Dear ISTVS Colleagues and Friends,
On behalf of the ISTVS, the Board of Directors, and myself, thank you for being part of our society! Many exciting activities have happened since last year’s letter. As we continue to adapt to new modalities of work and innovating ways to interact, 2023 left its mark and 2024 is well on its way! I'm pleased to share these updates on the activities of your Society:
Digital Event Series | The ISTVS Digital Event Series was strong in 2023 and only stronger this year! Our presenters gave excellent talks and attracted large audiences, with expanded visibility on YouTube with the posted recordings of their presentations. We hope you will disseminate information about this free online event to all those who may be interested. We are also looking for others interested in discussing their work in the series, and we will be happy to hear from you!
This week please join us for Christopher Goodin, Ph.D., Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems, Mississippi State University, who will introduce MAVS and show examples of how it is used. SIGN UP
ISTVS2024 | Registration has just opened — register soon to take advantage of the early bird discount! We are looking forward to seeing you at the 21st International and 12th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of the ISTVS in Yokohama, Japan, October 28-31, 2024. We thank the conference co-chairs: Dr. Junya Yamakawa, ISTVS 2nd Vice-President; Dr. Taizo Kobayashi, Deputy General Secretary for Asia-Pacific; and Dr. Genya Ishigami, Editor, Journal of Terramechanics, for their efforts. The always fascinating technical tour will be announced soon! REGISTER
ISTVS2023 | Looking back, in October, our society held the 16th European-African Regional Conference of the ISTVS (in person!) at the Lublin University of Technology in Lublin, Poland. We thank Dr. Jarosław Pytka and his wonderful team for organizing the conference and the great technical tour! Our deep appreciation for all their work, to all the graduate student volunteers who helped in person, as well as to General Secretary Massimo Martelli, 1st Vice-President Dr. Lutz Richter, and Ms. Jenna Dixon who worked behind the scenes through the year to help organize the conference. Thank you to all who attended for your participation! And if you haven’t seen it yet, give this wonderful short video recap of the 2023 conference by the media professionals at LUT a watch:
FISITA | Our participation in FISITA was quite visible at their World Congress/ World Mobility Summit in September 2023 in Barcelona, Spain. ISTVS had a booth with information about the society. I thank Dr. Alex Keen who, who led preparing the materials and staffing the booth, gave a talk and was part of a panel discussion, both about the connection between off-road mobility and climate change. I also extend our thanks to Hellenic Technology of Robotics SA, an ISTVS corporate member, who brought their off-road wheel to exhibit at the ISTVS booth that attracted a lot of attention to our booth. Many thanks also to Dr. Lutz Richter, ISTVS 1st Vice President, who initiated our presence, coordinated the planning with Dr. Keen, attended the event, and staffed the ISTVS booth. I was glad to get the opportunity to do a lightning talk about ISTVS and to bring attention to our society as I received the 2024 FISITA Medal in a plenary session.
Board of Directors | The ISTVS Board of Directors had a two-part meeting in 2023. The first part was conducted in person in October at the conference in Lublin, focusing on the vision for the future of the ISTVS and strategical decisions. In December we met again online to work on administrative and fiscal aspects of the Society.
Wishing everyone a very prosperous and productive rest of 2024!
Yours sincerely,
Corina Sandu, Ph.D.
Virginia Tech, Robert E. Hord, Jr., Professor
President ISTVS