International Journal on Interactive Design and Manufacturing (IJIDeM) https://doi.org/10.1007/s12008-019-00603-5 ORIGINAL PAPER Learning perceptions of Smart Grid class with laboratory for undergraduate students Arturo Molina 1 · Pedro Ponce 1 · Germán Eduardo Baltazar Reyes 1 · Luis Arturo Soriano 1 Received: 23 January 2019 / Accepted: 7 June 2019 © Springer-Verlag France SAS, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract Due to the modernization of the electrical grid and the commitments to it made by several governments and industries around the world, the work of engineers specialized in the electrical field is necessary more than ever. However, in recent years, the number of engineers working in this area has been decreasing, while almost half of their current population is prone to retirement. To solve this problem, universities began to modify their electrical engineering programs and courses, giving more focus to the implementation of Smart Grid technology. Although various approaches have been used in teaching methodologies to educate new engineers, it is also necessary to evaluate if the contents given in such classes are being properly taught. This paper proposes a new syllabus and new Smart Grid class, which is based on hand on experiments in a Smart Grid laboratory. This proposal promotes and trains undergraduate students in the use of the new technologies that are being deployed in the electrical industry nowadays, and it includes a discussion of the social, economic and environmental implications of the new ways to generate and distribute electrical power. To evaluate if the class methodology in our project was successfully implemented, a student perception survey was applied to analyze the way the undergraduate students perceived the Smart Grid class given to them. Additionally, signal detection theory and fuzzy logic type 1 and type 2 were used to compare their answers with the ones given by the professor as part of assessing the efficiency of the class syllabus and the teaching methodology for the purpose of improving their quality in future courses. The results obtained showed that the students acquired a synthesis of learning and analytical thinking to equip them with the competencies to solve the various challenges of electrical grid modernization. Additionally, the proposed new class methodology utilized innovative hands-on activities in laboratory practices that reinforced the learning of the most relevant theoretical concepts of the Smart Grid technology. Keywords Educational Innovation · Fuzzy logic type 1 · Fuzzy logic type 2 · Perception · Signal detection theory · Smart Grid 1 Introduction The Smart Grid implementation requires effort from sev- eral sectors, including governments, industry, education, and end users, among others. The traditional electrical grid mod- B Germán Eduardo Baltazar Reyes a01331329@itesm.mx Arturo Molina armolina@tec.mx Pedro Ponce pedro.ponce@tec.mx Luis Arturo Soriano larturo.soriano@tec.mx 1 School of Engineering and Sciences, Tecnologico de Monterrey, Mexico City, Mexico ernization involves the implementation and development of advanced technology. Because of this modernization, the electrical power stages of generation, transmission, distri- bution, and consumption have increased their functionality and participation. The integration of communication and information technologies in Smart Grids enables bidirec- tional communication between stakeholders and the main grid. Similarly, the Smart Grid promotes the high penetration of renewable resources in the main grid through distributed generation installation. Thus, according to [1], the main func- tional benefits acquired by the modernization of the grid are reliability, security, and efficiency. In [2], the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) formulate the Smart Grid in seven domains; namely, Customers, Markets, Service Providers, Operations, Bulk Generation, Transmission and Distribution. These domains 123