Review of two years of IALF presidency

As part of the General Assembly of the International Association of Learning Factories (IALF) at the 13th Conference on Learning Factories (CLF), Prof. Christian Ramsauer handed over the presidency to Prof. Vera Hummel from ESB Reutlingen after 2 years.

In 2011, the IALF was founded in Darmstadt as an association of several European professorships running learning factories. In the same year, the first CLF was held there. During the CLF 2021, organized by the IIM, Prof. Christian Ramsauer was unanimously elected IALF president, succeeding Prof. Joachim Metternich (TU Darmstadt). At the same time, Maria Hulla was appointed Secretary General. Due to the increasing internationalization and the steady rise in the number of members to 31, Prof. Ramsauer appointed a Presidential Committee in addition to the presidency, which deals with strategic issues such as the foundation of an official IALF association.

During his presidency, Prof. Ramsauer also appointed a Scientific Committee (including Dr. Matthias Wolf) to strengthen the scientific collaboration. Furthermore, with the support of the Scientific Committee, a Best Paper Award could be given for the first time at the CLF 2022 and journal publications of selected papers could be made possible.

One of the goals during the presidency was to promote the internationalization of the IALF. In addition to new members (Prof. Zancul from Brazil and Prof. Sangwan from India), it was possible to host the CLF in Singapore in 2022, and thus outside Europe for the first time.

The success story of the eight working groups, which focus on artificial intelligence, sustainability and assistance systems in learning factories, among other topics, has continued over the past two years. For the first time, an EIT-funded project (LeNuWas) was started and successfully completed, and a white paper on work-based learning was published. 

Furthermore, at the IALF General Assembly in May 2023, the new website (www.ialf-online.net) was presented by Maria Hulla.

We wish the new president Prof. Vera Hummel and the also newly elected vice president Prof. Sebastian Thiede (University of Twente) all the best for their new positions. Prof. Ramsauer will continue to support the IALF as part of the Presidential Committee.