THE FIRST STUDENT INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIAD ON MECHANISM AND MACHINE SCIENCE

On April, 19-21, 2011 Izhevsk State Technical University (ISTU), Izhevsk (Russia) hosted the First Student International Olympiad on Mechanism and Machine Science (SIOMMS) following the decision by the Executive Council of International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science (IFToMM).
International Science Olympiads have been held since 1959 on such disciplines as mathematics, physics, computer science, biology, etc. The history of competitions in the field of engineering was started only recently by International Earth Science Olympiad (since 2007) and is now continued by SIOMMS. 17 student teams from 8 countries participated in the competition.
The paper provides a procedure for the competition and its results. Also the conclusions are drawn about the further development of Olympiad project in the Mechanism and Machine Science.
Mechanism and Machine Science (MMS) is one of the key engineering disciplines and plays a crucial role in the technological development of the contemporary society. MMS integrates knowledge in fundamental fields and knowledge in the field of design, operation, and manufacture of mechanisms and machines. Therefore, the content of educational standards in MMS can have local peculiarities. At the same time, the complex nature of the scientific disciplines increases the variety of possible problems to be solved by participants at the competitions and contributes to the full opening of the participants’ creative potential.
Arrangement of regular international competitions on MMS will stimulate the growth of interest to this scientific discipline among students and the attraction of the most skilled ones to work in corresponding professions or scientific organizations afterwards. Conducting regular international competitions on MMS will contribute to strengthening international collaboration in the field of engineering education.