, automated plants, automotive, and space. Master's graduates in Control Engineering will gain a deep understanding of the problems and control techniques of advanced robotic systems, which include manipulator and mobile-based robots for industrial automation and service applications, collaborative robots with human users, robots for medical applications and assisted surgery, humanoid robots, and terrestrial and aerial autonomous vehicles (drones).
Control of Networks and Complex Systems: This training area aims to provide students with a solid understanding of the fundamental aspects of theory and methods of automation in the application sectors of networks (energy, communication, transport, etc.) and complex systems (critical infrastructures, health support systems, biomedical systems, emergency systems, etc.). Master's graduates in Control Engineering will acquire, on the one hand, the skills to model and analyze networks/systems composed of physical phenomena, devices, and complex, heterogeneous, and interconnected processes, and on the other hand, hybrid control methodologies, aided by artificial intelligence techniques, capable of satisfying design specifications based, as appropriate, on complete, partial, or largely incomplete knowledge of the system model to be controlled.
Advanced Control Methods: This training area aims to provide students with the theoretical skills necessary to conceive and design advanced control and supervision systems, ensuring the correct functioning of complex and nonlinear processes in uncertain environments. Master's graduates in Control Engineering will be able, based on the knowledge acquired in the basic and advanced methodological courses related to this training area, to solve problems of modeling, design, management, and supervision of dynamic systems, even in the presence of sampled data, disturbances, uncertainties, and delays.

The study program is structured so that the core educational activities cover all three aforementioned training areas. Master's graduates in Control Engineering will thus acquire a mindset oriented towards interdisciplinarity and versatility, one of the most qualifying objectives of this degree program.

In particular, the study program requires certain compulsory educational activities related to the 'Advanced Control Methods' area (including the theory and control of nonlinear systems, optimal control, and identification) as they provide the essential theoretical and methodological substrate for the other two training areas.

Secondly, through the combination of characterizing activities and related supplementary activities, the study program allows for greater emphasis on a specific training area or, at the student's choice, to maintain a more balanced path with respect to the three training areas. In other words, the study program offers degrees of freedom that allow the student to modulate the emphasis on each of the three training areas, thus ensuring the flexibility to adapt to individual interests and professional ambitions.

Finally, an essential completing element of the study program is the Master's thesis, which allows the graduating student to utilize the plurality of methodologies and techniques acquired in an industrial or scientific application field. Through the thesis, the graduating student must demonstrate mastery of the thesis topics, the ability to propose ingeniously valid, if not innovative, solutions, the aptitude to operate autonomously, and a level of communication that allows for presenting the obtained results clearly, both in written and oral form.

Training Areas in Relation to Professional Opportunities

With reference to the 'Robotics and Autonomous Vehicles' training area, graduates can find professional opportunities in the fields of industrial automation, the design and implementation of robotic systems to improve efficiency and productivity in manufacturing production lines, service robotics (development of robots for domestic, commercial, and assistance applications), medical robotics (design of robots for assisted surgery and other biomedical applications), the design of control systems for autonomous vehicles, driver assistance systems, the development of drones, and control systems for spacecraft and aircraft, etc.

With reference to the 'Control of Networks and Complex Systems' training area, graduates can find professional opportunities in the fields of control, management, security, and optimization of communication networks, energy distribution (smart grids), transportation (smart cities), the automation of complex industrial processes, the control, security, and management of critical infrastructures, telemedicine, support for patient diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy, emergency prevention and management, etc.

With reference to the 'Advanced Control Methods' training area, graduates can find professional opportunities in all the sectors mentioned in the two preceding training areas, at universities, research centers, or highly innovative companies interested in optimizing their systems by introducing the most advanced control methodologies.

Since the study program is conceived with interdisciplinarity in mind, such that each student has more or less knowledge, but pertinent to all three training areas, within their professional life, a Master's graduate in Control Engineering can move quite easily from one professional opportunity to another among those mentioned above.