The undergraduate curriculum at the University of Nevada includes a 4-credit course in Dynamic Process Modeling and Control. A weekly lab makes up 25% of the course. The lab consists of several stations that reflect traditional process control demonstrations, including pH control, cascading liquid-level control, and temperature control. In the past year, we established a new virtual experiment: blood-sugar control. The motivation was primarily an increased number of students. However, developing this experiment also enabled us to work towards a departmental long-term goal of bringing biomedical applications into our curriculum.

The experiment was developed to parallel previously existing experiments. First, students characterize the process, then the process dynamics, then develop simple process control algorithms, and finally, evaluate advanced control algorithms. The model presented by Sorenson (1) was assigned. This model is a 19th-order linear compartmental model, and students first had to develop a numerical simulation that would serve as the process for the duration of the project. The search for initial values and parametric values proved frustrating to the students. However, the students ultimately did successfully describe, model, simulate, and control the system.

Over the long term, such projects will prove vital to cash-constrained programs. In order to expose students to new frontiers, we hope to continue to develop this module, and others.

(1) J.T. Sorensen, “A Physiologic Model of Glucose Metabolism in Man and Its Use to Design and Assess Improved Insulin Therapies for Diabetes,” PhD Thesis, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, MIT, 1985.