Welcome to 2021, the 67th anniversary of the IEEE Control Systems Society (CSS).

I feel thrilled, honored, and privileged to serve as president of our Society for the first two-year term, per the constitutional changes approved in July 2020 at the meeting of the CSS Board of Governors (BoG). An exciting journey has started for me!

Serving for two years instead of one gives the president a great opportunity to be more effective in enabling the implementation of strategies already in place and consolidating the long-term initiatives of our Society. This is particularly welcome in 2021, a busy year (our publications and our Society as a whole will be reviewed by IEEE, as happens every five years). The CSS has a longstanding tradition of excellence, and we have always performed extremely well at these review exercises. We shall do so this time as well! Why? Because the CSS is a volunteer-based professional society. This is our value, our richness, and, let me also say, our safeguard during these challenging times.

Many of my predecessors focused their inaugural message on our volunteers and I am very glad to be upholding this tradition. CSS institutional memory (I am quoting this term from 2018 CSS President Francesco Bullo’s inaugural message) is a distinctive feature of our professional ecosystem, which is made up of volunteers who serve our volunteers and community of scholars, students, and practitioners. Indeed, the title of my message contains the word inclusive. This is what the CSS already is; however, a lot more must be achieved. This goal will be the main driving force during my term... (continued)

I look forward to working with you over the next two years. Please do not hesitate to get in touch with me at t.parisini@imperial.ac.uk.

Thomas Parisini
IEEE CSS President, 2021-2022

Please continue reading my presidential message and all previous presidential messages here.