The International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE) is an annual academic conference and industry exposition organized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). First held under its present name in 1994, it is the society's flagship technical conference; ASME describes it as its largest research-and-development conference, and as one of the largest and most prominent annual gatherings globally in the field of mechanical engineering, with a program spanning essentially the entire discipline and its allied fields. The congress pairs a large multi-track technical program with an exhibition, and it serves as the principal annual meeting at which ASME's technical divisions meet.

IMECE is the successor to ASME's long-running Winter Annual Meeting. ASME, founded in 1880, held a winter meeting as its main general gathering for much of the 20th century; the society adopted the "International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition" name in 1994, beginning with the meeting held that November in Chicago. The congress is typically held in November in a major North American city, and its proceedings are published by ASME and indexed in the ASME Digital Collection.

The program is built around ASME's technical divisions, and IMECE thus serves as the venue at which those divisions hold their annual business and committee meetings. The 2024 congress featured 18 technical tracks and more than 1,900 presentations and posters, with participants representing more than 50 countries. The proceedings of IMECE cover research across all mechanical engineering disciplines, including aerospace, manufacturing, biomedical and biotechnology engineering, dynamics and control, energy, fluids engineering, heat transfer, mechanics of solids, acoustics, micro- and nanosystems, transportation, and emerging technologies; they have been published in the ASME Digital Collection since 2002.

Robert Henry Thurston Lecture IMECE is the setting for the Robert Henry Thurston Lecture, established in 1925 in honor of ASME's first president. The Thurston Lecture is the oldest of ASME's named lectures and is regarded as the oldest named lecture in the field of mechanical engineering; it provides a leading figure in pure or applied science or engineering the opportunity to address the society on a subject of broad interest to engineers. The lecture has been delivered at the society's principal annual meeting since its inception: first the Winter Annual Meeting and, since 1994, IMECE. It was elevated to a society-wide award in 2000.

History ASME was established in 1880 and developed a winter general meeting that became known as the Winter Annual Meeting, which for decades served as the society's principal gathering for technical presentations. In 1994 the society rebranded this meeting as the International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, beginning with the congress held in Chicago on November 6-11, 1994. Over the following decades IMECE was held in major U.S. cities and, periodically, in Canada:Vancouver in 2010 and 2026, and Montreal in 2014. The 2020 and 2021 editions were held as virtual conferences during the COVID-19 pandemic. In September 2025, ASME launched a regional edition, IMECE India.

Host cities The table below lists the host cities of IMECE since the conference adopted its current name in 1994. The 2020 and 2021 editions were held virtually.

+ Host cities of the International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition Year Dates Host city Notes 1994 November 6-11 Chicago, Illinois First congress under the IMECE name 1995 November 12-17 San Francisco, California 1996 November 17-22 Atlanta, Georgia 1997 November 16-21 Dallas, Texas 1998 November 15-20 Anaheim, California 1999 November 14-19 Nashville, Tennessee 2000 November 5-10 Orlando, Florida 2001 November New York, New York 2002 November 17-22 New Orleans, Louisiana 2003 November 15-21 Washington, D.C. 2004 November 13-19 Anaheim, California 2005 November 5-11 Orlando, Florida 2006 November 5-10 Chicago, Illinois 2007 November 11-15 Seattle, Washington 2008 October 31 - November 6 Boston, Massachusetts 2009 November 13-19 Lake Buena Vista, Florida 2010 November 12-18 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada 2011 November 11-17 Denver, Colorado 2012 November 9-15 Houston, Texas 2013 November 15-21 San Diego, California 2014 November 14-20 Montreal, Quebec, Canada 2015 November 13-19 Houston, Texas 2016 November 11-17 Phoenix, Arizona 2017 November 3-9 Tampa, Florida 2018 November 9-15 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 2019 November 8-14 Salt Lake City, Utah 2020 November 16-19 Virtual conference Originally planned for Portland, Oregon; held online during the COVID-19 pandemic 2021 November 1-5 Virtual conference 2022 October 30 - November 3 Columbus, Ohio 2023 October 29 - November 2 New Orleans, Louisiana Ernest N. Morial Convention Center 2024 November 17-21 Portland, Oregon Oregon Convention Center 2025 November 16-20 Memphis, Tennessee Renasant Convention Center 2026 November 8-12 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada Vancouver Convention Centre

See also American Society of Mechanical Engineers Robert Henry Thurston Lecture List of mechanical engineering topics

References

External links

IMECE proceedings in the ASME Digital Collection IMECE proceedings, browsable by year (ASME Digital Collection) Recent annual conference sites: 2020 · 2021 · 2022 · 2023 · 2024 · 2026