IFAC is short for International Federation of Automatic Control, which is an international organisation mostly run by volunteers working in the area of automatic control. This includes researchers as well as engineers working in industry. The organisation runs professional workshops, conferences and symposia for its members to share their recent results and developments related to automatic control.
The IFAC foundation is a separate entity and was created to foster the scientific and social goals of IFAC. It solicits and funds innovative control engineering activities which promise to improve the state of knowledge of individuals and groups. As such, it also financially supported the development of the Girls in Control workshops.