Prof. Andres Kecskeméthy was born in Lima, Peru, and graduated in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Stuttgart in 1984. He received his PhD from the University of Duisburg in 1993 and later worked as a senior guest researcher at McGill University with a fellowship from the German Research Foundation (DFG).

He held a professorship at the Technical University of Graz from 1996 to 2002, before joining the University of Duisburg-Essen, where he chaired Mechanics and Robotics until 2024. He is currently Senior Professor at the same university. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Riga Technical University in 2018 and served as Editor-in-Chief of Mechanism and Machine Theory (2004–2015).

 Prof. Kecskeméthy has held major academic leadership roles and is actively involved in IFToMM, serving as its President since 2020 (re-elected for 2024–2027). His research focuses on multibody systems, robotics, biomechanics, and mechatronic system design. He has received numerous international awards, published over 250 scientific papers, and organized several major conferences in robotics and kinematics.

Pr Daniele Cafolla received a dual MSc degree in mechanical engineering in 2012 at the University of Cassino, Italy, and Panamerican University, Mexico.  From 2013 to 2014, he was a visiting researcher at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. In 2016, he was awarded a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. He was a Research Fellow at the University of Cassino, Italy, and at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in 2016 and 2017. Since July 2018, he has been the Director of the Biomechatronics Lab at the Clinical Research Institute IRCCS Neuromed, Italy. At the University of Rome Tor Vergata, he has been Adjunct Professor of Robot Mechanics and Applied Physics, and Research Fellow at LARM. In 2023, he joined the University of Swansea, United Kingdom, as Lecturer in Robotics & AI. In September 2025 he got prometed to Senior Lecturer.

Dr Cafolla is involved in several projects regarding neurorobotics, assistive robotics, exploration robotics, humanoid robotics, mechatronics, sensors, biomechanics, mechanical design, human-robot interaction and rapid prototyping. He is the author of a book and several journal and conference papers. He is member of IFToMM, IEEE and I-RIM.