International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science
International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science is an organization that supports international exchange of researchers and engineers from the wide range of discipline related to Mechanical Engineering.
Mission
To promote research and development in the field of Machines and Mechanisms by theoretical and experimental methods, along with their practical application.History
It was on September 29, 1969 at the Second World Congress on Theory of Mechanisms and Machines which took place in Zakopane, that two scientists, Ivan Artobolevski and Erskine Crossley, proposed to establish an International Federation of scientists and engineers to facilitate worldwide collaboration.Representatives of 13 countries signed the foundation act and the International Federation for the Theory of Machines came into existence. The initial Member Organizations were represented by:
- Academician Ivan I. Artobolevski,
- Prof. Erskine F.R. Crossley,
- Prof. Michael S. Konstantinov,
- Dr. Werner Thomas,
- Prof. B.M. Belgaumkar,
- Prof. Kenneth H. Hunt,
- Prof. J. Oderfeld,
- Prof. Jack Phillips,
- Prof. George Rusanov,
- Prof. Wolfgang Rössner,
- Prof. Zènò Terplàn,
- Prof. Jammi S. Rao,
- Prof. Giovanni Bianchi,
- Prof. Adam Morecki,
- Nicolae I. Manolescu,
- Leonard Maunder,
- Douglas Muster,
- Ilic Branisky.
in 1999, the Executive Council decided to recognize the changing role of the organization in international collaboration and approved a new name: "The International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science". However, the Executive Council considered that the abbreviation IFToMM was already widely used, and therefore suggested to keep it as a short version of the organization's name.
Officers, Presidents, and General Secretaries
IFToMM officers are the Chairs of IFToMM Member Organizations, the Chairs of Permanent Commissions and Technical Committees, as well as the members of the Executive Council. A complete historical list of IFToMM officers was published in the Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on History of Machines and Mechanisms HMM2004.The Presidents were:
- Ivan I. Artobolevskii,
- Leonard Maunder,
- Bernard Roth,
- Giovanni Bianchi,
- Adam Morecki,
- Jorge Angeles,
- Kenneth J. Waldron,
- Marco Ceccarelli,
- Yoshihiko Nakamura,
- Marco Ceccarelli , and
- Andrés Kecskeméthy.
- M.S. Konstantinov,
- Emil Stanchev,
- Adam Morecki,
- Elizabeth Filemon,
- Ladislav Půst,
- Tatu Leinonen,
- Marco Ceccarelli,
- Teresa Zielinska , and
- Erwin Christian Lovasz.
Meetings
- IFToMM General Assembly: every 4 years
- Executive Council Meeting: an annual meeting of the members of Executive Council
- IFToMM World Congress: every four years
| World Congress | Host Institution | Host country | Dates | No. of papers | No. of countries represented |
| 1st IFToMM World Congress | Bulgaria | September 27–30, 1965 | 64 | 14 | |
| 2nd IFToMM World Congress | Poland | September 23–27, 1969 | 66 | 12 | |
| 3rd IFToMM World Congress | Yugoslavia | September 1971 | 198 | 22 | |
| 4th IFToMM World Congress | United Kingdom | September 8–12, 1975 | 230 | 28 | |
| 5th IFToMM World Congress | Canada | July 8–13, 1979 | 350 | 34 | |
| 6th IFToMM World Congress | India | December 15–20, 1983 | 338 | 35 | |
| 7th IFToMM World Congress | Spain | September 17–22, 1987 | 417 | 38 | |
| 8th IFToMM World Congress | Czechoslovakia | August 26–31, 1991 | 359 | 40 | |
| 9th IFToMM World Congress | Italy | August 29 – September 5, 1995 | 665 | 51 | |
| 10th IFToMM World Congress | Finland | June 20–24, 1999 | 628 | 50 | |
| 11th IFToMM World Congress | China | April 1–4, 2004 | 491 | 43 | |
| 12th IFToMM World Congress | France | June 17–20, 2007 | 535 | 52 | |
| 13th IFToMM World Congress | Universidad de Guanajuato | Mexico | June 19–25, 2011 | 309 | 43 |
| 14th IFToMM World Congress | National Taiwan University | Taiwan | October 25–30, 2015 | 559 | 47 |
| 15th IFToMM World Congress | AGH University of Science and Technology | Poland | June 30–July 4, 2019 | 457 | 66 |
| 16th IFToMM World Congress | Tokyo | November 5–10, 2023 |
Members
Membership in IFToMM is not individual. Instead, it is by Member Organization which are akin to national or territorial organizations. A full list of Member Organizations available on the . Each MO has its own individual or group membership rules.As of the 2015 General Assembly held in Taipei, IFToMM had 47 MOs. In 2018, the membership went down to 45 MOs.
| Current MOs in IFToMM |
 ArmeniaOrganizational structureThe organizational structure of IFToMM includes following bodiesGeneral AssemblyThe General Assembly is the supreme body of the Federation that determines policy. It is composed of the Chief Delegates of IFToMM Members and members of the Executive Council.Executive CouncilThe Executive Council is responsible for managing the affairs of the Federation between the sessions of the General Assembly. The Executive Council includes the President, Vice-President, Secretary-General, Treasurer, and six ordinary members.Commissions and CommitteesThere are four Permanent Commissions and 14 Technical Committees established under IFToMM supervision. Each Permanent Commission and Technical Committee is composed of a Chairperson, appointed by the Executive Council, and a Secretary and members, nominated by the Chairperson and appointed by the Executive Council. The general goals for the work of the Commissions and Committees are aimed at promoting their fields of interest by attracting researchers and practitioners, including young individuals.The four PCs are:
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