The Higher Technical School of Engineering of the University of Seville has hosted from January 22 to 24, 2025 the I Joint Symposium of the Thematic Groups of Control Engineering, Modeling, Simulation and Optimization, and Education in Automatics , belonging to the Committee Spanish of Automatics.

The occasion was taken to pay tribute to Professor Francisco Rodríguez Rubio , for his long career dedicated to the world of Automatics.

Francisco Rodríguez Rubio is a University Professor, in the Department of Systems Engineering and Automation, of the Higher Technical School of Engineering of the University of Seville, having recently been appointed ordinary professor emeritus by said University.

He has been Director of the Department of Systems and Automatic Engineering, Head of workshops and laboratories and Deputy Director of the Higher School of Engineering and, in his most recent stage, Director of this same School.

He is also a prominent member of the Spanish Automation Committee (CEA), having been the first coordinator of the Control Engineering Thematic Group, as well as organizer of the Automation Conference held in Seville in 2000.

His research activity develops, on the one hand, around the theory of adaptive and robust control with application to industrial processes, solar energy systems and robotic systems. On the other hand, he has also directed part of his research to feedback control systems through communications networks (Networked Control Systems), as well as to the field of image processing and its application in robotics.

He is the author or co-author of more than 200 publications, including books, magazine articles, conferences and book chapters, having also directed seventeen doctoral theses throughout his career.