Gamified Approaches to Teaching in Control Engineering Education and Beyond
Abstract: This seminar explores how gamified and game-inspired methods can be effectively integrated into university teaching to enhance student engagement, motivation, and understanding. Although rooted in experiences from control theory education, the approaches presented are broadly applicable across disciplines.
The first part demonstrates how Kahoot! can serve as the central element of an entire lecture designed to revisit and consolidate previously covered material in an interactive and enjoyable way. Particular attention is given to the benefits and limitations of competitive formats, together with practical strategies for fostering an inclusive and positive classroom atmosphere.
In the second part, participants will experience a short, adapted version of the logical deduction game Zendo, illustrating how an existing game can be transformed into a learning activity that promotes conceptual understanding, reasoning skills, and active participation.
Finally, the seminar presents ways to gamify routine course components, such as mandatory assignments, through badges and other tangible reward systems that increase motivation and create a stronger sense of achievement.
Through concrete examples and ready-to-apply ideas, the seminar provides participants with practical tools that can be readily incorporated into their own teaching practice.
Bio: Prof. Damiano Rotondo was born in Francavilla Fontana, Italy, in 1987. He received his B.S. degree (with honors) from the Second University of Naples, Italy, in 2008, his M.S. degree (with honors) from the University of Pisa, Italy, in 2011, and his Ph.D. degree (with honors) from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain, in 2016. His doctoral thesis received the CEA-Springer Award for the best thesis in Control Engineering and was subsequently published by Springer.
From May 2016 to April 2017, he was an ERCIM postdoctoral researcher at AMOS/NTNU in Norway. He then joined the Research Centre for Supervision, Safety and Automatic Control (CS2AC) at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya as a postdoctoral researcher from May 2017 to January 2018. From February 2018 to January 2020, he held a Juan de la Cierva fellowship at the Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial (IRI), part of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). Since February 2020, he has been affiliated with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (IDE) at the University of Stavanger (UiS), Norway, where he became Full Professor in Cybernetics in 2024. In 2025, he was recognized as Best Lecturer by the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of Stavanger.
His main research interests include gain-scheduled control systems, fault detection and isolation (FDI), fault-tolerant control (FTC) of dynamic systems, and the gamification of control theory education. He has authored more than 140 publications in international journals and conference proceedings. He is also an active member of the IFAC Technical Committees 6.4 (Fault Detection, Supervision and Safety of Technical Processes – SAFEPROCESS) and 9.4 (Control Education).