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Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or IEEE (read eye-triple-e) is an international non-profit, professional organization for the advancement of technology related to electricity. It has the most members of any technical professional organization in the world, with more than 365,000 members in around 150 countries.

History

The IEEE is incorporated in the State of New York, United States. It was formed in 1963 by the merger of the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE, founded 1912) and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE, founded 1884).

The major interests of the AIEE were wire communications (telegraph and telephony) and light and power systems. The IRE concerned mostly radio engineering, and was formed from two smaller organizations, the Society of Wireless and Telegraph Engineers and the Wireless Institute. With the rise of electronics in the 1930s, electronics engineers usually became members of the IRE, but the applications of electron tube technology became so extensive that the technical boundaries differentiating the IRE and the AIEE became difficult to distinguish. After World War II, the two organizations became increasingly competitive, and in 1961, the leadership of both the IRE and the AIEE resolved to consolidate the two organizations. The two organizations formally merged as the IEEE on January 1, 1963.

Notable Presidents of IEEE and its founding organizations include Elihu Thomson (AIEE, 1889-1890), Alexander Graham Bell (AIEE, 1891-1892), Charles Proteus Steinmetz (AIEE, 1901-1902), Lee De Forest (IRE, 1930), Frederick E. Terman (IRE, 1941), William R. Hewlett (IRE, 1954), Ernst Weber (IRE, 1959; IEEE, 1963), and Ivan Getting (IEEE, 1978).

IEEE's Constitution defines the purposes of the organization as "scientific and educational, directed toward the advancement of the theory and practice of electrical, electronics, communications and computer engineering, as well as computer science, the allied branches of engineering and the related arts and sciences." In pursuing these goals, the IEEE serves as a major publisher of scientific journals and a conference organizer. It is also a leading developer of industrial standards (having developed over 900 active industry standards) in a broad range of disciplines, including electric power and energy, biomedical technology and healthcare, information technology, information assurance, telecommunications, consumer electronics, transportation, aerospace, and nanotechnology. IEEE develops and participates in educational activities such as accreditation of electrical engineering programs in institutes of higher learning. The IEEE logo is a diamond-shaped design which illustrates the right hand grip rule. It also sponsors or cosponsors more than 450 international technical conferences each year .

IEEE has a dual complementary regional and technical structure - with organizational units based on geography (e.g., the IEEE Philadelphia Section) and technical focus (e.g., the IEEE Computer Society). It manages a separate organizational unit (IEEE-USA) which recommends policies and implements programs specifically intended to benefit the members, the profession and the public in the United States.

The IEEE consists of 39 societies, organized around specialized technical fields, with more than 300 local organizations that hold regular meetings.

The IEEE Standards Association is in charge of the standardization activities of the IEEE.

The current (2008) president of IEEE is Lewis M. Terman. The current (2007) president of IEEE-USA is John W. Meredith.

Publications

IEEE produces 30 percent of the world's literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields, publishing well over 100 peer-reviewed journals..

The content in these journals as well as the content from several hundred annual conferences are available in the IEEE's online digital library

Educational opportunities

The IEEE provides learning opportunities within the engineering sciences, research, and technology. The goal of the IEEE education programs is to ensure the growth of skill and knowledge in the electricity-related technical professions and to foster individual commitment to continuing education among IEEE members, the engineering and scientific communities, and the general public.

IEEE offers educational opportunities such as Expert Now IEEE , the Education Partners Program, Standards in Education and Continuing Education Units (CEUs).

Expert Now IEEE is a collection of online educational courses designed for self-paced learning. Education Partners, exclusive for IEEE members, offers on-line degree programs, certifications and courses at a 10% discount. The Standards in Education website explains what standards are and the importance of developing and using them. The site includes tutorial modules and case illustrations to introduce the history of standards, the basic terminology, their applications and impact on products, as well as news related to standards, book reviews and links to other sites that contain information on standards. Currently, twenty-nine states require Professional Development Hours (PDH) to maintain P.E. licensure, encouraging engineers to seek Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for their participation in continuing education programs. CEUs readily translate into Professional Development Hours (PDHs) (1 CEU is equivalent to 10 PDHs).

IEEE also sponsors a website designed to help young people understand better what engineering means, and how an engineering career can be made part of their future. Students (ages 8-18), parents, and teachers can explore the site to prepare for an engineering career, ask experts engineering-related questions, play interactive games, explore curriculum links, and review lesson plans. This website also allows students to search for accredited engineering degree programs in Canada and the United States; visitors are able to search by state/province/territory, country, degree field, tuition ranges, room and board ranges, size of student body, and location (rural, suburban, or urban).

Criticism

A number of free software proponents, such as Richard Stallman and Daniel J. Bernstein, have criticized IEEE's copyright policy. As for some other scientific and technical journal publishers, when publishing with the IEEE, the author is forced to transfer his copyright to the IEEE, who then sells the paper in journals as well as online. Typically, however, scientific and technical journal publishers do not pay authors or the reviewers. Attendance fees to conference meetings are also notoriously high. This has prompted the appearance of new, more open scientific publishers such as the Public Library of Science and the Insight Journal. However, publishing in IEEE journals is almost mandatory for those operating in the scientific communities of IEEE covered fields: impact factors of IEEE publications are among the highest..

Standards and the IEEE Standards Development Process

IEEE is one of the leading standards-making organizations in the world. IEEE performs its standards making and maintaining functions through the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA). IEEE standards affect a wide range of industries including: power and energy, biomedical and healthcare, Information Technology (IT), telecommunications, transportation, nanotechnology, information assurance, and many more. In 2005, IEEE had close to 900 active standards, with 500 standards under development. One of the more notable IEEE standards is the IEEE 802 LAN/MAN group of standards which includes the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard and the IEEE 802.11 Wireless Networking standard.

Membership and member grades

Most IEEE members are electrical engineers, computer engineers, and computer scientists, but the organization's wide scope of interests has attracted engineers in other disciplines (e.g., mechanical and civil) as well as biologists, physicists, and mathematicians. There are several membership grades. In order to qualify for membership, an individual must meet certain academic or experience requirements. Associate membership is available to those who don't meet such requirements. Student memberships are available with a reduced membership fee. Students and Associates have all the privileges of members, except the right to vote and hold certain offices. Upon meeting certain additional requirements, a member can apply automatically for senior membership. Finally, a member felt to have made a significant contribution to electrical engineering may be nominated an "IEEE Fellow", a distinctive award. Some societies allow "affiliate" members, i.e. members of the society that are not members of IEEE itself.

IEEE Awards and Honors

Major Medals

Field Awards

IEEE Societies

In 2007 there were the following societies :

References

External links

IEEE Global Website
IEEE Standard Association
IEEE Xplore — over a million online documents
Organization of the IEEE
IEEE Students
IEEE Graduates of the Last Decade (GOLD)
www.tryengineering.org - IEEE website for students age 8-18, and their parents, teachers, and guidance counselors.
IEEE Virtual Museum A virtual museum that illustrates many of the basic electrical engineering and electricity concepts through examples, figures, and interviews
The IEEE-USA Entrepreneurs Village, established to support those people who create entrepreneurial businesses based on technology.