The 43rd IFToMM Executive Council was in Sousse in Tunisia on November 12 and 13th. I attended it as the vise president. IFToMM (International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Theory) is the international society involving 44 countries. The members are not individual researchers, but the countries (member organizations). All the researchers and students of the member organization are eligible for the benefits of IFToMM membership. The Executive Council is the annual meeting of IFToMM officers. The managements of IFToMM is like those of the United Nations. The highest decisions are made at the General Assembly at the World Congress opened every 4 years by voting. Each country has only one vote. Tunisia is one of the newest members of IFToMM and kindly hosted the EC meeting at University of Sousse. One in robotics might remember IFToMM by “ROMANSY” (CISM-IFToMM Symposium on Robot Design, Dynamics, and Control), that has the longest history in robotics and is the flagship symposium sponsored by IFToMM Technical Committee of Robotics and Mechatronics.
The left photo was the officers and their families at a hotel in the Berbera’s area in Tunisia. The Hotel Sidi Driss is a traditional Berber underground building at Metmata village. The hotel was use shooting a film of Star Wars as the home of Luke Skywalker in planet Tatooine. Visit here for more information. The Berbera house consists of caves made on the foot of rocky mountains. Temperature inside the rooms is naturally kept 25 degree Celsius all the year round.