ailed statement of the problem, including performance specifications, and Section 3 describes the students' design. Section 4 makes up the bulk of the paper, and discusses in some detail several aspects of the design process which offer unique pedagogical opportunities. Finally, Section 5 offers some conclusions.
2 Problem Statement
The basic idea of the project is to replace the relevant parts of the functionality of an Omega CN-390 temperature controller using a custom-designed system. The application dictates that temperature settings are usually kept constant for long periods of time, but it's nonetheless important that step changes be tracked in a "reasonable" manner. Thus the main requirements boil down to
　　·allowing a chamber temperature set-point to be entered,
　　·displaying both set-point and actual temperatures, and
　　·tracking step changes in set-point temperature with acceptable rise time, steady-state error, and overshoot.
　　Although not explicitly a part of the specifications in Table 1, it was clear that the customer desired digital displays of set-point and actual temperatures, and that set-point temperature entry should be digital as well (as opposed to, say, through a potentiometer setting)