The Multibody System Dynamics Outstanding PhD Thesis Prize, also denominated Lagrange Award to the best PhD research on Multibody Dynamics, was established in 2017 by the IFToMM Technical Committee for Multibody Dynamics with the aim of recognizing the outstanding achievements of a young researcher (under 35 years old) at the early stage of their scientific career..

The Lagrange Award is presented annually to recognize the most successful PhD thesis on Multibody Dynamics over the prior year as judged by the evaluation committee. The winner will receive a certificate and Springer books to the value of € 250, plus a 1-year subscription to Multibody System Dynamics. This year, the decision will be announced during MULTIBODY 2023, the 11th ECCOMAS Thematic Conference on Multibody Dynamics, which will be held in Lisbon on July 24-28, 2023.

The Lagrange Award – Multibody System Dynamics Outstanding PhD Thesis Prize  2023 is now open for applications. This award is presented annually by IFToMM’s Technical Committee for Multibody Dynamics and Springer’s journal Multibody System Dynamics to recognize successful PhD theses on Multibody Dynamics. 

The current edition of the Award accepts applications from doctors who defended their theses during 2023. The call for applications will be open until January 15, 2024. Please note that this is earlier than in previous editions.

Applicants must submit

- a copy of their PhD thesis (in English),
- a curriculum vitae, and
- a maximum of three publications related to the thesis content.

to the award coordinator, Prof. Francisco J. Gonzalez (f.gonzalez@udc.es).

The award coordinator will be happy to answer any questions that you may have regarding the Award.


Additional information can be found on the website:
http://lim.ii.udc.es/events/lagrangeAward/

Closing date for applications: January 15, 2024
Decision on the winner: tba

Teun Koetsier, A History of Kinematics from Zeno to Einstein, On the role of motion in the development of mathematics, Springer Science Publishers, 2024  

The word kinematics was introduced in the 19th century by the French physicist Ampère. For him, it was a sub-discipline of mechanics in which movement is studied independently of forces and masses.  

The movements studied in kinematics are usually geometric structures consisting of collections of positions of, for example, a point or a line in a Euclidean plane or space. Such structures play an important role not only in mechanics but also in geometry and in the theory of machines.  

In the first half of this book, the author shows that movement played a crucial role in the development of mathematics in Classical Antiquity and in the 17th century. This often concerned kinematic definitions of curves.  

At first, the movement was only supportive, but gradually in the 17th and 18th centuries the movement itself became the subject of research. The author discusses in detail the developments that preceded Ampère. This led in the 19th century, on the one hand, to theoretical kinematics, in which the general properties of movement are considered, and, on the other hand, to kinematics of mechanisms, in which the properties of specific movements are investigated.  

The 19th-century developments in the kinematics of mechanisms were greatly stimulated by mechanical engineering, which took off after the Industrial Revolution. A golden age dawned for kinematics. The developments in Germany, in which the work of Franz Reuleaux and Ludwig Burmester played a central role, receive a lot of attention in the book.  

The book ends with Einstein’s special theory of relativity, which partly arose from the role that kinematics played in theoretical mechanics. The problems surrounding the movement of light challenged the traditional view of space and time. The book ends with an outline of the role that kinematics played in the 20th century, particularly in relation to mechanical engineering.

Prof. Teun Koetsier (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) is a historian and philosopher of mathematics with a specific interest in the history of machines. In 2019, he published ‘The Ascent of GIM, the Global Intelligent Machine, A History of Production and Information Machines’. GIM is the successor of the Internet of things. It is, in fact, a giant robotic machine that covers the globe. It is no science fiction. It exists and grows and gets smarter and smarter.

Kinematic Synthesis of Mechanisms: Using Excel® and Geogebra

The book covers classical geometrical methods and modern analytical methods in the kinematic synthesis of mechanisms. The methods discussed are all implemented geometrically using Geogebra and analytically using Excel®. After a brief history of how machine science has developed throughout history from the viewpoint of mechanism design, two, three, four, and five-position syntheses of mechanisms are issued. Geometrical and analytical methods of guiding a rigid body between the given positions, path generation with prescribed timing, and correlation of crank angles are covered. Using the relative motion concept, the position synthesis of six-link mechanisms is also considered. Roberts-Chebyshev theorem is described and proved, and the use of the theorem in practice is shown. The book also explains the design of mechanisms that convert a continuous rotary motion into an oscillating or reciprocating motion. Freudenstein’s equation for three, four, and five precision points and the least squares method for function generation using Freudenstein’s equation are explained. Developments made in Russian school on mechanism synthesis, starting with Chebyshev, are discussed. Finally, the application of optimization in mechanism design is shown with examples. Solver tool as an add-in in Excel® is used, which provides a simple, fast, and easy-to-use platform for optimizing mechanisms.

