International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science (IFToMM) 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 (Poland), that two scientists, Ivan Artobolevski (USSR) and Erskine Crossley (USA), 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 (IFToMM) came into existence. The initial Member Organizations were represented by: Academician Ivan I. Artobolevski (USSR), Prof. Erskine F.R. Crossley (USA), Prof. Michael S. Konstantinov (Bulgaria), Dr. Werner Thomas (GFR), Prof. B.M. Belgaumkar (India), Prof. Kenneth H. Hunt (Australia), Prof. J. Oderfeld (Poland), Prof. Jack Phillips (Australia), Prof. George Rusanov (Bulgaria), Prof. Wolfgang Rössner (GDR), Prof. Zènò Terplàn (Hungary), Prof. Jammi S. Rao (India), Prof. Giovanni Bianchi (Italy), Prof. Adam Morecki (Poland), Nicolae I. Manolescu (Romania), Leonard Maunder (UK), Douglas Muster (USA), Ilic Branisky (Yugoslavia).
Given the expansion of the topics within the IFToMM umbrella,
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 (along with the logo) 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 (USSR), Leonard Maunder (United Kingdom), Bernard Roth (USA), Giovanni Bianchi (Italy), Adam Morecki (Poland), Jorge Angeles (Canada), Kenneth J. Waldron (USA), Marco Ceccarelli (Italy), Yoshihiko Nakamura (Japan), Marco Ceccarelli (Italy) (repeated), and Andrés Kecskeméthy (Germany).
The Secretaries General were: M.S. Konstantinov (Bulgaria), Emil Stanchev (Bulgaria), Adam Morecki (Poland), Elizabeth Filemon (Hungary), Ladislav Půst (Czechoslovakia), Tatu Leinonen (Finland), Marco Ceccarelli (Italy), Teresa Zielinska (Poland) (two terms), and Erwin Christian Lovasz (Romania).
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
List of all IFToMM World congresses: World Congress Host Institution(s) Host country (City) Dates No. of papersNo. of countries represented1st IFToMM World Congress Bulgaria (Varna)September 27–30, 1965 64 (4 volumes) 142nd IFToMM World Congress Poland (Zakopane)September 23–27, 1969 66 (3 volumes) 123rd IFToMM World Congress Yugoslavia (Kupari) September 1971198 (8 volumes) 224th IFToMM World Congress United Kingdom (Newcastle upon Tyne) September 8–12, 1975 230 (5 volumes) 285th IFToMM World Congress Canada (Montreal) July 8–13, 1979350 (2 volumes)346th IFToMM World Congress India (New Delhi) December 15–20, 1983338 (2 volumes) 357th IFToMM World Congress Spain (Seville) September 17–22, 1987 417 (3 volumes) 388th IFToMM World Congress Czechoslovakia (Prague) August 26–31, 1991 359 (6 volumes) 409th IFToMM World Congress Italy (Milan) August 29 – September 5, 1995 665 (3 volumes) 5110th IFToMM World Congress Finland (Oulu) June 20–24, 1999628 (7 volumes) 5011th IFToMM World Congress China (Tianjin) April 1–4, 2004 491 (5 volumes) 4312th IFToMM World Congress France (Besançon) June 17–20, 2007 535 (digital proceedings) 5213th IFToMM World Congress Universidad de Guanajuato Mexico (Guanajuato) June 19–25, 2011 309 (digital proceedings) 4314th IFToMM World Congress National Taiwan University Taiwan (Taipei) October 25–30, 2015 559 (digital proceedings) 4715th IFToMM World Congress AGH University of Science and Technology Poland (Kraków) June 30–July 4, 2019 457 (digital proceedings) 6616th IFToMM World Congress Japanese council of IFToMM Tokyo (Japan) November 5–10, 2023
Notes Postponed from August 18–21, 2003, due to SARS. Decided at the IFToMM General Assembly on July 3, 2019 (Krakow, Poland).
Members Membership in IFToMM is not individual. Instead, it is by Member Organization (MO) which are akin to national or territorial organizations. A full list of Member Organizations available on the IFToMM web site. Each MO has its own individual or group membership rules.
As of the 2015 General Assembly held in Taipei (Taiwan), IFToMM had 47 MOs. In 2018, the membership went down to 45 MOs.
Current MOs in IFToMM (ABCM) (CCToMM) [China-Beijing] [China-Taipei] (CFToMM) (AMM India) (ItaMMMS) (Jc-IFToMM) (PK TMM ) (ATM)
Former MOs in IFToMM
Organizational structure The organizational structure of IFToMM includes following bodies
General Assembly The 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 Council The 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 Committees There are four Permanent Commissions (PCs) and 14 Technical Committees (TCs) 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: Permanent Commission for Communications, Publications and Archiving Permanent Commission for Education Permanent Commission for the History of Mechanism and Machine Science Permanent Commission for the Standardization of Terminology While the 14 TCs are: Technical Committee for Biomechanical Engineering Technical Committee for Computational Kinematics Technical Committee for Engines and Powertrains Technical Committee for Gearing and Transmissions Technical Committee for Linkages and Mechanical Controls Technical Committee for Micromachines Technical Committee for Multi-body Dynamics Technical Committee for Reliability Technical Committee for Robotics and Mechatronics Technical Committee for Rotordynamics Technical Committee for Sustainable Energy Systems Technical Committee for Transportation Machinery Technical Committee for Tribology Technical Committee for Vibrations
See also Theory of Mechanisms and Machines Canadian Committee for the Theory of Machines and Mechanisms
References
External links
The new official website https://iftomm-world.org/ replaced the old legacy website http://www.iftomm.net/ in early 2021. The legacy website is kept online for now to insure information availability.