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, 1969m 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:
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 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:
The Secretaries General were:
List of all IFToMM World congresses:
World CongressHost InstitutionHost Country DatesNo. of papersNo. of countries represented
1st IFToMM World CongressBulgaria September 27–30, 196564 14
2nd IFToMM World CongressPoland September 23–27, 196966 12
3rd IFToMM World CongressYugoslavia September 1971198 22
4th IFToMM World CongressUnited Kingdom September 8–12, 1975230 28
5th IFToMM World CongressCanada July 8–13, 1979350 34
6th IFToMM World CongressIndia December 15–20, 1983338 35
7th IFToMM World CongressSpain September 17–22, 1987417 38
8th IFToMM World CongressCzechoslovakia August 26–31, 1991359 40
9th IFToMM World CongressItaly August 29 – September 5, 1995665 51
10th IFToMM World CongressFinland June 20–24, 1999628 50
11th IFToMM World CongressChina April 1–4, 2004 491 43
12th IFToMM World CongressFrance June 17–20, 2007535 52
13th IFToMM World CongressUniversidad de GuanajuatoMexico June 19–25, 2011309 43
14th IFToMM World CongressNational Taiwan UniversityTaiwan October 25–30, 2015559 47
15th IFToMM World CongressAGH University of Science and TechnologyPoland June 30–July 4, 2019457 66
16th IFToMM World CongressTokyo Sept. 10–15, 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

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 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:
While the 14 TCs are: