Yearly Archives: 2021

Some of the Milestones approved in Region 8

Recently approved Milestones in Region 8 include

       [1] Fermi’s contribution to semiconductor statistics, Florence, Italy.     

       [2] Dadda’s multiplier, Milan, Italy.  

       [3] Germany’s first broadcast transmission, Koenigs Wuesterhausen, Germany.  

Several more are in progress, including one jointly with Poland and Germany:  the Czochralski method of crystal growth, 1916, which it is proposed will be at Berlin, Warsaw and Kcynia (e.g. three plaques altogether for the same Milestone). 

 The first History Milestone in Sweden (Gotland HVDC link, 1954) was installed in May 2017.

Previous approvals:

Stereo Sound recording and reproduction inventions in early 1930s by Alan Blumlein.   Plaque installed at the Abbey Road studios in London.  The dedication ceremony was in Studio Two on 1st April 2015, with an associated technical seminar and a lecture about Alan Blumlein.  The unveiling was done by IEEE President Howard Michel and Isabel Garvey, Managing Director of Abbey Road Studios, with an attendance of over 100 people, including many of the engineers with the skills which keep Abbey Road at the forefront of the world movie, video and sound recording business.

‘Zenit’ L3 3D Pulsed Radar   at Kharkiv, Ukraine.

This has been approved and it is hoped to have the installation and dedication carried out in mid-2017, by a ceremony jointly at Kiyev and at Kharkiv

First Generation and Experimental Proof of Electromagnetic Waves 1886-1888, at Karlsruhe, Germany

The pioneering work of Heinrich Hertz has been honored with an IEEE Milestone. Hertz successfully achieved the “” at Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe, Germany, now the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).

The Milestone plaque is at the original site of Hertz’s experiments. On Friday 5^th December 2014, IEEE President Roberto de Marca and KIT Vice President Detlef Löhe unveiled the plaque. The host, Dean of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology Thomas Leibfried, welcomed the numerous attendees, which included Region 8 Director Martin Bastiaans, Germany Section Chair Axel Richter and the Milestone nominators Dieter A. Mlynski, IEEE Life Fellow from Circuits and Systems Society, and Werner Wiesbeck, IEEE Life Fellow from Microwave Theory and Techniques Society.

In his address, Martin Bastiaans referred to the 50 year history of Region 8 and of the Germany Section. He emphasized that this second milestone in Germany is the 150^th worldwide and encouraged further proposals for historic achievements, especially in Germany.

During the 19^th century the two incompatible theories of electromagnetic phenomena opposed each other: the long-range force-based interpretation, especially on the European continent, and Faraday’s conception of a short-range field theory, which Maxwell converted into mathematical form, the Maxwell’s equations. From 1885 to 1888, after the 1879 suggestion of Hermann von Helmholtz, Hertz carried out the practical work to verify Maxwell’s theoretical predictions.

Another Milestone is being planned at Karlsruhe, for Otto Lehman’s invention of Liquid Crystals in 1889.

First Public Demonstration of Television, 1926  in London, England,

The plaque is installed at Bar-Italia, Frith Street, Soho, London and was unveiled on 26th January 2017, by IEEE President Karen Bartleson and Iain Logie Baird, a grandson of John Logie Baird.

On the following day, an all-day technical symposium was held at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, with the title:

THE EVOLUTION OF TELEVISION FROM BAIRD TO THE DIGITAL AGE

This included talks, demonstrations, and some exhibits and poster displays, and was attended by a large number of people from many backgrounds on an ‘invitation only’ basis.

A milestone proposal is being finalised to recognise the developments in amorphous silicon switches, which led to the feasiblity of LCD flat screen displays now used in TV, computers, phones, etc.  This milestone will be at Dundee University, Scotland.

Several other possible milestones are being actively discussed within the framework of the Life Members Activity Group of the UK and Ireland Section

Also under discussion, there could be History Milestones for Euler’s invention of Graph Theory, and for Kirchhoff’s Laws, both of which had a huge impact on many topics within the scope of IEEE.   The location in this case is clear:  the town of Königsberg – now Kaliningrad.  A complication is that at the time, it was part of Germany and now is part of Russia – so whose Milestones would they be?

Tony Davies, 2015 January 6th, updated 2017 February 19th

Heinrich Hertz Award:

At one time, from 1989 to 2001, IEEE had a Heinrich Hertz Medal which was funded from Region 8.  However, that award has now been discontinued.

