Undergraduate engineering students require a practical application of theoretical concepts learned in classrooms in order to appropriate a complete management of them. Our aim is to assist students to learn control systems theory in an engineering context, through the design and implementation of a simple and low cost ball and plate plant. Students are able to apply mathematical and computational modelling tools, control systems design, and real-time software-hardware implementation while solving a position regulation problem. The whole project development is presented and may be assumed as a guide for replicate results or as a basis for a new design approach. In both cases, we end up in a tool available to implement and assess control strategies experimentally.