Message from the President

President of 2016-2017

It is a great pleasure, as I commence my term as ACA President, to note all the great work that have been previously done; so that ACA is now poised to make even more contributions ahead.
The recent ASCC 2015 Kota Kinabalu conference was extremely successful; and we certainly look forward to the upcoming ASCC 2017 Gold Coast conference, and the already-in-the-works ASCC 2019 Kita-Kyushu conference.
In our endeavour to further push ahead our Membership efforts (particularly from among the future generations), I am very happy to announce the additional (i.e. additional to all existing ACA Awards) implementation of an ACA Temasek Young Educator Award. Application to the award is open to any young person of age forty years and below; and the young person should already be an ACA Member at the time of application. The award seeks to recognize outstanding education efforts in Control Systems Engineering from amongst the younger generation, and it also serves as an impetus to encourage more young persons to identify with us as ACA Members. Up to two ACA Temasek Young Educator Awards will be presented every ASCC year, with each Award valued at US$500. There will be an upcoming Call for Application soon for the award jointly by the VP(Education) and VP(Membership). An independent committee of eminent ACA persons will make the decision from the received applications.
“We certainly look forward to new contributions ahead as ACA progresses and becomes even more established.”

First of all, I would like to convey my warmest greetings to all those associated with the Asian Control Association. This year, with the widespread of coronavirus (Covid-19) around the world, many countries are going through difficult times. I believe that through the joint efforts by all over the world, we will overcome all difficulties. I sincerely hope you all are well and healthy.

The ACA is a scientific and engineering organization that will promote research, development, and application of control science and technology in Asia and Oceania. ACA supports the free and open exchanges of scholarly and academic works and the global advancement of science and technology.

Through ACA, we will promote international collaboration and share the ample knowledge of our members to drive technical innovation. ACA will continue to grow with a group of volunteers from many different countries with an international perspective.

The progress of ACA is facing many challenges in the situation of deadly infectious diseases (Covid-19), and the resultant financial crises shake both the world economy and individual lives to the very uncertainty. The current condition may deter academic programs and meetings of the people. However, ACA will try to promote the academic collaboration with sister societies, including SICE, ICROS, CAA-TCCT, CACS, ECTI, ANZCC, EUCA, ASME-DSC, IEEE-CSS, and IFAC. Also, ACA will try to reach out to the control communities in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, India, Pakistan, and the Middle East countries.

As you all agree, we live in an era of globalization. Although there are political borders among nations, no boundaries can separate the sciences and technologies that improve human living conditions. We, scientists and engineers, should work together to promote advances in science and technology for enhancing the happiness of human beings. To achieve this goal, it is essential to have international collaboration, just as we had done, and will do in the future.

I sincerely hope that ACA becomes a platform for communication and collaboration among control engineers. I am sure that your involvement and dedication to ACA will be truly fruitful toward the advancement of ACA. I would like to thank the past Presidents and Steering Committee members of ACA who initiated and led ACA. We are all grateful for their exceptional leadership and devotion. Finally, with this opportunity, I wish you and your family the very best health and happiness through the years. Thank you very much.

President of 2014-2015

It is a great honor and privilege for me to serve as the 4th President of Asian Control Association (ACA) and to inform you about our activities. ACA is an organization that promotes control science and engineering in Asia and Oceania, consisting of voluntary individuals who are willing to support its activities. Cordially, I would like to invite you to participate in our organization, an experience that many in our profession have found to be highly rewarding.

ACA is the successor of Asian Control Professors Association (ACPA) that was formed in 1996 as an organization of professors in the area of control engineering in Asia and Oceania. In order to expand the ACPA such as to include the industrial community and to integrate various activities in more coherent frameworks, in July 2005, ACA was founded and elected Professor Kimura as the 1st president.