Book’s URL: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-30955-7

Book supplementary materials web page: http://makted.org.tr/en/kinematic-synthesis-of-mechanisms/

About the author:
Eres Söylemez received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Columbia University in 1974 under the supervision of Ferdinand Freudenstein. He worked as a faculty member at Middle East Technical University (1974-1985 / 1989-2013) and Gazi University (1985-1989). He served as the chair of Department of Mechanical Education at Gazi University (1987-1988), the president of The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) Defense Industries Research and Development Institute (SAGE) (1989-1995), the president of Measuring, Selection and Placement Center of Turkey (OSYM) (1995-1996), the chair of Department of Mechanical Engineering at Middle East Technical University, the president of the Turkish Machine Theory Association (MakTeD) (2011-2019) and the chair of IFToMM MO Turkey (2011-2020). He has been a member of the IFToMM Technical Committee for Linkages and Mechanical Controls since 2012 and received the IFToMM Dedicated Service Award in 2023. Söyelemez specializes in the kinematic synthesis of mechanisms.

In the last two decades, we have gained more knowledge than in all of human history. Mechanical engineers used to focus on just a few aspects of a machine, but now we must think about its environmental impact, interconnectedness, and intelligence. Our goal has always been to improve the world, but we must also consider the ethical implications of our work. With exponential growth, we need to anticipate and adapt to the ever-changing world, and even IFToMM must face this reality.

This webinar aims to: (1) initiate a reflection and a dialogue on ethics (2) promote methods and practices within the IFToMM community.

Prof. Teun Koetsier (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) is a historian and philosopher of mathematics with a specific interest in the history of machines. In 2019, he published ‘The Ascent of GIM, the Global Intelligent Machine, A History of Production and Information Machines’. GIM is the successor of the Internet of things. It is, in fact, a giant robotic machine that covers the globe. It is no science fiction. It exists and grows and gets smarter and smarter.

Check the website for this webinar for more information.

Click here to watch the video.

IFToMM is proud to announce that due to kind negotiations with Springer Nature, a first instance of Proceedings of IFToMM Conferences will be made available to individual IFToMM Members for free eBook access. These are Volumes 1 and 2 of the 11th IFToMM International Conference on Rotordynamics. If you are an individual member of an IFToMM Member Organization, Permanent Commission, Technical Committee, or Cross-Disciplinary Group, please send confirmation by your corresponding Chair to website-affairs@iftomm-world.org, and you will be provided access to the restricted area for free downloading of the papers of these Proceedings. Note that both the downloaded papers as well as the access link to them are for your personal use only and may not be distributed to any other persons or institutions, according to current legal Copyright provisions.

In the meantime, for temporary use, the following links can be used for direct access:

Volume 1: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-40455-9

Volume 2: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-40459-7   

This a first of a series of targeted free-access Conference Proceedings within the IFToMM community, which we look forward will evolve to a many futher IFToMM Conference Proceedings for strong visibility and usability of IFToMM-patronaged conferences. We invite you to take part of this boosting of scientific interactivity and the further blossoming-up of this our beloved Federation.

Let’s join to make this Federation strong!

Your President

Andres Kecskemethy

On June 2023, the University of Craiova awarded an honoris causa doctoral degree to Prof. Giuseppe Carbone, Chair of IFToMM Technical Committee on Robotics and Mechatronics. He received this award for his outstanding scientific contributions in medical and service robotics.

On Monday, January 30, 2023, the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca (UTCN) awarded the title of Doctor Honoris Causa to University Prof. Giuseppe CARBONE from the University of Calabria (Italy). Representatives of the UTCN leadership, along with the UTCN academic body members and guests, attended the awarding ceremony of the prestigious title in recognition of professional excellence and valuable contributions to the field of robotics by Prof. Giuseppe Carbone. Among the participants, there were IFToMM Romania representatives, including Prof. Erwin Lovasz (IFToMM Secretary General), Prof. Ioan Doroftei (IFToMM MO-Romania Chair), Prof. Doina Pisla (Director of CESTER and former Chair of IFToMM TC on Computational Kinematics).

