Dear IFAC Friends and Colleagues,
IEEE has one. The Royal Statistical Society has
one. And now, IFAC has one, too. A full profes-
sional Italian Barista coffee machine? Unfor-
tunately, no (although – we don’t know about
IEEE or RSS). An intelligent robot that can clean
our desks, handle all tasks and work through
our to do lists? We wish. No, I am talking about
a Code of Conduct. While at first sight, a Code
of Conduct might seem less attractive than cof-
fee machines or robots, a Code of Conduct, or
in short CoC, is way more important. And it was
about time that IFAC got one, too.
IFAC is a leading professional non-profit soci-
ety in the field of automatic control. Towards
the control community, this implies an obliga-
tion to act according to ethical and professional
standards. And even more so, to provide rules
to which individuals acting on behalf of IFAC
can refer to.
Therefore, we have been developing an IFAC
Code of Conduct over the past year, and Coun-
cil has voted for its installation in Florianópolis,
in September 2018. The document is printed
alongside this column, and can also be ac-
cessed via the following link:
https://www.ifac-control.org/about/ifac-code-of-conduct
The IFAC Code of Conduct is based on the Vi-
sion and Mission of IFAC together with IFAC’s
values:
• Honesty and Integrity,
• Excellence and Relevance,
• Sustainability,
• Diversity and Inclusivity.
In agreement with and in implementation of the
above IFAC values, the IFAC Code of Conduct
summarizes the commitment and obligation
of IFAC to maintain ethical and professional
standards in its academic and industrial ac-
tivities. Starting immediately, all IFAC volun-
teers are bound to the CoC starting with the
TC members and going to the IFAC officers,
including the editorial board members of our
journals as well as the organizing committee
members of our many IFAC technical events.
IFAC stands firm in its determination to pre-
vent unjust behavior or treatment, discrimina-
tion and harassment, scientifically dishonest
practices, plagiarism and falsification, corrup-
tion or fraud, to name just a few points from
the CoC. We want to encourage everyone to
step up or speak up whenever we see behavior
that is not aligned with these ethical standards.
We think the spirit of IFAC is one of coopera-
tion and collaboration, inclusivity and diversity,
honesty and integrity. And with this spirit, we
look forward to this new year 2019 and to the
future of IFAC!
I also want to take this opportunity to wish all
the readers of this column all the best for 2019,
many great coffees, clean desks and email in-
boxes, exciting conversations, and fascinating
encounters. I hope you all had a great start into
2019 already. Let’s all push forward together,
in a collaborative and cooperative fashion, in
the many research directions within automatic
control and all its application areas, to meet the
societal challenges of tomorrow.
With warm regards from snowy Stuttgart,
Frank Allgöwer
February 2019 From the IFAC President
Introducing the Code of Conduct