From August 21 to 26, 2016, the 24th International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics(ICTAM 2016) was successfully held in Montreal, Canada. ICTAM is the most influential event in the field of mechanics. And as it is held every four years, it is also praised as the Olympic of Mechanics.
Nineteen treatises of BIT were selected,whose number is among the highest. Two Chinese scholars,Academician Hu Haiyan and Fang Daining were recommended to participate in the “50-minute invited talk”, which has never happened in the same event before. The report of Academician Hu Haiyan titles ”flexible machine: A Challenge of Computational Dynamics”, in which he summarizes the latest achievements BIT got in flexible multi-body dynamics. Academician Fang Daining’s presentation named”The Deformation and Fracture of Electromagnetic Thin Film and Layered Medium under Multi-field Coupling”. He introduces the research results of intelligent materials and multi-field coupling. Both of their reports caused great attention and discussion and won a good international reputation.
During the congress, the committee board of the International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ITUAM) selected sixteen symposiums(known as ITUAM symposiums) titled ITUAM from 2017 to 2018 based on its previous work and voting. Two symposiums, “Mechanics of electro/magneto-active materials and structures”, proposed by academician Fang Daining and “Acoustic/elastic metamaterials, their design and applications”, brought forward by professor Hu Gengkai were all included with high polls. This would be the first time that BIT has hosted such a high-level academic seminar named ITUAM.
In recent ten years, mechanics in BIT has developed rapidly and cultivated a good number of famous scholars, including academician Hu Haiyan specialized in Dynamics and Control, academician Fang Daining, expert of solid mechanics. The faculty of mechanics in BIT also includes one nationally outstanding teacher, one specialist of 1,000 Talents Plan, three Cheung Kong Scholar Chair Professors, nine scholarship recipients of China National Funds for Distinguished Young Scholars, one teacher of Thousand Youth Talents Plan, one scholarship recipient of National Science Foundation--Outstanding Youth Foundation and twelve fellows selected in Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University supported by the Ministry of Education. Besides, many new research platforms like National Level Teaching Group, innovative research groups, innovation bases were set up. The development of mechanics not only helps cultivate talents but promotes other subjects like weapon manufacturing, safety engineering and aerospace engineering.
