IMEKO 2024 XXIV World Congress

IMEKO always encouraged and helped young researchers join the community, participating in conferences and corresponding social events. Most young researchers are teaching at their institution, and the workshops and conferences organized by IMEKO help them widen their knowledge, meet new fields and discuss new methods with colleagues. These experiences can be well utilized in the teaching activities at their home institutions, resulting in better, higherquality education.

IMEKO has always been a bridge, a meeting place between scientific research conducted in higher education institutes and Research & Development institutions. This foundation can drive innovation in that generally assumed Knowledge Triangle (KT). It highlights the importance of jointly fostering research, education and innovation, paying due attention to the linkages between them. University actors in the KT are at the core of the innovation web, where enhanced capacities, a high degree of integration and leadership are prerequisites for scaling up innovation performance. However, KT mechanisms are still rather weak in universities; cooperation with the industry sector is very low and mostly based on individual contacts, while a systematic approach is missing.

Furthermore, engineering education has kept pace with neither the advances in engineering technologies nor the demands of the labour market. The current practice is deficient in providing employees from the industry with continuous delivery of engineering competencies and a strong multi-disciplinary educational and training background. In fact, traditional education systems show limited effectiveness in developing employees' and students' competencies for the current and future Industry 4.0 environment. The educational paradigm needs to be revised to effectively address the emerging challenges in engineering education and skill demands. Modern concepts of training, industrial learning, and knowledge transfer schemes are required to contribute to improving the performance of the industrial sector, and the introduction of knowledge triangle mechanisms presents itself as one of the solutions to overcome the identified problems.

Our community's goal is to increase the number of female researchers. Female colleagues can eventually become role models for future generations, making the engineering career more attractive to ladies.

In response to the threat of climate change and the global challenges in the Energy sector, IMEKO has pledged to support the challenge of low-carbon energy. Renewable energy technologies, storage, smart electric grids, and energy efficiency are key segments that will help in massive decarbonization. However, the global challenges in the Energy sector cannot be successfully addressed without the contribution of knowledge-based innovations drawing on education and research in the Energy field.

New innovative solutions are requested in all spheres of transforming the Energy sector. Clean Energy production (gas and electricity) is not feasible without exact measurements of input and output process variables and smart control of the production process. A particularly important role plays electrical measurements for renewable sources of electrical energy (wind, water, solar), where often the control mechanisms have to be maximally optimized and driven by external conditions (illumination, flow or wind intensity, users energy demand, distribution network status) to achieve optimal production efficiency (e.g., MPPT converters for solar systems). This highefficiency level cannot be achieved without exact measurements of external parameters.

One of the main topics of IMEKO is becoming more and more important in each of the areas listed above: the number of sensors is growing year by year in the digital infrastructure around us, and more and more data need to be processed as accurately and efficiently as possible. Furthermore, we need to model increasingly complex processes with accurate mathematical models. IMEKO significantly contributes to these challenges since theoretical and practical aspects play an important role in the community's research.

Nearly all industrial processes today use electricity to power the involved appliances directly or indirectly (e.g., by powering the air compressor, which is then used to power the machines by pressurized air). Also, most control and communication signals in an industrial environment are electrical. These signals must be accurately measured to achieve efficient and safe industrial production. Also, many innovations in industrial areas are based on energy savings and achieving higher efficiency or speed of industrial processes. All these aspects can be adequately evaluated only when accurate and reliable measurements are in place.

Less access to information and knowledge is also a form of inequality. Nowadays, much knowledge is available online for free; only the required tools and internet access are needed. IMEKO's activities in sensor development and telecommunications help produce cheap and reliable devices that are affordable for those in a difficult financial situation. This contributes to the possibility of their education, resulting in a better quality of life.

An important criterion for sustainability is that we have an accurate estimate of the number of goods used, and on the other hand, we can determine where there is room for further optimization based on the high amount of available data. Measurement theory and techniques can help produce accurate, cheap sensors providing the necessary information for sustainability, and data processing optimization techniques can be used to recognize suboptimal use of resources, making it easier to identify the necessary changes.

All modern infrastructures in cities and communities are based on electrical communications (Internet, telephone) and appliances (from street lights to conference presentation devices, e.g., beamers). To assure proper function and optimal performance (including minimum power consumption), an exact measurement of related electrical quantities (from power measurements to interference analysis) is needed.

Consider optimization of consumption and production; it is the first step to knowing how much energy or raw materials are consumed. Also, to assess the achieved optimized, possibly self-sustainable balance between consumption and production, exact measurements of quantities that are either directly electrical (electricity power consumption, noise interfering with communication signals, etc.) or transformed into an electrical domain by an appropriate sensor (e.g., light, sound/vibration, fuel, volume and flow meters) are essential.

Health, agriculture, climate observation, and urban infrastructures are sectors with the rapid uptake of digital technologies, such as sensor networks, cloud technologies, artificial intelligence, and smart sensors. The IMEKO TC6 activities in metrology for digitalization and digital technologies in industry and science support these developments, which underpin SDGs "Zero Hunger", "Good Health and Well-being", "Clean Water and Sanitation", "Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure", "Climate Action" and "Sustainable Cities and Communities".

