According to J. Richard Cottingham, P.E., and Past NCEES President (1),:

The first American engineering society that was formed was the American Society of Civil Engineers, the ASCE, in 1852. Second was the American Institute of Mining Engineers, the AIME, in 1871, later to become the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers. Next followed the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the ASME, in 1880.

The American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the AIEE, came into being in 1884 in order for there to be a formal electrical engineering society in America to receive and host visitors from abroad who came to Philadelphia to attend the XXXXX Exposition. With this, the founders of AIEE, mostly men working with telegraphy and electricity, such as Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Edison, wanted to have an organization where electrical practitioners and those interested in electricity could assemble, present talks and papers about the work they were doing and the discoveries in electricity being made, to socialize and to publish their technical findings. That was the early beginning of the AIEE. In 1912, the Institute of Radio Engineers, the IRE, and one of the co-founders of the IEEE, was founded. This came about with the emerging of the early forms of electronics, (wireless radio), and that the AIEE had become dominated by electric utilities business members, and they were older in age than those new in the radio field, who were more of the professional class of members, seeking their own identity.

The United Engineering Society, the UES, was formed in 1904, as an early attempt to unify the profession. In 1908, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the AIChE, was founded. In 1934, the National Society of Professional Engineers, the NSPE, was founded.

In Edwin T. Layton. Jr.’s classic history of the evolution of the American engineering societies, “The Revolt of the Engineers” (2), he writes about the formation of the leading societies and the various revolutions which occurred during their early years. Some were pro-professional member led while others were pro-business member led, and others were somewhere in between. In the case of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, until 1912, while the founders of the AIEE were mostly business leaders, the society leadership was essentially made up of elite professionals. High standards for Member rank was upheld, which placed business members in the category of Associate Member, without any voting rights. Only a fixed number of Associates were allowed to be elevated to full Member status, each year.

This all changed in 1912 (3) when business members of the Board of Directors of the AIEE, upheld changes made by a committee which added a new Fellow class of membership, lowered the qualification standards which allowed more business members to attain voting rights. While this was challenged all the way up to the New York Supreme Court, the business led Board won the right to elevate business members up to voting class of membership, which over the succeeding years, allowed business members to wrestle control of the AIEE away from the previous elite professionals (4 ). The business interests in AIEE wanted more control of the engineering society to advance governmental issues more favorable to the electric utilities business interests. They eventually favored, reluctantly, to see regulation of their utility industry come into being, rather than be taken over by government. They then used the AIEE to advance the interests of the utilities over that of the professionals.

One other significant event occurred at the same time, 1912, in the AIEE. A Code of Professional Conduct was finally approved (6), following more than 6 years effort to enact one. The AIEE was the first of the engineering societies to enact a code of ethics. Most others followed soon thereafter.

At the same time this business led revolt was taking place in the AIEE, members who represented the new wireless radio field, became disenchanted with the AIEE (5). Their solution was the creation of their own engineering society, the Institute of Radio Engineers, the IRE, formed in 1912 too. These members who formed the IRE were much younger in age than the business members who gained control of the AIEE, and were more of the professional type, which had just lost power in the AIEE. Over time, the membership of the IRE outgrew that of the AIEE, to the chagrin of the older, business controlled AIEE leaders.

Beginning in the late 1950’s and into the early 1960’s, members of both the AIEE and IRE began to consider benefits which could accrue from their combining their activities into one united electrical society. After all, there were engineers who where members of both societies. While the AIEE was not growing as fast as the IRE, there was recognized the financial benefits which would accrue from the elimination of duplication in services and operations. Committees were formed aimed at looking for ways and means to combine the two societies into a new integrated one. For the most part, members of these committees were executive leaders from business and industry, with very few, if any, rank and file engineer among them (7).

The committees decided to merge the IRE into the AIEE and then change the AIEE into the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the new IEEE, to become effective at the beginning of 1963. They agreed that the new institute should be international, and not just American. They also wanted it to be just a “learned society”. It is interesting to consider they deliberations over what the new name should be. One suggestion was to call it the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Sciences, the IEES, but this was agued against on the basis that what was wanted was the name for its members, engineers, and not for a discipline or a technical field, science. So the IEEE was agreed upon. Of course, another name which could have been chosen, might have been the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Executives, IEEE also, to favor the business interest members, but that was not chosen. So as a result of the work of the committees, a peaceful revolution occurred and the new IEEE came into being in 1963 with the dissolving of both the old IRE and the old AIEE. The new IEEE was to be a technical one, just a learned society (8).