In 1992, it was awarded to James R. Wait, at a ceremony in King’s College London.  I had the privilege of handing the medal to Dr. Wait because I was then Section Chair.      Tony Davies, 2015 January 3rd

HISTELCON 2015 Conference:  HISTORY OF HIGH-TECHNOLOGIES AND THEIR SOCIO-CULTURAL CONTEXTS    Tel-Aviv University, Israel, 16-21 August 2015.

HISTELCON 2017 conference will be in Kyoto, Japan (e.g. the first time outside R8), in August 2017

HISTELCON – HIStory of ELectrotechnolgy CONference – is a flagship Conference of IEEE egion 8 and IEEE History Center, and  sharing by IEEE Tokyo Section and more IEEE Regions is an ongoing plan.
The 2015 HISTELCON was held in conjunction with ICOHTEC (International Committee on History of Technology) 42th Symposium, and with the 10th Historical Conference of IEEE History Committee and History Center, with cooperation of the Cohen Institute for History and Philosophy of Science at Tel-Aviv University, the Graduate Program in Science, Technology and Society at Bar-Ilan University and the EE Section of the AEAI (Israel National Engineering Society).

Conference Theme
HISTELCON 2015 was designed to explore the phenomenon of “High Technologies” at various historical epochs from multiple historical and contemporary perspectives.
Recognized as a major force in the modern world, Hi-Tech attracts the attention of experts from many fields. This joint Conference was to allow interaction of historians and sociologists of technology and science, with practicing engineers, scientists and technical experts, reflecting their experience and discipline.
The main theme is “History of High-Technologies and their Socio-Cultural contexts”.
Original and innovative contributions were invited in areas including:
● Origins and early developments of High-Technologies
● The Cultural/Social/Economical Drivers for the development of High-Technologies.
● The impact of High-Technologies on Culture/Society/Economics.
● Governmental Policies to foster High-Technologies in different cultures/societies.

A beginner’s guide to making proposals for IEEE History Milestones has been added to the History Activities section under Member Activities.

Tony Davies   2013  November 5th

Team

Martin

Tony

Mislav

The History Activities Subcommittee is looking forward to assist you in your history-related activities. The 2021 committee consists of:

• Martin Bastiaans, History Activities Coordinator (2021)
• Tony Davies, Past History Activities Coordinator (2013-2020)
• Mislav Grgić, current IEEE History Committee member (2021-2022)

Feel free to contact us at [email protected], but include [email protected] in CC, because the email alias may not work properly.

• List of Region 8 Section history officers (.xlsx)
• List of Region 8 History Network subscribers (.xlsx)
• List of Region 8 History Committee relations (.xlsx)

News

• Recently dedicated IEEE Milestone:
  Roma, Italy, Giovanni Giorgi’s contribution to the rationalized system of units, 1901-1902
  Dedication ceremony 15 December 2021 – IEEE Italy Section
  Giovanni Giorgi proposed rationalizing the equations of electromagnetism. His proposal added an electrical unit to the three mechanical units of measurement (meter, kilogram, second). While he was a professor at the University of Rome, the International Electrotechnical Commission adopted a version of Giorgi’s system. His ideas formed the basis of the universally adopted International System (SI) of units, currently used in all fields of science and engineering.
• Milestone revocation
  In its November 2021 meeting, the IEEE Board of Directors has revoked Milestone #46 (originally entitled Marconi’s early wireless experiments, 1895, and later renamed to Early Swiss wireless experiments, 1897, with an updated citation), which was located in Salvan, Switzerland.
• HISTELCON 2021 will now be completely virtual as a Zoom meeting and can be viewed via the link (Meeting ID: 857 1956 8041; Passcode: 092959) without any registration fee.
  The detailed schedule with speakers and titles can be found at http://histelcon2021.org/schedule. Note that the times are in Moscow Standard Time (MSK = UTC+3).

• Recently dedicated IEEE Special Citation in History:
  Paderborn, Germany, Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum (HNF), 1996
  Dedication ceremony 23 October 2021 – IEEE Germany Section
  One of the largest computer museums in the world, the Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum presents 5000 years of computing history from the emergence of numbers and lettering circa 3000 B.C.E. to the modern digital age. Through presentations, workshops, seminars, and exhibitions, it has provided a broad audience with the insights and perspectives required to navigate a world that is increasingly shaped by digital technology.
• HISTELCON 2021 has been postponed and will now take place (in hybrid form) on 10–12 November 2021.
  Abstract submission deadline: 15 September 2021 — Full paper submission deadline: 30 September 2021
  Registration of participants will open on 15 September 2021.