For instance, only with reliable measurements of consumption, air quality, water quality and other factors that influence the quality of life and well-being improvements can be achieved in a sustainable way. Measures to support these SDGs need to be approved and assessed quantitatively for trust and confidence in the resulting decisions. Digital technologies, such as low-cost measuring sensor networks, cloud computing, and smart mobile devices, support the implementation of such measurements under harsh conditions and in regions with few financial possibilities.

The comparability of measurements can also be improved using digital technologies, such as machine-readable certificates, cloud solutions, digital communication, and remote assessments. Hence, digital technologies for traceability of measurements can bring metrology to every place on earth, helping to assess and improve the quality of products and life standards.

Like all IMEKO Technical Committees, TC6 "Digitalization" is a place for collaboration, sharing of knowledge and experience, and bringing together people from around the world irrespective of their origins and societal background. The TC6 events on digital technology are open to everybody. With the possibility of virtual attendance, many more people can join the meetings and discussions.

1. The use of modern measurement techniques for measurements of geometrical quantities, whose development and constant improvement is one of the TC14 aims, is crucial for supporting the design, implementation and production of innovative medical devices used for diagnostics and therapy.
2. The possibility of running advanced research on internal and external structures, including surface topography of new materials used in bioengineering, assists the progress in producing implants or artificial organs.
3. Methods of geometrical error identification and correction are used to improve the accuracy of radiotherapy devices and devices used for medical imaging (computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scanners)

1. Large-volume metrology systems, which are also in the scope of TC14 works, give the possibility to perform precise measurements of large-size elements of wind and water turbines, enabling, for example, optimal selection of the shape of these elements.
2. Low-force tactile and computed tomography measurements are crucial elements of the quality inspection of solar panels.

TC14 works on the development of innovative quality assessment systems comprising measurement methods, techniques, infrastructure and procedures for technical quality control at all stages of production of nano products, photovoltaic devices, modern optical elements, space exploration vehicles, powertrain systems, means of transport and many more.

The scope of TC14’s work also includes quality assessment of finished products in the abovementioned areas, including assessing their functional properties with modern measurement techniques.

Implementing quality control loops makes production processes robust against disturbances, reducing scrap to the utmost minimum and optimizing the consumption of resources.

TC15's traditional event, the Youth Symposium on Experimental Solid Mechanics, is focused primarily on students.

TC15 and UN Goal 9 have a very strong relationship.
TC15 Experimental mechanics primarily focuses on developing and transferring technologies for industry 4.0. detailed structural and deformation analysis and participation in smart (meta)material development and testing.

this goal could be partly met by our activities in the testing of additively manufactured (zero waste technology) IMEKO AND THE 17 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS structures. Additive manufacturing is inherently optimized for resource material consumption and produces no waste. Moreover, the materials used for this method are highly recyclable, and the energy efficiency of production is positive. For this reason, AM products and structures are extensively investigated from a Metrologic and load-bearing capacity point of view.

TC 20 is constantly striving to put digitalization at the forefront, keeping in mind the UN Goals on sustainability, especially UN Goal 7. For various applications, the TC has interdisciplinary working groups in renewable and sustainable clean energy (solar, wind, electro and synfuels). We work together worldwide with regulatory bodies, industry NGOs, Universities, and premier institutions offer them platforms to disseminate their work and foster open discussions to enable the UN sustainability goals of affordable, clean and sustainable energy, protect our environment and mitigate climate change. An example of such a platform is our international conference on hydrogen this April with NGOs, Ministries, Universities, Industries, Standardisation Bodies and NMIs. https://www.imeko-gh2fuels.ptb.de/

Vibration measurements contribute to human health and well-being.

• Safety and comfort of automotive vehicles and trains (crash tests, suspension testing)
• Seismic (earthquake) monitoring to assure the health and well-being protection of the community
• Monitoring of human exposure to vibration
• Wearable personal health and fitness monitoring devices

Vibration measurements play an important role in the realization of wind energy. The implementation of wind energy is often hindered by inhabitants in the neighbourhood of the turbines due to the fear of generated (low frequency) noise and vibration, but objective measurements can help to base the discussion on facts and turn the public opinion. In addition, Vibration measurements are widely used for predictive maintenance and optimization of operation parameters of wind power generators.

• Smart digital accelerometers play an important role in IoT and the 4th cost of digital motion sensors are contributing to the development of new products and applications, with the current range of applications covering automotive vehicles, drones, gaming consoles, smartphones, smartwatches, robots, and factory automation
• Vibration isolation and vibration measurements are used worldwide for monitoring production processes to yield high-quality products
• For the development of resilient and sustainable infrastructure, vibration measurements provide a means of infrastructure health diagnosis, and it is essential that the measurements be objectively reliable

The support of wind energy and resilient infrastructure, discussed under goals 7 and 9, also supports goal 11. In addition, the work of TC22 is important for earthquake countermeasures, for which accurate amplitude and phase of seismic vibration measurements are necessary. Beyond that, vibration measurements are currently used to monitor and estimate the structural health of buildings to perform predictive maintenance and to increase the service lifetimes of public infrastructure.

Low-frequency vibration measurements support the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) regarding the International Monitoring System (IMS). IMEKO AND THE 17 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS The IMS, when completed, will include 50 primary and 120 auxiliary seismic monitoring stations distributed worldwide. With the implementation of metrological traceability to the SI, the reliability and trustworthiness of such measurements will be emphasized.