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SYDE 352LControl Systems Laboratory

Units
0.25
Faculty
Engineering
Subject
Systems Design Engineering

When it runs

  1. F24
  2. W25
  3. S25
  4. F25
  5. W26
  6. S26
  7. F26
  8. W27
  9. S27

Ran in 2 of the last 7 terms. Winter 2027: scheduled. Spring 2027: schedule not out yet.

Laboratory experiments for students taking SYDE 352.

Prerequisites

Antirequisites

None listed.

Leads to

No course lists it as a requisite.

Winter 2027 sections

Enrolment from UW Open Data, which can trail Quest by up to two days. Instructors and rooms: Schedule of Classes.
SectionClassEnrolledMeets
LAB 00145360 / 32M 09:00–11:50
LAB 00246000 / 32T 12:30–15:20
LAB 00346010 / 32M 09:00–11:50
LAB 00446020 / 32T 12:30–15:20
LAB 701182585 / 9999Online or by arrangement

Reviewed on UW Flow

70% liked it26% easy76% useful

From 27 ratings and 7 comments on UW Flow. The most helpful comments, quoted as written, without names. Read them all on UW Flow.

  • Marking seems to change every time, its very unclear what is acctually needed in the report, and there's conflicting information being received week over week from the feedback and the instructor.

    Jul 2019 · didn’t like it · 1 found this helpfulOn UW FlowRemove this

  • The last lab we did 60 pages, and only got an 80. Overall solid lab, but all the homies hate root contour method.

    May 2026 · liked itOn UW FlowRemove this

  • This class makes Control Systems actually make sense. You get to physically see what an overdamped or underdamped system looks like, or what it looks like when a system is unstable.
    Essentially you get to use content from SYDE 352 to spin motors and balance inverted pendulums.
    The labs are very long, get started on the Pre-Labs early, they take many hours. On average my lab reports were around 80 pages long (mostly Matlab graphs, but still).
    Find a good lab partner that you work well with, because you two will spend many many hours grinding away at the pre-labs and post-labs.
    Overall it was very fun applying Control Systems concepts to the real world, and now I find myself frequently…

    Nov 2024 · liked itOn UW FlowRemove this

  • Favourite SYDE lab course so far. Feels a lot more achievable than previous labs, even though the report requirements were quite vague, with marks taken off for failing to include things you wouldn't have known to include in the first place. Overall I really enjoyed the course, and the lab manual is a godsend.

    Apr 2023 · liked itOn UW FlowRemove this

  • interesting labs but vague rubric in grading

    Apr 2018 · liked itOn UW FlowRemove this

Discussed on r/uwaterloo

2 posts and comments in 2 threads mention SYDE 352L, November 2020 to December 2024. Quoted word for word, newest first; each reply sits under the post and the comment that started its branch. Search r/uwaterloo for newer posts.

Winter 2022

Fall 2020

Admissions / High School Megathread (Fall 2020) 316 points, 7,386 comments

“I think we lost track of the old one somewhere, and this is to also help reset the expiry date (these threads archive after six months) Engineering Admissions Blog: https://theroadtoengineering.com/ …”

u/Master_Parsley: “For SYDE students who have taken the more hands-on courses (involving circuits, hardware, prototyping, etc.), what did you think of these courses? …”

u/Master_Parsley: “… I expected more courses (like SYDE 263 and SYDE 352/352L) to be very hardware-oriented since they involve prototyping and control systems, respectively. …”

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Check it elsewhere for Fall 2026

Calendar versions

Undergraduate Calendar