Dear ISTVS Colleagues and Friends,

It is hard to believe, but 2022 is quickly approaching its end! I hope it was a good year for all of you! On behalf of the ISTVS, the Board of Directors, and myself, thank you for being part of our society!

As we continue to adapt to new modalities of work and networking and to keep innovating ways to successfully interact, 2022 left its mark:

Harbin, China / In September, our society held the 11th Asia-Pacific Regional Conference of the ISTVS. We thank Dr. Liang Ding and his organizing committee at the Harbin Institute for Technology for creating an online venue where international attendees could participate. View a conference highlight video.

Montreal, Canada / We thank Prof. Jozsef Kovecses and Dr. Lutz Richter who organized the 2022 ISTVS Americas Symposium in Montreal, Canada, in October. This was the first in-person event our society has held since 2019.

We extend our deep appreciation for the work of the organizers of both these events, as well as to General Secretary Massimo Martelli, Ms. Jenna Dixon, and the graduate student volunteers, and thank you for your participation.

FISITA / Our cooperation with FISITA grew in 2022. It was my honor to organize an ISTVS session on terrain vehicles at the FISITA-sponsored 17th European Automotive Congress and the 32nd SIAR International Congress of Automotive and Transport Engineering (EAEC–MVT 2022) in October in Timisoara, Romania. Our session received a lot of attention from the organizers and from the audience. Our thanks go to Brigadier General Ret. Prof. Günter Hohl who initiated the conversation and supported the organization of this session. The session consisted of four presentations given by graduate students of Prof. Peter Kiss’s and mine. At the same conference I also gave a plenary talk about ISTVS. We hope for a larger participation at next year’s corresponding event, to be held in Bucharest, Romania.

Student chapter / The first student chapter of ISTVS, at Virginia Tech, held its inaugural meeting and hosted Prof. Radu Serban speaking on vehicle dynamics and terramechanics in the multiphysics simulation engine Project Chrono in December. The event was very well received and attended. The slides from his presentation are posted to the ISTVS Resource Initiative.

The Board of Directors held its annual meeting on December 10 and 11. The board voted to extend the terms of the current leadership of the society by one year, such that the change of leadership will continue to happen at the next ISTVS International Conference, which will be held in 2024.

Society activities continued in 2022:

Journal of Terramechanics (IF 2.284)
co-Editors-in-Chief Dr. David Gorsich and Dr. Vladimir Vantsevich
Research Initiative led by Dr. Alex Keen
The 2021 and 2022 Digital Events Series
Professional Resources on the Society website
ISTVS Newswire
LinkedIn
The updated ISTVS standards have been published

Our main goals for 2023 are to reach out to new generations of researchers and to recruit new members to the society. We encourage regional and national secretaries to initiate activities that will support the growth of the society.

We are looking forward to the 16th European-African Regional Conference of ISTVS, to be held in Sept.-Oct. 2023, in Lublin, Poland.

We thank Prof. Jarosław Pytka for organizing the 2023 conference. We are also inviting you to participate at the ISTVS-organized Terrain Vehicles session under the FISITA-supported ESFA 2023 Conference, to be held in Nov. 2023, in Bucharest, Romania.

Happy Holidays! Warm wishes of health, happiness, and prosperity, and a Happy New Year, 2023!

Yours sincerely,
Prof. Corina Sandu
President ISTVS