Daily Archives: 7 January 2023

History Activities – 2023

 in History Activities by (updated 94 days ago)

Team

Martin BastiaansMartin

Tony DaviesTony

Antonio SaviniAntonio

Evgen PichkalyovEvgen

Sergei ProkhorovSergei

Stefano SelleriStefano

 

The History Activities Committee is looking forward to assist you in your history-related activities. The 2023 committee consists of:

  • Martin Bastiaans, History Activities Coordinator (2021-2023)
  • Tony Davies, Past History Activities Coordinator (2013-2020)
  • Antonio Savini, current IEEE History Committee chair (2022-2023)
  • Evgen Pichkalyov, current IEEE History Committee member (2022-2023)
  • Sergei Prokhorov, current IEEE History Committee member (2022-2023)
  • Stefano Selleri, current IEEE History Committee member (2023-2024)

Feel free to contact us at history@ieeer8.org, but include m.j.bastiaans@ieee.org in CC, just in case the email alias may not work properly.

IEEE Region 8 History webpage

The Region 8 History webpage is updated whenever new information becomes available.

News

  • Upcoming Milestone dedication ceremonies:
    Paris, France, The birth of electrodynamics, 1820-1827
    Dedication ceremonies 3 April 2023 (Paris) and 4 April 2023 (Lyon) – IEEE France Section
    Stimulated by experimental reports that an electric current could deflect a compass needle, André-Marie Ampère discovered the fundamental law of electrodynamics, the science of interactions between electric currents. He then developed the theory that electric currents are responsible for magnetism. These achievements formed the basis for electrical technologies, including electric motors and generators. In 1881, the International Electrical Congress named the unit of electric current the ‘ampere’ (A).
  • The HISTELCON 2023 (Florence, 7-9 September 2023) website is live at https://2023.ieee-histelcon.org. Paper submission date 15 April 2023.
  • Recently approved IEEE Milestone:
    Skopje, North Macedonia, First robotic control from human brain signals, 1988
    Dedication ceremony To be decided – IEEE North Macedonia Section
    In 1988, in the Laboratory of Intelligent Machines and Bioinformation Systems, human brain signals controlled the movement of a physical object (a robot) for the first time worldwide. This linked electroencephalogram (EEG) signals collected from a brain with robotics research, opening a new channel for communication between humans and machines. EEG-controlled devices (wheelchairs, exoskeletons, etc.) have benefitted numerous users and expanded technology’s role in modern society.

  • Recently added Oral History:
    The List of Oral Histories related to Region 8 (.xlsx) on the Region 8 History webpage has been updated by adding the transcript of an interview with Hendrik Van Brussel; see Hendrik Van Brussel, an oral history conducted in 2011 by Peter Asaro, Indiana University, Bloomington Indiana, for Indiana University and the IEEE. The interviewee is residing in the IEEE Benelux Section.

  • Recently approved IEEE Milestones:
    Grenoble, France, MPEG multimedia integrated circuits, 1984-1993
    Dedication ceremony To be decided – IEEE France Section
    Beginning in 1984, Thomson Semiconducteurs (now STMicroelectronics) developed multimedia integrated circuits, which accelerated Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) standards. By 1993, MPEG-2 integrated decoders – including innovative discrete cosine transform (developed jointly with ENST, now TelecomParisTech), bitstream decompression, on-the-fly motion compensation, and display unit – were announced in one silicon die: the STi3500. Subsequent MPEG-2 worldwide adoption made compressed full-motion video and audio inexpensive and available for everyday use.
    Paris, France, The birth of electrodynamics, 1820-1827
    Dedication ceremony To be decided – IEEE France Section
    Stimulated by experimental reports that an electric current could deflect a compass needle, André-Marie Ampère discovered the fundamental law of electrodynamics, the science of interactions between electric currents. He then developed the theory that electric currents are responsible for magnetism. These achievements formed the basis for electrical technologies, including electric motors and generators. In 1881, the International Electrical Congress named the unit of electric current the ‘ampere’ (A).
  • IEEE Milestone proposals under consideration by the IEEE History Committee
  • News Archive — News items about Milestones and Conferences are ordered by year: 2022, 2021, 2019, 2017, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2010.

