IFAC in Korea

ICROS — The Korean NMO

The Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems (ICROS) serves as Korea’s National Member Organization (NMO) to IFAC. Korea’s control community traces back to 1988, when the Korea Automatic Control Conference (KACC) —jointly organized by five engineering societies —marked the first dedicated conference in the field. The organization evolved through the Korean Automatic Control Council (1990) and ICASE (1994), adopting the current name ICROS in 2007. ICROS became an IFAC NMO in January 1989.

A distinctive feature of ICROS is that its presidency alternates between academia and industry, reflecting the commitment to bridging research and practice. ICROS maintains MOUs with seven international organizations: SICE (Japan), CAA (China), CACS (Taiwan), IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, Asian Control Association, CAAI (China), and ECTI (Thailand).

Publications and Conferences

ICROS publishes the International Journal of Control, Automation and Systems (IJCAS), co-published with the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers and indexed in SCIE. It organizes two annual conferences. The summer ICROS Conference, held in Korean, draws about 1,400 participants. The fall International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems (ICCAS), held in English, draws about 800 participants from some 30 countries and is among the largest English-language control conferences in Asia.

Korea’s Contributions to IFAC

Korea's contributions to IFAC have been substantial and sustained. Wook Hyun Kwon (Seoul National University) served as IFAC President from 2005 to 2008. Under his leadership, Korea hosted the 17th IFAC World Congress in Seoul, July 6 to 11, 2008. The 2008 Congress introduced PaperPlaza as IFAC's conference management system, now standard across all IFAC events.

At the IFAC 50th Anniversary Celebration in Heidelberg, Professor Kwon made a personal donation of USD 500,000 to establish the IFAC Foundation, which supports the control community in developing countries. The IFAC Foundation Kwon Award, established in 2017, honors his contribution by recognizing outstanding work in sustainable development through automatic control.

Dongil "Dan" Cho (Seoul National University and RS Automation Co., Ltd.) was among the core members who won the Seoul bid in 1998 and went on to chair the International Program Committee for the 2008 Congress. He serves as IFAC President for 2023 to 2026, and under his leadership Korea hosts the Congress for the second time, the 23rd IFAC World Congress in Busan, August 23 to 28, 2026. The 2026 Congress introduces simultaneous submission for IFAC journals, the first time a World Congress has offered authors this option.

IFAC Events Hosted in Korea