The American Automatic Control Council

An international meeting of automatic control was held in Heidelberg, Germany, September 25–29, 1956, under the auspices of the joint control Committee of the German electrical and mechanical engineering societies. This committee is known as the VDI/VDE — Fachgruppe Regelungstechnik. Other international meetings on automatic control had been held previously. On July 16–21, 1951, one took place in Cranfield, England. This was called the “Conference on Automatic Control.” It was followed by the “Frequency Response Symposium” in New York City, December 1–2, 1953. The Heidelberg meetings were such a success that a demand arose for an international federation which could assist the host country in the matter of publicity, securing papers, and other aspects of the organization of future international control meetings.