About ACCA
The Chilean Association of Automatic Control (ACCA: Asociación Chilena de Control Automático) is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the theory and application of automation to modeling, simulation, emulation, design, implementation, test, evaluation, and training of engineering systems. ACCA members are also interested in applying automation tools to biology, economics, and social sciences. To meet these objectives, ACCA has been organizing workshops, seminars, courses, and congresses since 1974.
ACCA has technical committees in i) Process Control; ii) Robotics and Artificial Intelligence; iii) Systems Identification and Adaptive Control; iv) Power Electronics; v) Education; vi) Bio-Engineering; vii) Mining Applications; and viii) Computer Applications. These committees organize one or more events (workshops, courses, seminars) every two years. All technical committees and national and foreign partner organizations meet in the ACCA Congress, our main event. Some ACCA national technical committees have been involved in IFAC technical committees, such as TC5.2 (Gastón Lefranc) and MMM (Luis Bergh and Juan Yuz), and have organized IFAC activities in Chile (MCPL in 2004, IFAC Workshop on Logistics in 2008, IFAC workshop on MMM in 2009, to name a few).
ACCA activities are distinguished by their relevance, excellence, reliability, and professionalism. In each of these activities, a specially appointed Program Committee decides, based on independent and blind reviews, if the work has the appropriate level, needs modifications, or does not meet ACCA’s standards. Typically, during the first day, we provide attendees with the proceedings of the event to easily follow the presentations and have the opportunity to establish a dialogue and exchange experiences with the authors. Many foreign professionals usually attend the various ACCA activities, given the prestige these activities have acquired in the Latin American region.
ACCA is an NMO of IFAC (International Federation of Automatic Control) since 1986. In addition, it is part of the Latin American Automatic Committee, an agreement by which the Latin American Automatic Congresses rotate every two years among the National Congresses of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, and Mexico. ACCA organized the III Latin American Automatic Congress & VIII ACCA Congress, in Viña del Mar, in 1988; the VIII Latin American Automatic Congress & XIII ACCA Congress, in Marbella, in 1998; and the XIV Latin American Automatic Congress & XIX ACCA Congress in 2010.
ACCA foundation was led by Prof. Guillermo González at the University of Chile in 1974, who was elected the first ACCA President; the same year, he organized the first ACCA Congress. Since then, every two years, an ACCA Congress has been held without interruption until now. In 1987 an agreement was signed with the IEEE Chilean Chapters on Control Systems, IEEE Chilean Chapters on SMC, and IEEE Chilean Chapters on Educations, to jointly organize the ACCA Congress. Additional agreements have been signed with the “Colegio de Ingenieros de Chile” (the Chilean Association of Engineers), IEEE Chile Centro Section, and IEEE Chile Sur Section.
In 1975, Prof. Guillermo González organized the first “Congreso Chileno de Ingeniería Eléctrica” (Electrical Engineering Chilean Congress) in collaboration with ACCA. Then, ACCA congress is held in even years and Congreso Chileno de Ingeniería Eléctrica in odd years.
Since 2014, ACCA and IEEE Chilean Chapters decided to change the name of Congreso Chileno de Ingeniería Eléctrica to IEEE Chilecon ACCA Conference (IEEE CHILECON – ACCA). In addition, the regular ACCA Congress changed to IEEE International Conference on Automatica – Congreso de la Asociación Chilena de Control Automático, ACCA (IEEE ICA – ACCA Congress). All accepted papers presented in the conference are published in IEEE Xplore, and a selection of them are proposed for WOS journals. Etienne Lefranc, Mario Fernández, and Gastón Lefranc created an organizational model for both Conferences that yielded high participation, economic sustainability, high-quality papers, reliability, and camaraderie.
Since 2014, both conferences (IEEE ICA ACCA and IEEE CHILECON ACCA) receive around 250 papers from over 25 countries from Latin American, Europe, Asia, the USA, and Canada. These papers are reviewed by the International Program Committee, accepting around 80% of them for presentation. These activities are supported by ACCA, IEEE Chilean Chapters, and Chilean Universities; and are sponsored by prestigious institutions and companies. Papers, in both conferences, can be written in Spanish, Portuguese or English. The power point presentation must be written in English and must answer queries in English.
ACCA Structure
ACCA is a Chilean non-profit organization constituted by a Board of Directors (elected for four years by its members) and by an editorial, and several technical committees. The technical committees of ACCA participate in some IFAC technical committees.
Board of Directors ACCA 2017-2021
President ACCA: Mario Fernández.
Vice-President: Ricardo Pérez.
Secretary: Cristián Durán.
Treasurer: Karina Barbosa.
Directors: Gastón Lefranc, Juan Yuz, Ernesto Rubio, and Daniel Sbarbaro.
Past Presidents
Guillermo González (1974-1982), Aldo Cipriano (1983-1985), Juan L. Hernández (1986-1988), Gastón Lefranc (1989-1992), Felisa Córdova (1993-1995), Eligio Amthauer (1995-1997), Manuel Duarte (1998-2001), Héctor Kaschel (2002-2005), Carlos Muñoz (2006-2009), Marcos Orchard (2010-2012), Carolina Lagos (2013-2017), Mario Fernández (2018-2022).
Editorial Committee
President: Ricardo Pérez PUC
Felisa Córdova UFT
Gastón Lefranc PUCV
Manuel Duarte UCHILE
Daniel Sbarbaro UdeC
Héctor Kaschel USACH
Carlos Muñoz UFRO
Cristián Durán UBío-Bío
Mario Fernández UTalca
Karina Barbosa USACH
ACCA members come from academia (universities and research institutes), private and state-owned companies, governmental institutions, and students (undergraduate and postgraduate). Membership includes electrical and electronic engineers, chemical and biochemical engineers, mechanical engineers, industrial engineers, informatic engineers, medical doctors, mathematicians, and natural scientists. All of them work on automation in control theory, process control, robotics, artificial intelligence, informatics, systems identification, adaptive control, power electronics, education, bio-engineering, and mineral processing, among others. From 1974 to 2013, ACCA members participated in the ACCA Congresses in even years and in the Congreso Chileno de Ingeniería Eléctrica in odd years. Every two years, some of them participated in the Latin American Congress on Automatica that has been held in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, México, and sporadically in Venezuela and Colombia. They have also attended several ACCA activities, such as lectures, tutorial courses, workshops, and seminars. From 2014 until now, they participate in IEEE ICA ACCA Conference in even years and IEEE Chilecon Conference in odd years.