engineering

American Institute of Electrical Engineers

American Institute of Electrical Engineers is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand American Institute of Electrical Engineers rather than just read about it. In short: The American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) was a United States–based organization of electrical engineers that existed from 1884 through 1962. On January 1, 1963, it merged with the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) to form the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Key takeaways

American Institute of Electrical Engineers belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect American Institute of Electrical Engineers to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of American Institute of Electrical Engineers from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) was a United States–based organization of electrical engineers that existed from 1884 through 1962. On January 1, 1963, it merged with the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) to form the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

History

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 purpose of the AIEE was stated "to promote the Arts and Sciences connected with the production and utilization of electricity and the welfare of those employed in these Industries: by means of social intercourse, the reading and discussion of professional papers and the circulation by means of publication among members and associates of information thus obtained." The first president of AIEE was Norvin Green, president of the Western Union Telegraph Company. Other notable AIEE presidents were Alexander Graham Bell (1891–1892), Charles Proteus Steinmetz (1901–1902), Bion J. Arnold (1903–1904), Schuyler S. Wheeler (1905–1906), Dugald C. Jackson (1910–1911), Ralph D. Mershon (1912–1913), Cyprien O. Mailloux (1913–1914), Michael I. Pupin (1925–1926), and Titus G. LeClair (1950–1951). The first technical meeting of the AIEE was held during the International Electrical Exhibition of 1884 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on October 7–8, at the Franklin Institute. After several years of operating primarily in New York City, the AIEE authorized local sections in 1902. These were first formed in the United States in Chicago and Ithaca, New York, in 1902, and then in other countries. The first section outside the United States, established in 1903, was in Toronto, Canada. AIEE's regional structure was soon complemented by a technical structure. The first technical committee of AIEE, the High Voltage Transmission Committee, was formed in 1903. Standardization work started in 1891 with the formation of a committee on units and standards, followed by a committee on standard wiring. At the 50th anniversary of the organization, there were 10 women members, including Edith Clarke (associate member in 1923, member in 1933) and Mabel MacFerran Rockwell (associate member in 1928, member in 1935). The formation of the AIEE Subcommittee on Large-Scale Computing in 1946 was considered a key milestone in the history of computer engineering, representing the first time that a professional association recognized the significance of computers and computing in electro-technology. The early technical areas of interest of AIEE were electric power, lighting, and wired communications. Radio and wireless communications became the major focus of a rival organization, the Institute of Radio Engineers (the IRE, established 1912). 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. In 1957, the IRE, with approximately 55,500 members, surpassed the AIEE in membership size; by 1962 the IRE had 96,500 members to the AIEE's 57,000.

Female Institute staff Although the AIEE was a member-volunteer run organization, it relied on a paid staff for daily operations. Many of those employees were women. The November 1906 issue of the Proceedings of the AIEE (vol 25, no 11) published an article, "The Various Homes of the Institute," that documented the offices of the Institute's headquarters on the sixth and seventh floor of the White Building at 93 and 95 Liberty Street, New York, NY, one month before the move to their new location in the Engineering Societies Building at 25 to 33 West 39th Street. The photos that accompanied the article not only included images of the women who worked there, but unusual for the time, also named them. Female employees of the AIEE included Miss Mary E. Durant, Mrs. Emily H. Hough, Mrs. I. M. McKinnon, and Miss Hazel Pike.

Institute's first logo After the AIEE's founding in 1884, its member's badge was created in 1893 by a committee headed by Alexander Graham Bell, AIEE's president from 1891 to 1892. The badge's logo depicted Benjamin Franklin's kite, representative of the discovery that lightning carried electricity. The design also showed a winding of gold wire with its midpoints crossed by a galvanometer's indicator, invoking the electrical engineer's Wheatstone bridge. Ohm's law and the letters "AIEE" were added in gold at the logo's base. The busy logo design was replaced four years later.

Merger and evolution The AIEE and the IRE merged in 1963 to form the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), in short order becoming the world's largest technical society.

See also Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE)

References Notes

Bibliography IEEE, Newlife International website.

External links

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with American Institute of Electrical Engineers

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what American Institute of Electrical Engineers claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to American Institute of Electrical Engineers before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about American Institute of Electrical Engineers ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of American Institute of Electrical Engineers

In research: American Institute of Electrical Engineers appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses American Institute of Electrical Engineers in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: American Institute of Electrical Engineers is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American engineering organizations, Electrical engineering organizations, Organizations established in 1884, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for American Institute of Electrical Engineers outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study American Institute of Electrical Engineers in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what American Institute of Electrical Engineers means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain American Institute of Electrical Engineers out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is American Institute of Electrical Engineers in simple terms?

Why does American Institute of Electrical Engineers matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study American Institute of Electrical Engineers?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on American Institute of Electrical Engineers.