Kevin Brooks, President, SACAC
Dear Colleagues,
In my role as president of the South African Council for Automation and Control (SACAC), it is a great honour to welcome you to Cape Town for the nineteenth congress of the International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC). We trust that your stay in South Africa will be both peaceful and informative.
SACAC has been the national member organisation for IFAC in South Africa since its inception in 1961. We are proud of the fact that its membership consists of both institutional and industrial members, meaning that we play an important role in providing a forum for academia and industry to discuss matters of mutual concern. The organisation has been active in arranging both local and international events, culminating in the biggest of them all this year.
The control profession in South Africa is vibrant, with some forty undergraduate control engineering courses being taught by twenty lecturers in eight universities. The courses are presented in the fields of chemical, electrical and mechanical engineering, reflecting the fields in which control engineers ply their trade. Control engineers in South Africa are employed by a variety of companies, ranging from large multinational operating companies, such as SASOL and Anglo American, international automation vendors, medium-sized businesses and small consulting firms.
In a recent survey, which will be discussed as part of a conference paper, 84% of respondents stated that control and automation is very important to their business, 80% of respondents expected to be hiring more control engineers in the near future and on average respondents expected to double staff numbers in the near future. These are all indications of a healthy profession, and one that must continue to emphasise its importance to the health of the country.
It is against this background that SACAC bid for and was awarded the 19th World Congress of IFAC. We are proud of the fact that Professor Ian Craig, a former SACAC president, has served as IFAC president. My thanks go out to Ian, National Organising Committee chair Dr Fernando Camisani and IPC co-chairs Professors Ed Boje and Xiaohua Xia for the incredible amount of hard work they have put in to arranging the congress.
We are sure that among the over 2000 papers, 340 sessions, 25 parallel tracks and 12 plenary sessions you will find ideas to inspire you. Our theme of “Promoting automatic control for the benefit of humankind” could not be more relevant in a world in which climate change, dwindling resources and economic uncertainty are constant realities.
Enjoy your time in Cape Town, World Design Capital for 2014, together with its mountain, one of the seven modern wonders of the world. You will find South Africans the friendliest of people and please do not hesitate to ask myself, any of the organisers or volunteers for help should you require it.
South African Council for Automation and Control