IFAC 2014 Programme Highlights
This year’s International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) World Congress, which will be held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) from August 24 to 29, will focus on ways that control and automation can serve humankind. The Congress aims to promote dialogue and debate in the automatic control profession, while promoting the development of the profession in the wider engineering and relevant communities.
This is the first time that the Congress, which is held every three years, will be held in Africa, although several IFAC workshops and symposia have been held in the country. The first IFAC Congress was held in Moscow, in Russia, in 1960 and the most recent one was hosted in Milan, Italy, in 2011.
The theme for the 19th Congress is “Promoting automatic control for the benefit of humankind” and more than 2 000 presentations, spanning about 25 parallel sessions, have been scheduled.
Automatic control can, and is, playing a significant role in providing technologies that assist humankind in living lighter lives on the planet. It is significant that the technical area with the most contributions at the Cape Town Congress is power and energy systems.
Also in dialogue will be the competing demands of high performance and high complexity. This competition can lead to the development of better automation technology as systems that used to be run by hand or with relatively low levels of control and automation are not sustainable. These systems include power grids, telecommunications, transportation systems, ecological systems, agriculture and medical systems.
The Congress will also include discussions on the interaction between control systems and biological systems, where there is new multidisciplinary work exploring the application of high-level mathematical concepts in dynamics and control in very complex interactions of biological systems.
There is still space available so register right away!
Click here for the registration packages and rates.
Click here to register.
Pre-Congress Tutorials
A series of in-depth Pre-Congress Tutorials presented by experts are being offered on the weekend preceding the Congress. Topics range from smart grids to predictive repetitive control to mechatronics control education to fractional order motion controls, and more.
More information can be found here.
Technical Tours
A selection of Technical Tours to major installations of control technology in the Western Cape Province is available. These will take place throughout the Congress week.
More information on the Technical Tours can be found here.
Please note that there is an additional charge to attend the Pre-Congress Tutorials and Technical Tours. Pre-registration is required for all.
Click here to for online registration, including Pre-Congress Tutorials and Technical Tours.
If you have already registered for the Congress and would like to amend your registration to include a Pre-Congress Tutorial or a Technical Tour, click here. Be sure to have the user name and password found in your registration confirmation email at hand.
Click here for the registration packages and rates, including the Pre-Congress Tutorials and Technical Tours.
Click here for the accommodation options.
Click here to register. 
