2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The concepts of controllability and observability are essential for understanding and designing control systems. Textbooks often explain them thoroughly using mathematical approaches, such as matrix manipulation and the concept of matrix rank. However, these explanations can sometimes lack the intuition necessary for students to fully grasp the ideas.
In the Modern Control class that I currently teach, I noticed a gap in students' ability to visualize and intuitively understand these concepts. To address this, I decided to use a non-engineering approach: explaining the concepts through well-known examples from medicine. Surprisingly, the students found this explanation very helpful, which led me to share it with other instructors who teach these topics. In this paper, we share some ideas related to controllability and observability.
Controllability: Medical doctors can influence or affect patients in various ways through non-invasive methods such as looking, talking, or touching, which can have both psychological and physiological effects. For example, a doctor can achieve psychological influence through eye contact and body language, building trust, empathy, or reassurance, and may also utilize the placebo effect to influence a patient's belief in the efficacy of treatment. Through tone, choice of words, and empathy, a doctor can help calm anxiety or fear, and the way a doctor discusses a condition or pain can shape how a patient perceives it. Using positive language and framing outcomes optimistically can reduce the perception of pain or discomfort. Finally, gentle, intentional touch can help reduce stress, pain, and anxiety.
Observability: Medical doctors can observe several key signs and symptoms through basic interactions by looking at, talking to, or touching a patient. These observations often provide crucial clues for diagnosis. By looking at the patient, a doctor can assess overall health, body posture, and comfort level - signs of fatigue, distress, or pain may be apparent, while rashes, lesions, or abnormal movement could indicate underlying conditions such as neurological issues, like Parkinson’s disease or a stroke. Verbal interaction can reveal slurred speech, difficulty finding words, or unusual tone and pitch, which may indicate neurological problems like stroke or brain injury. Doctors also assess memory, orientation, and concentration to evaluate mental status, identifying conditions such as dementia, while a hoarse voice or cough can suggest respiratory issues or heart failure. Through touch, temperature differences in the skin can indicate fever, inflammation, or poor circulation, while assessing heart rate and pulse strength may reveal cardiovascular health or arrhythmias. These simple yet critical observations allow doctors to narrow down potential diagnoses and determine which further tests or examinations might be necessary.
This work should be considered a work in progress, as the initial assessment is limited in scope and based on the reactions and enthusiasm of approximately 10 students. We hope to present a more rigorous quantitative assessment by the time the abstract is accepted.