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Choosing between a master's degree in controls and one in electronics

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Infraviolet:
Hardly on topic, but while Sheffield isn't quite "mountainous" it is more so than pretty much any other English city, infact I think it has the highest average altitude for any UK city, and definitely the highest single point within a city's limits. Peaks of 500 or so metres isn't true mountains, but its much nicer geography than a lot of the rest of England.

jonpaul:
Bonjour, We studied 2 semesters of CS Eng with Dr.  Vincent DelToro, who wrote the book Principles of Control System Engineering   in 1960. Still valid!
https://www.amazon.com/Principles-Control-Systems-Engineering-McGraw-Hill/dp/B0000CKS38

 control systems are fundamental to biology, chemistry, aviation, HVAC, and many other fields besides electronics.

  UK is less and less viable for living and school.

U Delft is very respected and in a better environment , economic, weather, and perhaps political than UK.

Just my opinions,

Jon

shaheansar:

--- Quote from: artag on June 08, 2023, 02:45:22 pm ---I think controls are one of the most flexible and widely applicable ares of electronics, given that it's mostly about filters, transforms and stability criteria. I don't think there's any area of electronics where it isn't relevant, and if some future employer doesn't realise that, they're not someone you want to work for.

Added to that, Britain is currently being run by a bunch of morons who will take any opportunity to grab money, discriminate against other nations or ingratiate themselves with their racist supporters. Avoid.

That said, Sheffield is one of my favourite cities and one of the most attractive regions (the peak district). So if you must, yeah. no worries on that part. Delft is also attractive and interesting with an excellent industrial heritage, but is short on mountains.

--- End quote ---

So I will be able to work in mixed signal design? I have some experience on the analog side. It's a massive investment as an international student (about 83K EUR living costs included since the average duration in which students finish the course is 2.5 years). I will invest that much in myself but I need to be sure that I get to work in the field I love. The UK degree is literally half the cost.

hans:

--- Quote from: artag on June 08, 2023, 02:45:22 pm ---I think controls are one of the most flexible and widely applicable ares of electronics, given that it's mostly about filters, transforms and stability criteria. I don't think there's any area of electronics where it isn't relevant, and if some future employer doesn't realise that, they're not someone you want to work for.

--- End quote ---

Although stability of feedback circuits is essential, I do not think a S&C masters is much about electronics. At all.

In fact, at Delft, the S&C progam is listed under mechanical engineering. I think there is very little in the way of electronics, except that it can be part of an implementation like a robot. The electronics may be your vehicle of study, but not the core study.
You may get to the implementation of some control loop on an embedded platform of choice, e.g. uC, uP, DSP, FPGA, or a mix. But if that side of the job is the itch you want to scratch, you could as well study a program like embedded or computer engineering, or EE if you're into mixed signal and analog design as well.
At UTwente the S&C program is inside the domain of EE and CS, however, its being renamed to robotics I think.

But these master programs are not always carved into stone. I expect most programs to list a fraction of mandatory courses, and a major part electives. In my master I completed 125EC (5 more than needed), of which 40EC was grad project, 30EC was core courses, so that means about 55EC(almost 1 year) of electives. I did an embedded systems master, but took courses from EE (like analog courses preparing for IC design) up to SW (machine learning and information theory). A lot of students that are into a systems orientated master did that.

The (potential lack of) electives is one of the problems I would have with a 1year masters: a decent grad project easily takes 30-40EC(most students at my university take more time because of the academic freedoms that are fun and interesting, yet time consuming, to chase down). With 1yrs that only leaves 20-30EC of other course material, of which I expect a majority is mandatory.
But I can't be sure as I haven't read the syllabus of the Sheffield university. But I would expect most engineering masters to be 2 years.

Also, I would expect a S&C program to be about engineering systems(hej its in the name of the program). You want to dive much further beyond a standard control loop like a PID, for example, systems with multiple in/outputs, or feedforward, or make actuators that allow for haptic feedback and compliant motion that is safe to use by/around humans. It looks to me like a relatively math heavy masters that is applicable to a wide range of industries.
Sure electronics is full of feedback and feedforward systems, but my impression is that many electronics engineers just want to build something relatively quickly that works, is easy to get stable and cheap to implement. If more study is possible and necessary, then that is a field of specialization on its own (e.g. a thesis for someone else).

But that are my 2 cents :)

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