Main objective of ACA is to provide a forum to communicate, collaborate and exchange ideas among control people in Asia and Oceania. ACA has organized the Asian Control Conference (ASCC) held every two years, to promote the science and technology of control and all of its technical, educational and social implications. ACA has also published the Asian Journal of Control (AJC) bimonthly. Through the editorship of the AJC, it plays a fundamental role in the dissemination of control science and technology. In addition to these activities, we have established several awards, which are given at every ASCC for acknowledgement of outstanding contributions to control science and technology.

As the ACA president, I would like to promote the discussion and design of a new strategic plan for the ACA to understand which aspects of the Asian control society need to be improved and which goals should be focused on, both in the short and long term. I believe the versatile nature of the research developed in our field needs to be further emphasized, and new successful collaborations with other societies and communities, possibly in the form of joint journals and conferences must be encouraged. With your active participation, ACA would be the worldwide organization.

It is a great honor for me to serve as ACA President 2010-2011. Just as I took the similar position for ACPA ten years ago, I clearly understand that it means more responsibility and sacrifice and will try to do my best to promote the ACA activities.

During the past four years, the first and the second ACA Presidents, Professor Kimura and Professor Cho, together with all the ACA Steering Committee members, have made great contributions to establishing the general framework of ACA. Many important issues of the ACA activities, including organization and constitution, membership, education, journal, conference, web-site etc., are discussed in details and pushed strongly forward. Various forums, workshops, conferences and published newsletters enable the control people in this area to understand each other and provide great chances for collaboration in control research and education.

I hereby would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Professor Kimura, Professor Cho and all the ACA Steering Committee members for what they have done for ACA. I also hope that they would support ACA with their fruitful experiences as before.

Today ACA is facing great challenges from the rapidly developed world economics and social advancement. The opportunities arising from strong Asian economics bring higher expectation on ACA. However, in the latest SC meeting in Taipei it was also pointed out that although the influence of Asian control society in the world academia is increasing the role of ACA has not been fully demonstrated as a worldwide platform for control community. ACA members are only a small part of so many control people in Asian and Oceania area and a large number of control people, either in academia or in industry, are less or not involved in the ACA activities. ACA needs to be at first more cared by the Asian control people before ACA really becomes a worldwide platform for control.

Currently I think the following two issues should be particularly addressed:

Attract more Asian control people to join ACA and encourage active ACA members to do more for ACA through establishing several technical groups.
Use and promote ACA web-site to provide and exchange important information on Asian control persons, labs, position offers, lectures etc.
I emphasize the above issues because ACA should at first become a community widely accepted and favored by Asian control people.

I want to say, ACA belongs to all Asian control people, and it is open to everyone who is willing to support and promote its activities. Your active participation and the friendship between the ACA members are mostly important for ACA. I hope you will consistently care and support the ACA activities. I believe that with your support ACA will make itself go forward and all of us can benefit from that.

The Asian Control Association (ACA) is an organization for promoting activities on control science and technology in Asia. It consists of individuals from universities, research institutes and industries who are ready to work together for the prosperity of Asia through research, education and technological advance beyond the national and cultural borders.

Asia is so broad in terms of geographical territory and so diverse in terms of culture, tradition and religion that it is not easy to communicate with each other face to face, even for those who are working in the same area with the same motivation, even with the same purpose.

This is a pity because Asian people share many commonalities about which they can discuss and collaborate. The ACA was established to alleviate this difficulty, providing abundant opportunity for discussion and collaboration among Asian control people.

Our activities include operating the Asian Control Conference (ASCC), which is held every two years, and publishing the Asian Journal of Control (AJC), which is published quarterly. These activities already have well-established projects involving many Asian control people. The ASCC has already been held five times and the AJC has been in publication for 8 years.

In order to facilitate our activities, we have three Vice Presidents; one for conferences who is in charge of organizing the ASCC, one for publicity who is in charge of publishing the AJC and one for education who is in charge of organizing educational activities including publishing textbooks. All three Vice Presidents are eminent people in the Asian control community as you may find in the list of our executive committee.