The stringent legislation concerning the emissions of vehicles has become one of the strongest factors affecting engine and powertrain manufacturers during the last decade. Consequently, we witness a massive drift toward electrification of powertrains, especially in the automotive industry – a trend which will hold further and promises to get even stronger in the years and even decades to come. In parallel, research and development on much cleaner internal combustion (IC) engines based not only on improved design and control strategy of the combustion process but also on new and alternative fuels, continues as well. Besides that, various types of hybrid powertrains including both IC engines and electric motors take a considerable share in many powertrains produced worldwide. One should not forget the power turbines, used both in transportation machinery and in power generation.

The aim of this book is to cover a wide range of applied research on engines and powertrains compactly presented in one volume, by showing innovative engineering solutions, which already found their place in the development process of improved engines and powertrains used in modern vehicles and power plants.

The Advances in Engine and Powertrain Research and Technology is the first book of the Springer series Mechanism and Machine Science completely dedicated to engines and powertrains. It is published under the auspices of IFToMM and is the result of the work of the members of the Technical Committee for Engines and Powertrains in cooperation with the Technical Committees for Transportation Machinery and Rotordynamics. For more details follow the link: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-91869-9

The spread of COVID-19 has brought a huge impact on the whole world and on our normal life. PCR testing is currently the “gold standard” for diagnosing COVID-19 cases and one of the most important means of preventing and controlling the COVID-19 epidemic. However, swab sampling before PCR testing currently mainly relies on medical staff and manual operation, often facing serious problems such as insufficient personnel capacity and high-intensity work. In addition, medical staff needs to collect probes at close range during the collection process. In order to prevent cross-infection, a full set of protective equipment must be worn. The increase of labor intensity also affects the standardization of the operation, so that the overall sampling efficiency and accuracy cannot be guaranteed.

To solve the above problems, the Advanced Mechanism and Roboticized Equipment Lab from Tsinghua University and Yantai Tsingke+ Robotics Joint Research Institute Co., Ltd. jointly developed a throat swab sampling robot that is aimed at automatic swab sampling for large-scale 10-in-1 and 20-in-1 mixed PCR screening. Taking place of medical staff to complete throat swab sampling, virus collection tube recovery, virus disinfection and other functions, the sampling efficiency is as high as 42 seconds per person, and the sampling efficiency is 100%, providing a strong guarantee for scientifically and effectively responding to the risk of the spread of the COVID epidemic. It is worth noting that the robotic arm used in the swab sampling robot was designed and developed by Tsinghua University and Yantai Tsingke+ Institute with 22 patents filed.

We at IFToMM are starting through this blog a communication channel for coordinating Ukraine help initiatives from the IFToMM organs (Member Organizations, Permanent Commissions, Technical Committees, Cross Disciplinary Groups). This may involve financial aids or channels for hosting students and researchers searching for a place in peace to move forward on research and education. Currently, the IFToMM EC and also the Member Organization Turkey have started financial support for the Member Organization Poland to bolster the gigantic and unselfish efforts Polish people are doing to receive millions of refugees escaping from unjustified and traumatizing despair due to a cruel and needless war.  

In case you wish to share an initiative within IFToMM, please contact the responsible member of the IFToMM Executive Council for Coordination of Ukrainian Support:

Prof. John Michael McCarthy,  jm.mccarthy-ec@iftomm-world.org

We thank everyone who is approaching us with initiatives to help the Ukraine people and those helping them.

Sincerely

Andres Kecskemethy
IFToMM President
In the name of the IFToMM Executive Council
and the whole IFToMM Community

Actual information:
********************

(1) MO Turkey:

It is planned to provide the opportunity to work in the status of “contracted teaching staff with nationality” in the Research Universities listed in the attachment for the academicians of Republic of Ukraine who had to leave their academic and scientific studies at their universities due to the extraordinary conditions in Ukraine so that they can carry out their unfinished scientific and academic studies and not to leave the academic environment. Academicians who are Ukrainian citizens in this situation can apply to the e-mail address of our Presidency, together with their CVs, cohe@yok.gov.tr, or they can also apply directly to the e-mail addresses of the university they want to work with in the attached list.”

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