In fact, there is a disincentive to publish the best work due to competition within industry. There are no easy answers. The ACC Program Committees now has a dedicated chair for industrial application papers. This will certainly help. However, in the long run we need to make it more attractive for industry to participate.
Industry is motivated by opportunities to increase competitiveness in the market place.
The field of automatic control has certainly been an enabling technology in this endeavor over the last few decades and will continue to be so. Our challenge is to have technical programs that clearly offer the means for continued improvements of industrial processes and product quality through applications of advances in automatic control. This can be accomplished through industry and academic collaboration on technical papers, workshops and AACC sponsored benchmark challenges. The key being that engineers from industry and the universities work together to reach a common understanding and that each contribute their unique perspective to solve problems. This is the time this page has been accessed since March 7, 1997.