The areas of interest for the 18th IFAC World Congress are listed in the following table. Each area is associated with a Technical Committee (TC) of IFAC, grouped into 9 Coordinating Committees (CC). In the table the names of TC chairs and CC chairs are also shown.
| SYSTEMS AND SIGNALS | CC 1 | Xi Ren Cao |
| Modelling, Identification and Signal Processing | TC 1.1 | Håkan Hjalmarsson |
| Adaptive and Learning Systems | TC 1.2 | Alexander Fradkov |
| Discrete Event and Hybrid Systems | TC 1.3 | Alessandro Giua |
| Stochastic Systems | TC 1.4 | Charalambos Charalambous |
| Networked Systems | TC 1.5 | Karl Henrik Johansson |
| DESIGN METHODS | CC 2 | Patrizio Colaneri |
| Control Design | TC 2.1 | Alessandro Astolfi |
| Linear Control Systems | TC 2.2 | Luc Dugard |
| Non-Linear Control Systems | TC 2.3 | Xiaohua Xia |
| Optimal Control | TC 2.4 | Alexander M. Tarasyev |
| Robust Control | TC 2.5 | Faryar Jabbari |
| COMPUTERS, COGNITION AND COMMUNICATION | CC 3 | Matjaz Colnaric |
| Computers for Control | TC 3.1 | Marek Wegrzyn |
| Computational Intelligence in Control | TC 3.2 | Antonio Barros Ruano |
| Telematics: Control via Communication Networks | TC 3.3 | Klaus Schilling |
| MECHATRONICS, ROBOTICS AND COMPONENTS | CC 4 | Detlef Zuehlke |
| Components and Technologies for Control | TC 4.1 | Marco Münchhof |
| Mechatronic Systems | TC 4.2 | Masayoshi Tomizuka |
| Robotics | TC 4.3 | Hideki Hashimoto |
| Cost Oriented Automation | TC 4.4 | Mireille Bayart |
| Human Machine Systems | TC 4.5 | Wan Chul Yoon |
| MANUFACTURING AND LOGISTICS SYSTEMS | CC 5 | Laszlo Monostori |
| Manufacturing Plant Control | TC 5.1 | Carlos Eduardo Pereira |
| Manufacturing Modelling for Management and Control | TC 5.2 | Jose Ceroni |
| Enterprise Integr. and Networking | TC 5.3 | Herve Panetto |
| Large Scale Complex Systems | TC 5.4 | Mietek A. Brdys |
| PROCESS AND POWER SYSTEMS | CC 6 | Sigurd Skogestad |
| Chemical Process Control | TC 6.1 | Francis J. Doyle III |
| Mining, Mineral and Metal Processing | TC 6.2 | Kazuya Asano |
| Power Plants and Power Systems | TC 6.3 | Istvan Erlich |
| Fault Detection, Supervision & Safety of Technical Processes | TC 6.4 | Jakob Stoustrup |
| TRANSPORTATION AND VEHICLE SYSTEMS | CC 7 | Lars Nielsen |
| Automotive Control | TC 7.1 | Gianfranco Rizzo |
| Marine Systems | TC 7.2 | Antonio Pascoal |
| Aerospace | TC 7.3 | Houria B. Siguerdidjane |
| Transportation Systems | TC 7.4 | Todor Stoilov |
| Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles | TC 7.5 | Michel Devy |
| BIO- AND ECOLOGICAL SYSTEMS | CC 8 | Fan-Lun Xiong |
| Control in Agriculture | TC 8.1 | Noboru Noguchi |
| Biological and Medical Systems | TC 8.2 | Steen Andreassen |
| Modelling and Control of Environmental Systems | TC 8.3 | Andrea Castelletti |
| Biosystems and Bioprocesses | TC 8.4 | Jaime Moreno Perez |
| SOCIAL SYSTEMS | CC 9 | Gheorghi M. Dimirovski |
| Economic and Business Systems | TC 9.1 | Fei-Yue Wang |
| Social Impact of Automation | TC 9.2 | Frederique Mayer |
| Developing Countries | TC 9.3 | Ibrahim Eksin |
| Control Education | TC 9.4 | Bozenna Pasik-Duncan |
| Supplemental Ways of Improving International Stability – SWIIS | TC 9.5 | Peter Kopacek |