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 ).

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.

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 ).

He was an active participant in professional organizations such as the Society for the Promotion of the Metric System of Weights and Measures, the Illuminating Engineering Society and the U. S. National Committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission, and also served as the president of both the AIEE and the Institute of Radio Engineers, IRE, during 1898 – 1900 and 1916, respectively.

The Institute of Radio Engineers ( IRE ) was a professional organization which existed from 1912 until January 1, 1963, when it merged with the American Institute of Electrical Engineers ( AIEE ) to form the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE ).

Many of the founding members of IRE considered AIEE too conservative and too focused on electric power.

Moreover, the founders of the IRE sought to establish an international organization ( unlike the “ American ” AIEE ), and adopted a tradition of electing some of the IRE's officers from outside the United States.

Students of electrical engineering and young electrical engineers favored IRE over its older rival, the AIEE, and in 1957 IRE ( with 57, 000 members ) was the larger organization.

Several new professional organizations ( such as the Society of Broadcast Engineers, SBE ) were founded shortly thereafter by IRE and AIEE members who opposed the merger.

The dynamic growth of radio technology and the emergence of the new discipline of electronics in the 1940s led to stiff competition between AIEE and IRE, with IRE showing faster growth in the 1950s and early 1960s, and attracting more students.

Four years later the American Institute of Electrical Engineers ( AIEE ), later IEEE, entered into an agreement with the group to present the medal as its highest award.

In 1893, during his research in electrical engineering, he presented a paper on " Impedance " to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers ( AIEE ).

Kennelly received awards from many nations, including the IEE Institution Premium ( 1887 ), the Edward Longstreth Medal ( 1917 ) and the Howard N. Potts Medal ( 1918 ) of the Franklin Institute, the Cross of a Chevalier of the Légion d ' honneur of France and the AIEE Edison Medal ( 1933 ), now IEEE Edison Medal, " For meritorious achievements in electrical science, electrical engineering and the electrical arts as exemplified by his contributions to the theory of electrical transmission and to the development of international electrical standards.

At the time, the dominant organization of electrical engineers was the American Institute of Electrical Engineers ( AIEE ).

Hanna and J. Slepian in 1924 for the American Institute of Electrical Engineers ( AIEE ).

The 1884 founders of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers ( AIEE ) included some of the most prominent inventors and innovators in the then new field of electrical engineering, among them Nikola Tesla, Thomas Alva Edison, Elihu Thomson, Edwin J. Houston, and Edward Weston.

The first technical meeting of the AIEE was held during the International Electrical Exhibition of 1884, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ( October 7 – 8, at the Franklin Institute ).

21 of Edison, His Life and Inventions ( 1910 ), by Frank Lewis Dyer ( Edison lawyer ) and Thomas Commerford Martin ( AIEE ex-president )

The AIEE's regional structure was soon complemented by a technical structure – the first technical committee of AIEE ( the High Voltage Transmission Committee ) being formed in 1903.

The early technical areas of interest of AIEE were electric power, lighting, and wired communications.

The only ' fellows ' in our company are those who have been honored by ASME, AIEE or AIChE.

At an AIEE meeting on May 16, 1888, Nikola Tesla delivered a lecture entitled A New System of Alternating Current Motors and Transformers, describing the equipment which allowed efficient generation and use of polyphase alternating currents.

The major interests of the AIEE were wire communications ( telegraphy and telephony ) and light and power systems.

AIEE, 47, 1928, pp. 753-763.

* AIEE Conference Paper, " Engineering considerations in the Selection of Andover, Maine as the Location for the Bell Systems Satellite Ground Station ", February 1962.

The American Institute of Electrical Engineers was a United States based organization of electrical engineers that existed between 1884 and 1963, when it merged with the Institute of Radio Engineers ( IRE ) to form the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE ).

Other notable presidents of the IRE included John H. Morecroft ( 1924 ), Lee deForest ( 1930 ), Frederick E. Terman ( 1941 ), William R. Hewlett ( 1954 ), Ernst Weber ( 1959 ; also first president of IEEE, 1963 ) and Patrick E. Haggerty ( 1962 ).

IRE Winter Convention on Military Electronics-Los Angeles, February, 1963

Following several attempts to form a technical organization of wireless practitioners in 1908 – 1912, the Institute of Radio Engineers ( IRE ) was finally established in 1912 in New York.

Simultaneous electrical scanning in both azimuth and elevation was first demonstrated in a phased array antenna at Hughes Aircraft Company, Culver City, CA, in 1957 ( see Joseph Spradley, “ A Volumetric Electrically Scanned Two-Dimensional Microwave Antenna Array ,” IRE National Convention Record, Part I-Antennas and Propagation ; Microwaves, New York: The Institute of Radio Engineers, 1958, 204-212 ).

The IRE concerned mostly radio engineering, and was formed from two smaller organizations, the Society of Wireless and Telegraph Engineers and the Wireless Institute.

The Society's roots can be traced back to 1961 when the Institute of Radio Engineers ( IRE ) and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers ( AlEE ) passed a joint resolution calling for a " merger or consolidation ... into one organization.

* Some Recent Developments in the Audion Receiver by EH Armstrong, Proceedings of the IRE ( Institute of Radio Engineers ), volume 3, 1915, pp. 215 – 247.

A technical article in the journal of the IRE ( Institute of Radio Engineers ) Professional Group on Military Electronics in February 1961 described the SAR principle and both the C-46 and AN / UPD-1 versions, but did not tell how the data were processed, nor that the UPD-1's maximum resolution capability was about.

Radio and wireless communications became the major focus of a rival organization, the Institute of Radio Engineers ( the IRE, established 1912 ).

* Institute of Radio Engineers ( IRE )

The IRE was a major participant in planning of the Federal Radio Commission ( established 1927 ; later the Federal Communications Commission ), and worked in close cooperation with the National Electrical Manufacturers Association, the Radio Manufacturers Association, the Radio and Television Manufacturers Association, and the National Television System Committees on Standards.

IRE Transactions on Military Electronics, MIL-5 No. 1 8-11, January, 1961

Armstrong managed to demonstrate the advantages of FM radio despite Carson's skepticism in a now-famous paper on FM in the Proceedings of the IRE in 1936, which was reprinted in the August 1984 issue of Proceedings of the IEEE.

* IEEE Charles LeGeyt Fortescue Graduate Scholarship was established by the IRE in 1939 to commemorate Charles Legeyt Fortescue's contributions to electrical engineering.

He was elected a Fellow of the IRE, a predecessor society of IEEE, in 1957, and was a Fellow of the American Statistical Association.

" He was awarded the IRE Medal of Honor ( 1932 ), now IEEE Medal of Honor, " For his studies of radio propagation phenomena and his contributions to the theory and measurement methods in the alternating current circuit field which now have extensive radio application.

The IRE issued the IRE Medal of Honor each year which is now the IEEE Medal of Honor.

An abbreviated version appeared earlier ( January 1962 ) in the IRE Transactions on Information Theory and was republished in the 1974 IEEE Press volume, Key Papers in The Development of Information Theory, edited by Elwyn Berlekamp.

* Morris Liebmann, after whom the IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award ( former IRE Morris Liebmann Memorial Prize ) is named