History Activities – 2021

 in News 2021

Team

Martin BastiaansMartin

Tony DaviesTony

Mislav GrgicMislav

 

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.

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

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