Archived-Announcements-2014

Prior announcements -- from most recent to earliest

• 09 Apr: all solutions to the assignments have been posted now.
• 09 Apr: a discussion about the final exam is posted.
• 07 Apr: all previous questions from the quizzes on last Friday are now permanently available for you to practice at http://inpress.mcmaster.ca (on campus access only). Click on "Go to all previous test(s) and quizz(es)" after signing in and chosing the Process Control course.
• 07 Apr: Mudassir has volunteered to run a course review and question/answer session, this Thursday, 10 April, at 14:00, in JHE-144.
• 04 April: Tutorials are all completed, and all tutorial grades are posted now on Avenue. Tutorials, as you experienced over the past weeks, were a chance for you to really get to the bottom of the material. Simple attendance at the tutorial was not the purpose, complete understanding of the concepts was. Tutorial PDFs are posted on the website (below) for you to practice and review your understanding of the crucial concepts.
• 31 Mar: a new, and final, assignment is posted.
• 31 Mar: an error in the Avenue formula caused grades for the midterm to be lower than they should. Please sign in to re-check your grade. The grade that will count as your Midterm is the column called "Overall percentage for midterm 2". The boost to your grade due to collaboration is now correctly calculated. Most people received an increase of 4% with their collaborative grades, with numbers ranging between 0 and 8%.
• 28 Mar: the midterm 2 grades are posted on Avenue. I've have changed the last question to be /10, so the overall midterm is /50, instead of /54.
• 26 Mar: the next assignment 6 due date has been shifted to 31 March, to give you time to solve it right. No late hand-ins after Monday though.
• 27 Mar: come to class on Friday with a laptop, cellphone, tablet: anything with a web browser. We will be testing some interactive software in the class.
• 26 Mar: the next assignment 6 due date has been shifted to 31 March, to give you time to solve it right. No late hand-ins after Monday though.
• 24 Mar: as a solution to the most recent tutorials, please read this article on cascade control (first 4 pages). Though most of you presented answers that were more complete than in the PDF.
• 17 Mar: we move to the next section, on improving single loop controllers, on Wednesday, starting with cascade control.
• 17 Mar: there is a short, anonymous survey about collaborative tests. I would appreciate any feedback you have for me.
• 16 Mar: I've reluctantly decided to cancel class on Monday morning. I thought I would be better, but still not. Please read ahead, Marlin's chapter 14 on
• 14 Mar: a PDF of the midterm has been posted; and all grades on Avenue have been uploaded, including this week's tutorials (Monday and Friday).
• 10 Mar: additional practice questions have been posted to the course website.
• 10 Mar: hint for assignment 5, question 1.3: use a simout block in Simulink to export the Scope output to a MATLAB variable. Now you have the raw CV data to confirm your model simulation.
• 10 Mar: all grades to this point have been posted to Avenue for Tutorials, Quests, midterms and assignments.
• 07 Mar: Mudassir has agreed to run a midterm review session in JHE 342, from 14:00 to 17:00 on Thursday.
• 07 Mar: a new assignment 5 is posted. Read the instructions at the top carefully please.
• 07 Mar: many of you noticed the error in the last question of today's Quest. There was a typing error on my part for \(K_c\). Everyone that attempted the Quest will get full grade for Question 6, but take a minute to understand what went wrong in your simulation, and compare it to the solution.
• 05 Mar: a new Quest has been sent to your McMaster email address. It must be completed before 2pm on Friday. Please note, if you forward your McMaster email to a personal address, it is your responsibility to ensure that email is delivered. Forwarded email has been blocked recently for Hotmail accounts.
• 27 Feb: the second midterm is on Thursday evening, 13 March, from 18:30 to 20:30. It is a 2 hour midterm. The venue is T29. SAS students must please ensure their bookings overlap with the midterm.
• 26 Feb: if you weren't able to pick up your midterm, I will have them at class on Friday, and the next tutorials (Friday and Monday) to collect.
• 25 Feb: the midterm 1 solutions are posted. Grades have been updated in Avenue, and the midterms will be returned at class on Wednesday morning.
  • Average grade: 74.2%
  • Group (collaborative) average: 94.6%
  • Average increase in grade due to collaboration: 4.0%
• 24 Feb: the Simulink example files have been posted. Download and experiment with various controller settings to make sure you understand what \(K_c\) and \(T_I\) are doing.
• 21 Feb: There is a short computer-based assignment 4. You will learn about the effects of time-delays, and have a chance to practice using Simulink. Review the lecture from 14 February to see how to use Simulink.
• 13 Feb: Friday's class introduces the first of two important pieces of MATLAB software we will use in the course. Come with your laptops with MATLAB and Simulink installed. Check when you type

simulink

• 19 Feb: I hope you are enjoying your reading week break. Class resumes on the 24th, however there will be no tutorial on the 24th.

at the MATLAB command prompt. If it opens a new window, you're ready to follow along.

