auto01 Fundamentals: define "automatic" and explain what components of an automatic machine (sensor, actuator, mechanism, control) do

auto02 History: describe linguistic origins of "automatic" and "cyber"; convey sense that automation is not new but a long-term human project; describe automata and famous historical exemplars of automation (centrifugal governor, Jacquard loom)

auto03 Taxonomy: recognize/explain difference between automation as following rules/seeking goal; open/closed loop

auto04 Mechanics of Examples: explain how cams and followers, steam engine governor, thermostat work

auto05 Feedback: explain the concept; give everyday examples; distinguish positive and negative; describe possible system behaviors verbally and with charts

auto06 Causal Loop Diagrams: interpret CLD, construct from text, distinguish positive and negative causal relations, recognize balancing/reinforcing loop

auto06 PID Controllers: describe to person-on-the-street what PID controller does; explain association of past, present, future with I, P, D; describe what's going on in an output over time chart; carry out simple math of difference equations in a PID table

auto07 Big Picture: appreciate the ambition of automation and generic notion of building something whose adaptive behavior can be specified by a finite number of settings coupled to a feedback mechanism