  Participant	Virtual	In-person
  IEEE member	EUR   80	EUR 290
  Non-member	EUR 100	EUR 360
  IEEE (Graduate) Student / Life member	EUR   60	EUR 220
  Student	EUR   80	EUR 290

• Minutes of the IEEE Region 8 Committee meetings
  With the exception of four Region 8 Committee meetings – in Geneva (7 September 1965), Leuven (16 September 1966), Tel Aviv (24 October 1968), and Dubrovnik (25-26 October 1974) – we have (scanned) versions of all meeting minutes; and of the above-mentioned meetings in Leuven and Tel Aviv, we have the agendas. The (scanned) versions have been collected in five pdf files, which are available for download:
  1962-1970 (.pdf), 1971-1983 (.pdf), 1984-1993 (.pdf), 1994-2009 (.pdf), and 2010-2020 (.pdf).
• The IEEE Milestone proposals Manchester University “Baby” Computer and its Derivatives, 1948-1951, and The Atlas computer and the invention of virtual memory, 1957-1962, as well as the IEEE Special Citation proposal Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum (HNF), 1996, have been approved by the IEEE Board of Directors on 27 June 2021.
• Index to Section news in old IEEE Region 8 News issues
  Scanned versions of old Region 8 News issues can be downloaded by clicking on the links in the table that can be found here. These old issues contain lots of information about our Sections and may thus form a valuable source of information, especially for those Sections who want to fill the gaps in their history. To help Sections, an index has been created to direct Section leaders to the relevant pages in the issues 1-122 (December 1967 – May 1998) where news about their Section can be found.
• Recently dedicated IEEE Milestone:
  Agrate Brianza, Milano, Italy, Multiple silicon technologies on a chip, 1985
  Dedication ceremony 18 May 2021 – IEEE Italy Section
  SGS (now STMicroelectronics) pioneered the super-integrated silicon-gate process combining Bipolar, CMOS and DMOS (BCD) transistors in single chips for complex, power-demanding applications. The first integrated circuit, named L6202, was capable of controlling up to 60V–5A at 300 kHz. Subsequent automotive, computer, and industrial applications extensively adopted this process technology, which enabled chip designers flexibly and reliably to combine power, analog and signal processing.
• The HISTELCON 2021 submission deadlines have been extended again; see below.
• The IEEE Milestone proposals Manchester University “Baby” Computer and its Derivatives, 1948-1951, and The Atlas computer and the invention of virtual memory, 1957-1962, as well as the IEEE Special Citation proposal Heinz Nixdorf MuseumsForum (HNF), 1996, have been approved by the IEEE History Committee and will be presented to the IEEE Board of Directors for final decision.
• The IEEE Milestone proposals ADSL: expediting Broadband Internet Access for society, 1993-1997, and Multimedia Integrated Circuits for MPEG, 1986, have been submitted to the IEEE History Committee for approval.
• The IEEE Milestone Multiple silicon technologies on a chip, 1985, will be dedicated on 18 May 2021 at 15:00 CEST. The ceremony will be held at the Agrate headquarters in STMicroelectronics and will be transmitted in live streaming. The full program and the registration are available here.
• The HISTELCON 2021 submission deadlines have been extended; see below.
• Old issues of IEEE Region 8 News
  Digital versions of IEEE Region 8 News from 2002 onward can be found in the Region 8 News archive of back issues. All older issues of IEEE Region 8 News and its predecessors — IEEE Region 8 newsletter (1967-1986; issues 1-76) and IEEE Region EIGHT News (1987-1989; issues 77-85) — have now been scanned: 1092 pages with a total size of about 0.7 GB. Note that volume numbers were introduced in Region 8 News in 1998 with the August issue (Volume 1, Number 1); until then, the numbering was consecutively from 1 till 122.
  The scanned versions can be downloaded by clicking on the links in the table that can be found here. In addition to news about the IEEE and the activities that took place on the Region level, these old issues contain lots of information about our Sections and may thus form a valuable source of information, especially for those Sections who want to fill the gaps in their history.
• IEEE Region 8 History webpage
  The Region 8 History webpage has been completely revamped.
• Recently dedicated IEEE Milestones:
  Torino, Italy, Rotating fields and early induction motors, 1885-1888
  Dedication ceremony 21 January 2021 – IEEE Italy Section
  Galileo Ferraris, professor at the Italian Industrial Museum (now Polytechnic) of Turin, conceived and demonstrated the principle of the rotating magnetic field. Ferraris’ field, produced by two stationary coils with perpendicular axes, was driven by alternating currents phase-shifted by 90 degrees. Ferraris also constructed prototypes of two-phase AC motors. Rotating fields, polyphase currents, and their application to induction motors had a fundamental role in the electrification of the world.
  Cascina, Pisa, Italy, Gravitational-wave antenna, 1972-1989
  Dedication ceremony 3 February 2021 – IEEE Italy Section
  Initially developed from 1972 to 1989, the gravitational-wave antenna enabled detection of ripples in spacetime propagating at the speed of light, as predicted by Albert Einstein’s 1916 Theory of General Relativity. Construction of the Virgo Gravitational-Wave Observatory commenced in 1997. In 2017, Virgo and two antennas located in the US launched the era of Multi-Messenger Astronomy with the coordinated detection of gravitational waves from a binary neutron star merger.
• HISTELCON 2021, How computer technologies and telecommunication change society and economy, Moscow, Russia, 18-20 August 2021
  HISTELCON is a Region 8 flagship conference held every two years on the history of electrical engineering, electronics, computing, their applications, and their impact on humanity’s social development. HISTELCON 2021 is already the seventh HISTELCON conference, with predecessors in Paris (2008), Madrid (2010), Pavia (2012), Tel-Aviv (2015), Kobe (2017, together with Region 10), and Glasgow (2019).
  Abstract submission deadline: 1 June 2021 — Full paper submission deadline: 10 June 2021
• News Archive — News items about Milestones and Conferences are ordered by year: 2019, 2017, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2010.