• 11 Feb: a new Quest is posted. It is due on Thursday, 13 February, by 23:00. Check your emails for a sign-in link.
• 11 Feb: tutorial this coming Friday is cancelled, which gives a balance to the number of Monday and Friday tutorials. If you need to speak with myself or the TA's, please send an email to arrange a time. Otherwise enjoy the break.
• 10 Feb: there is a tutorial this Monday, to do a collaborative midterm. As explained in class, it's a no-risk way to boost your midterm grade by a substantial amount.
• 05 Feb: the midterm 1 is posted. We will review it in class on Friday, in addition to wrapping up this section of the course.
• 04 Feb: the TA's have scheduled review session in JHE 342 on Thursday, from 14:00 to 16:00 to help answer any last-minute questions before the midterm.
• 03 Feb: the solutions to assignment 3 are posted.
• 03 Feb: there's been a request not to use the white board in class, as it doesn't show up on the videos. I'm afraid I only have 3 boards to work with, and this cannot be reduced down to 2. White boards are pretty difficult to digitize next to a blackboard, an interesting limitation of digital media when compared to the human eye. The effect is due to dynamic range limitations.
• 01 Feb: solutions to the second assignment are posted.
• 31 Jan: the first assignment was returned at class today (Friday), the second assignment will be returned on Monday.
• 30 Jan: please note: no late submissions for assignment 3 will be accepted; the solutions will be posted on Monday, so you have chance to study for the midterm. You may omit part 3 of question 4 in assignment 3 (we did not cover that in class; or read up about it in the textbook).
• 28 Jan: solutions to the first assignment are posted.
• 29 Jan: all the details about the 1st midterm are posted. I also give you pointers to many practice problems (with full solutions) to try before the test.
• 27 Jan: the next assignment, assignment 3 is posted; we will work on it during tutorials. It is due on 03 February.
• 24 Jan: grades for all tutorials and Quests are now uploaded to Avenue. Please sign in to verify they match your expectations.
• 22 Jan: A new Quest has been posted. Check your McMaster email addresses for a sign in code. It closes by Friday, at 14:15.
• 21 Jan: just to emphasize again, because I've had emails about this topic, that if you need to review the 3E4 material, please see the tutorial I have posted last week. It contains all the tools you need to solve the simulations in the assignment.
• 19 Jan: the next assignment has been posted. It is due on 27 January. We will work on these topics during the week, and in tutorial. One person in your group should bring a laptop with MATLAB to tutorial to gain maximum benefit from that time.
• 17 Jan: Grades for the second tutorial and the first Quest are posted on Avenue. To see the full solutions to Quests, simply sign in anytime after the cut-off time. Have a good weekend!
• 16 Jan: The bookstore has more copies of the prescribed textbook in stock.
• 15 Jan: the first weekly quiz has been emailed to your McMaster email. If you didn't receive the email it is because you are not on my registration list for the course. Each quiz counts approximately 1% of your grade. You have until 2pm on Friday to complete it (I've extended the time).
• 13 Jan: a short software tutorial on ODEs in MATLAB. This is what you just covered in 3E4 a few weeks ago, and we will use it in tutorials all the time. Ask questions in tutorial to make sure you get it to work and that you understand what the code does.
• 10 Jan: grades for the first tutorial are posted on Avenue now.
• 09 Jan: please make sure you can see the 3P4 course in Avenue if not, please do a search for the course and add it. If I can't see your name over there, then you are not on my class list, and will be missing out on the on-line quizzes (and grades for them).
• 10 Jan: get a head start for next week: we will be looking at dynamic models.
• 09 Jan: a new handout is posted for Friday's class and assignment 1 is posted (due on 20 Jan).
• 09 Jan: please make sure you can see the 3P4 course in Avenue if not, please do a search for the course and add it. If I can't see your name over there, then you are not on my class list, and will be missing out on the on-line quizzes (and grades for them).
• 08 Jan: your TA, Mudassir, has found an interesting Wall Street Journal article on an emerging trend in process monitoring. Here's the article in PDF (updated link).
• 08 Jan: the classes on 8 and 10 January carry some of the most important new material for this course. Please make sure you catch up by (re)watching the videos.
• 07 Jan: a short handout is posted. Print and bring to class on Wednesday morning.
• 06 Jan: the midterm dates are below. Midterms will start at 18:30.

• Thursday, 06 February
• Thursday, 13 March

• 31 Dec: stay up to date with everything related to 3P4: follow our Twitter account @3p4control.
• 31 Dec: Please read the course outline before the first class.
• 31 Dec: We get going right away ... the first class is on Monday, 06 January. There will also be a graded tutorial on Monday day for the half of the class that has tutorials that day.