During the 1960’s in the United States, the nation had been expending large sums of money for the space program, eventually sending men to the moon in the Apollo program, and for fighting the war in Vietnam. These programs employed a large number of IEEE members, doing government engineering work. When the space program began to come to a close in its engineering work and the Vietnam war came to a close, a large amount of government and military spending was reduced. The net effect upon IEEE members was large scale unemployment.

As a result of this downturn in government spending and resulting layoffs, the IEEE members began to raise the question about what role the IEEE should play to protect their economic and employment interests (9). One segment of IEEE leadership expressed the view that IEEE should not get involved, as it was just a technical learned society. This followed the purpose of the IEEE then, as stated in its Constitution, that being “scientific and educational” but not “professional”. Others felt the IEEE should do something on behalf of its members, in spite of the lack of authority from its Constitution. At one point a proposed Constitutional amendment was put forward to the membership, advocating for the IEEE to be a professional society and to focus on American issues. While this received a majority of supporting votes from the membership, it lack the necessary amount to change the Constitution. Nevertheless, this great support for socio-economic issues got the attention of the IEEE Board of Directors.

The Board responded by issuing a comprehensive questionnaire to its members, seeking feedback about socio-economic issues that were affecting them. The responses indicated that there was indeed a strong basis for having the IEEE engage in more than just technical matters, and that it should get involved with career issues affecting its members. Therefore, the IEEE drafted a new Constitutional Amendment (10), in 1972, put it on the ballot which would change to single purpose of the Institute from being just a learned society to also now engage in professional activities. The membership voted in record numbers and passed this by an 87 % YES vote (11) in November 1972. The IEEE Constitution was then amended to add a new purpose, as follows (12) (13):

As a result of this, the IEEE amended its Constitution, added Professional Activities, and the new one went into effect in 1973. The IEEE then began creating new programs to implement this mandate, resulting in eventually establishing over the next 30 years an IEEE United States Activities, the IEEE USA, entity, with a staffed office in Washington, DC and programs and services funded from a special assessment of its USA members. This then completed the successful third revolution in IEEE’s history, with the amending of its Constitution which added Professional Activities. Outside of the USA, however, the IEEE never has established an entity similar to the IEEE USA, provided similar professional activities programs or surveyed its members to determine their socio-economic or professional standings, for its non-USA members.

It is certain, that when the IEEE was created in 1963 and its Constitution was amended in 1972 adding Professional Activities, these movements constituted revolutionary changes. From the early days of the AIEE being business and industry oriented, to the later days when the IRE was focused on just technical learned society matters for its professionals, to the point when the members of the new IEEE demanded for changes to be made so the Institute would focus on their socio-economic needs, this constituted a great change in the mission of the IEEE.

The remaining pages of this book will now focus on assessing what impacts these two revolutions have had; not only on the Institute itself for upon its membership as well. In the process, something will be said about how the revolt of the AIEE business members in 1912 has had its own impact on the profession of electrical and electronics engineering. One of the most significant of these impacts, which will be discuss later on, was the elimination of engineers who work as employees in industry and the utilities from being required to hold a license as a Professional Engineer, creating the so-called “industry exemption”. This action has had a lasting impact on the profession affecting the professional status of the employee engineer. This is considered very significant, for ever since the end of the 19^th century, from the early years of the AIEE, most engineers have been engaged as employees in large industries and utility companies, and not as an individual practitioners on a consulting basis. This will be examined more closely later in the book.

1. Cottingham, J. Richard, P.E., P.L. S., “A Question for the Profession: Should All Engineers Be Licensed?”, NSPE Engineering Times, January, 2002, http://www.nspe.org/lc1%2Dcottingham.asp

2. Layton, Jr., Edwin T., “The Revolt of the Engineers - Social Responsibility and the American Engineering Profession”, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986

3. Ibid, p.93

4. McMahon, A. Michal, “The Making of a Profession: A Century of Electrical Engineering in America”, pps. 117-124, IEEE Press, 1984

5. Ibid, pps. 127-132

6. “Code of Principles of Professional Conduct of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers”, pps. 2227 - 2230, Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, June 25 - December 31, 1912, Vol. XXXI, Part II

7. Ryder, John D., and Fink, Dopnald G., “Engineers & Electrons”, pps. 238 - 239, IEEE Press, 1984

8. Ibid., pps. 222 - 231

9. Ibid., p.229

10. Ibid., p. 230

11. Ibid. p.230

12. “Constitution of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)”, http://www.ieee.org

13. Ryder, John D., and Fink, Dopnald G., “Engineers & Electrons”, p262, IEEE Press, 1984