Highlights from 2022 – see also News Archive: 2022

  • 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).
  • 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. 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.
  • Proceedings of HISTELCON
    The proceedings of HISTELCON 1 through 7, available at IEEE Xplore, are now freely accessible for everyone without any payment; see also the HISTELCON entry on ETHW.

    1. Paris, France, 11–12 September 2008
    2. Madrid, Spain, 3–5 November 2010
    3. Pavia, Italy, 5–7 September 2012
    4. Tel Aviv, Israel, 16–21 August 2015, held jointly with the 42nd annual meeting of ICOHTEC, the International Committee for the History of Technology: History of High-Technologies and Their Socio-Cultural Contexts
    5. Kobe, Japan, 7–8 August 2017, together with IEEE Region 10
    6. Glasgow, United Kingdom, 18–19 September 2019
    7. Moscow, Russia, 10-12 November 2021
  • IEEE Milestones dedicated in 2022:
    Hayes, England, First computerized tomography (CT) X-ray scanner, 1971
    Dedication ceremony 26 October 2022 – IEEE UK and Ireland Section
    On 1 October 1971, a team at the EMI Research Laboratories located on this site produced an image of a patient’s brain, using the world’s first clinical X-ray computerized tomography scanner, based on the patented inventions of Godfrey Hounsfield. The practical realization of high-resolution X-ray images of internal structures of the human body marked the beginning of a new era in clinical medicine.
    Budapest, Hungary, Budapest metroline No. 1, 1896
    Dedication ceremony 20 October 2022 – IEEE Hungary Section
    In 1896, Budapest Metro Line No. 1 was inaugurated, the first underground railway designed specifically to use electric power, rather than adapted from steam-powered systems. It offered several innovative elements, including bidirectional motor carriages, the “goose neck chassis,” and electric lighting in the stations and carriages. This line’s design influenced later subway construction in Boston, Paris, Berlin, and other metropolitan areas worldwide.
    Manchester, England, The Atlas computer and the invention of virtual memory, 1957-1962
    Dedication ceremony 21 June 2022 – IEEE UK and Ireland Section
    The Atlas computer was designed and built in this building by Tom Kilburn and a joint team of the University of Manchester and Ferranti Ltd. The most significant new feature of Atlas was the invention of virtual memory, allowing memories of different speeds and capacities to act as a single large fast memory separately available to multiple users. Virtual memory became a standard feature of general-purpose computers.
    Manchester, England, Manchester University “Baby” computer and its derivatives, 1948-1951
    Dedication ceremony 21 June 2022 – IEEE UK and Ireland Section
    At this site on 21 June 1948 the “Baby” became the first computer to execute a program stored in addressable read-write electronic memory. “Baby” validated Williams-Kilburn Tube random-access memories, later widely used, and led to the 1949 Manchester Mark I which pioneered index registers. In February 1951, Ferranti Ltd’s commercial derivative became the first electronic computer marketed as a standard product delivered to a customer.
    See also the article in IEEE Spectrum.
    Eynsham, England, Active shielding of superconducting magnets for MRI, 1984-1989
    Dedication ceremony 17 June 2022 – IEEE UK and Ireland Section
    At this site, the first actively shielded superconducting magnets for diagnostic Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) use were conceived, designed, and produced. Active shielding reduced the size, weight, and installed cost of MRI systems, allowing them to be more easily transported and advantageously located, thereby benefiting advanced medical diagnosis worldwide.
    Leiden, Netherlands, String galvanometer to record a human electrocardiogram, 1901-1905
    Dedication ceremony 8 April 2022 – IEEE Benelux Section
    On 22 March 1905, the first successful clinical recording of a human electrocardiogram (ECG) took place at this location, which at the time was the Academic Hospital Leiden. Willem Einthoven’s pioneering work, from 1901 to 1905, resulted in a string galvanometer specifically designed to measure and record the heart’s electrical activity, which made this medical achievement possible. This invention marked the beginning of electrocardiography as a major clinical diagnostic tool.

IEEE Milestones

Engineering and Technology History Wiki

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

IEEE History Center – a selection of additional weblinks