General Information about AACC Awards

The American Automatic Control Council sponsors five awards. These awards are given to recognize excellence in scientific, technological, or educational contributions to automatic control.

The Richard E. Bellman Control Heritage Award

The Bellman Award is given for distinguished career contributions to the theory or application of automatic control. It is the highest recognition of professional achievement for US control systems engineers and scientists. The recipient must have spent a significant part of his/her career in the USA. The awardee is strongly encouraged to give a plenary presentation at the ACC Awards Luncheon.

The Control Engineering Practice Award

The Control Engineering Practice Award is given to one individual or one team to be selected from those nominated for significant contribution to the advancement of control practice. The primary criterion for selection will be for the application and implementation of innovative control concepts, methodology, and technology, for the planning, design, manufacture, and operation of control systems. Achievement and usefulness will be evidenced by the benefit to society and by the degree of acceptance by those who use control as a tool. The work on which the nomination is based must have been performed while the nominated individual or at least one member of the team was a resident of the USA. The award consists of a certificate and an honorarium. In the event that the winner is a team, each member of the team will receive a certificate and the honorarium will be divided equally among the team members.

The Donald P. Eckman Award

he Eckman Award recognizes an outstanding young engineer in the field of automatic control. The recipient must be younger than 35 years on January 1 of the year of award. Contributions may be technical or scientific publications, theses, patents, inventions, or combinations of the above in the field of automatic control made while the nominee was a resident of the USA. Supporting documentation must include a full endorsement by at least one responsible supervisor.

The John R. Ragazzini Award

The Ragazzini Award is given to recognize outstanding contributions to automatic control education in any form. These contributions can be from any source and in any media, i.e., electronic, publications, courses, etc.

The O. Hugo Schuck Award

The Hugo Schuck Award is given to recognize the best two papers presented at the previous ACC. One award is for a paper emphasizing contributions to theory and the other emphasizing significant or innovative applications. The papers must have been presented by the awardee or a coauthor. Criteria for selection include the quality of the written and oral presentation, the technical contribution, timeliness, and practicality.