Systems and Control engineering is a broad multidisciplinary area concerned with modeling of physical systems, analysis of behavior, and design of controllers which influence that behavior to take some desired form. It touches all divisions of engineering, applied mathematics and other applications areas such as economics. The analysis and design often involves sophisticated use of mathematics, numerical analysis and computer-aided methods; the implementation involves electronics, computers including artificial intelligence methods, sensors and conversion devices.
IIT Bombay recognized early the importance of this multidisciplinary area, and a Systems and Control (SYSCON) Engineering program was formed as a separate postgraduate program in 1977. The Systems and Control Programme has been offering Masters and Doctoral Level courses since then.
The Syscon group has striven since then to maintain its position in the vanguard of teaching and research and to keep itself at the forefront of developments in the area. It has evolved into the largest research group devoted to the subject in the country, working on a variety of systems, such as aerospace, electrical, chemical, nuclear, robotics, and smart structures.
The SYSCON laboratory and faculty offices were housed in the Department of Electrical Engineering at IIT Bombay until late 2002. The Interdisciplinary Programme in Systems and Control Engineering shifted into the premises of the then Advanced Centre for Research in Engineering (ACRE) in November 2002 and has been functioning there ever since.
The group comprising of 4 full-time faculty and about 17 associated faculty from various departments: Aerospace, Chemical, Electrical, Mechanical, Metallurgy, and Mathematics. Faculty has research interests that include the following areas: modeling and simulation of dynamical systems, global and dynamic optimization, artificial intelligence, systems theory, controls theory and applications, and scientific computing.
Several projects of the SYSCON group have been funded by research agencies and industries, such as Aeronautical Research and Development Board, All India Council of Technical Education, Defence Research and Development Organization, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, Indian Space Research Organization, National Organic Chemicals Ltd., and TATA-Steel.