The brazilian society of automatics - sba ("sociedade brasileira de automatica" - sba)

The Brazilian Society of Automatics (SBA-Sociedade Brasileira de Automatica) was established in 1975 as a scientific organization to promote in Brazil the Science and Engineering of Automation and Control and to be a leading forum for researchers, students and professionals working in the various fields of Control and Automation. Currently SBA has more than 700 members in Brazil (professionals, students, and organizations) being responsible for the organization of the major south-american academic event in the area of automatic control - the Brazilian Automation Conference ("Congresso Brasileiro de Automatica" - CBA) a biannual event that usually has around 1000 attendees as well as the Brazilian Symposium on Intelligent Automation (SBAI - "Simposio Brasileiro de Automacao Inteligente"). Additionally, SBA also co-sponsors events in the areas of robotics, neural networks, etc. always aiming to promote Automation and Control activities in Brazil. SBA is coordinated by a Board of Directors and a Council. It includes six Technical Committees (Industrial Automation, Intelligent Systems, Robotics, Instrumentation, Power Eletronics, and Power Systems). SBA has one affiliated journal - "Revista Controle e Automacao" (Control and Automation Journal), the most important scientific journal in the control and automation area in Brazil, with 4 issues per year. This paper addresses some points of the History of SBA, emphasizing its beginnings.