IEEE Milestones

• The IEEE Milestones Program honors significant technical achievements in all areas associated with IEEE. It is a program of the IEEE History Committee, administered through the IEEE History Center.
• List of IEEE Milestones worldwide
• List of IEEE Milestones in Region 8 (.xlsx) with links to ETHW and to their locations on Google maps
• Status report of Milestones under consideration by the IEEE History Committee
• List of achievements suitable for Milestones
• List of achievements suitable for Milestones featuring women
• List of candidate Milestones in Region 8 approaching major anniversaries (.xlsx)

Engineering and Technology History Wiki

• The Engineering and Technology History Wiki is a wiki-based platform that allows IEEE members and Organizational Units to collaboratively preserve and share their history (including, for instance, the history of individual IEEE Sections).
• List of Region 8 Section histories (.xlsx)
• List of Oral Histories worldwide
• List of Oral Histories related to Region 8 (.xlsx)
• List of First-Hand Histories worldwide

Region 8 history book

• The book A short history of IRE Region 9 / IEEE Region 8 (.pdf) presents a history of IEEE Region 8 spanning its origins from the IRE Region in Europe, through the IRE/AIEE merger forming the IEEE and subsequently to the present day Region 8 consisting of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
  Note that if you click on the link above and open the Document Outline in the left-hand side bar, you can immediately jump to any section of the book and easily navigate through it.
• More information about the history of Region 8 can be found on ieeer8.org/history/

Documents archive

• Current report of the History Activities Coordinator (.pdf)
• Previous report of the History Activities Coordinator (Martin Bastiaans, 2021) (.pdf)
• Previous reports of the History Activities Coordinator (Tony Davies, 2013-2020) (.pdf) in reverse order
• Previous reports of the History Activities Coordinator (Jacob Baal-Schem, 2007-2010) (.pdf) in reverse order

IEEE History Center – a selection of additional weblinks

• IEEE History Center Programs & Projects
• IEEE History Center Publications
• IEEE History Center Newsletters
• REACH – Raising Engineering Awareness through the Conduit of History
• IEEE Life Members’ Fellowship in the History of Electrical and Computing Technology
• Elizabeth & Emerson Pugh Young Scholar in Residence at the IEEE History Center
• IEEE William and Joyce Middleton Electrical Engineering History Award
• Bernard S. Finn IEEE History Prize