Thanks to the Korean body, we have an office in Seoul with part time staff. The office is being run by a fund that has been prepared jointly by Korea and Japan. The Korean fund was donated personally by Professor Wook Hyun Kwon, the current President of IFAC, while the Japanese fund came from the profit made by the first ASCC initiated by Professor Shimemura. Thus, we are ready to involve ourselves in a new project beyond the scope of ASCC and AJC.

Now is the time to do something new within Asia, collecting Asian power. There are many social, human, and environmental issues for establishing a sustainable society in Asia, to which control science and engineering are very much relevant. As the distinguished international organization of control people in Asia, it is our hope that our association can contribute to solving these issues.

Through the activities of the Asian Control Professors Association (ACPA) for 9 years before the ACA was established, we have now a broad and friendly human network of Asian control people. A human network is very important to cultivate the ground of friendly collaborations. I strongly hope that younger people will join us to enlarge and strengthen the present human network within Asia to facilitate further collaborations, as well as human exchanges.

The ACA will certainly do everything possible to contribute to the promotion of the Asian control community.

It is my pleasure to serve as the president of the Asian Control Association (ACA). ACA is an organization of scholars who are willing to volunteer their services to the control community to promote control science and engineering in Asia and Oceania. Cordially, I would like to invite you to participate in our activities of ACA.

Control science and technology have made remarkable achievements, which have greatly promoted the progress of human society. With the advent of the era of digitalization, networking, and intellectualization, the field of systems and control is facing unprecedented new opportunities and challenges. For this, we need to further promote and strengthen academic communication and cooperation, and ACA has been aiming to build up a good academic exchange platform.

One of the major academic activities of ACA is the Asian Control Conference (ASCC) held every two years. The first ASCC was held in Tokyo, Japan in 1994, and the most recent ASCC was successfully held in Jeju Island, Korea in 2022, despite the impact of the epidemic. The upcoming ASCC will be held in Dalian, China in 2024.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to thank the past Presidents and Steering Committee members for their leadership and services and to thank the worldwide scholars for their constant support to ACA. I am looking forward to meeting you in Dalian at ASCC 2024!

It is my great pleasure and honor to serve as the 7th President of Asian Control Association (ACA). First of all, I would like to thank all past and present members for their valuable works supporting the activities of ACA. Due to their great efforts, I think that the presence of ACA has been increasing consistently.

ACA is an organization that promotes control science and engineering in Asia and Oceania. It is the successor of Asian Control Professors Association (ACPA) that was formed in 1996 as an organization of professors in the area of control engineering in Asia and Oceania. ACA was founded in July 2005 to succeed ACPA and expand its activities to industrial people. Professor Kimura was elected as the 1st President. The presidency has been succeeded by Prof. Cho (2008-2009), Prof. Xi (2010-2011), Prof. Li (2012-2013), Prof. Won (2014-2015) and Prof. Lee (2016-2017). Most of them were members of ACPA. In contrast, I have joined ACA directly. It maybe indicates that ACA enters a new stage.

Currently, ACA has three main missions. The first is the organization of Asian Control Conference (ASCC). It started in 1994 with the first hosted by Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Technology. The most recent one was held at Gold Coast (2017). Through the activities during over twenty years, it has grown up as one of the most influential control conferences held in Asia and Oceania regions. In 2019, just a quarter-century after the 1st ASCC, it will come back to Japan. The second mission is the publication of the Asian Journal of Control (AJC). Through the excellent editorship during twenty years, it becomes a very high-ranked Journal on control science and technology. The third mission is ‘awarding’. We have four awards: ACA Wook Kyun Kwon Education Award, Shimemura Young Author Prize, Outstanding Service Awards, and Temasak Young Educator Award. They are given at every ASCC for the acknowledgement of outstanding contributions to control science and technology or outstanding education efforts in control systems engineering.

Now, favorable winds blow strongly for ACA. The importance of control science and technology is increasing in most advanced research fields and industrial domains such as robotics, self-driving cars, energy system containing renewable energy, human support systems etc. The presence of Asia and Oceania regions is also increasing as not only production hubs but also research and development (R/D) bases. As the ACA president, I would like to do my best to make ACA more visible to people around the world, and let people participating to ACA more actively by promoting new collaborations with other societies and communities.

I felt truly honored to serve as President of Asian Control Association (ACA), a great organization dedicated to promoting various activities on control science and technology in Asia, for years 2012-2013. As the 4th President, I would like to express my utmost appreciation to all three former Presidents, Prof. Kimura, Prof. Kwon, and Prof. Xi, for their devotion and great leadership as well as all past Steering Committee members for their strong support to establish a solid foundation of ACA.

Besides the above-mentioned mission, ACA has so far also served as a platform for control societies and individuals in Asia Pacific to collaborate or to exchange information in various control aspects. When such service’s ultimate goal is attained, ACA can actually have members from East Asia (Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan, etc.), South East Asia (Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, etc.), South Asia (India, Pakistan, etc.), West Asia (Turkey, Iran, Iraq, etc.), and Oceana (Australia, etc.). With giant coverage of possible members in the globe, ACA can surely play a more active role in serving more countries and regions belonging to its membership area. Given this thought, we believe intensive promotion of this association among various control communities of our members through newsletter, website, technical activities, etc. will be crucial. Once ACA is recognized world-wide and is with more and more members, we then need to further strengthen our function serving as a platform and open it to all our members. As long as our technical help and support can be accessed by them from this association, all the local control activities from our members will likely request for our technical sponsorship. Until then, I am sure ACA will truly become a control body that may fully represent all the control societies from all our members, and will be more strongly needed by them all.

Looking around the world, there are a number of control bodies also serving as platforms for various groups of control societies, respectively, such as IFAC, EUCA, IEEE CSS and ASME DSC. Although the nature of ACA may not be exactly the same as those control bodies, its influence to its members can be just as great as any of them. To reach that stage, we believe ACA still holds room for improvements in order to let those control bodies to recognize it. Once being recognized, our association may like to seek joint efforts to publish technical materials with other platforms or even hold joint technical activities so that all parties can benefit from the collaboration.

Last but not least, to fulfill our ambitious dream, I hereby heartily invite leaders of various control institutions as well as individuals from our membership area to join ACA or to collaborate more actively with it. I am sure that your involvement and dedication will truly be a source of growing power to ACA.

First of all, I personally would like to extend my appreciation to the past President of the ACA, Prof. H. Kimura and the past Steering Committee members for their devotion to laying down a corner stone for the ACA advancement.

As we are aware, the Asian Control Association (ACA) was established in 2006 as an organization which promotes research, development, and applications of control science and technology in Asia, while solidifying the relationship among control people in this region. The establishment has come out as an outcome of the effort made by a group of scholars (leading role made by Prof. W. H. Kwon and Prof. H. Kimura) who had the enthusiasm to bring together control people inside Asia in a coherent manner and thus to provide them with an opportunity to share their ideas and information, on control technology advancement and the collaboration between regions for the future of Asian control community.

During the past two years Prof. Kimura, the first President, together with the Steering Committee members has made every effort to set a framework for the important activities of the ACA and to operate the ACA in an organized manner.

As a result, operating the Asian Control Conference (ASCC), and publishing the Asian Journal of Control (AJC) are now becoming well established. The ACA , however, has a number of important works to be done in order to move forward toward gaining recognition among Asian control people and their communities. These includes promotion of membership including individuals and organizations, forming strong and friendly human network among Asian control people, establishing collaboration between them for research and education, leading industries to actively involve in the ACA activities, publishing a series of textbooks in control somewhat relevant to the control and automation problems in Asia, developing a course on control and control-related subjects at graduate level for Asian students, and establishing sistership with other professional societies inside Asia.

Due to the situation that the ACA faces now, it desperately needs you to actively participate in sharing your opinions and to be willing to volunteer your services to make the ACA successfully established as well as to make it visible.

We cordially invite you to lead the future of the ACA activities by joining us.