 |
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is a professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering that was formed in January 1963 from the amalgamation of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers and the Institute of Radio Engineers.
IEEE Day was established to celebrate the first worldwide gathering of engineers who came together to share their technical ideas in 1884. Their stated hope was to “collaborate on ideas that leverage technology for a better tomorrow.”
IEEE Day is celebrated on the first Tuesday of October. Accordingly, this year, IEEE Day was celebrated on Tuesday, 5 October 2021. It is the eleventh observance since the IEEE launched the program.
The organization has been holding a contest. This year’s is over, but if you, or a college, university, or high school you support are interested in participating next year, you need to:
- Address a real-world problem and present a viable and implementable concept and/or solution.
- Talk about how the proposed solution will change the world.
- Produce a 100-word writeup that:
- Explains the problem
- Talks about solution
- Talks about the impact of the proposed solution and how it will change the world.
To participate in the IEEE Day 2021—60 seconds Innovation Contest, entrants needed to follow the steps at: Submit your event – 5th October, IEEE Day 2021
If you want to tap into the next generation of engineers, there’s no better way than to get involved with this program.
This year IEEE Day commemorated spotlighted the movie Top Secret Rosies: The Female “Computers” of WWII! Top Secret Rosies is the story of women and technology that helped win a war and usher in the modern computer age. It chronicles the experiences of four very different women who worked as “human computers” at the University of Pennsylvania from 1942 to 1946. Capturing the opportunities and exhilaration of the times and exploring the moral dilemmas inherent in their work, the film follows their efforts as they labored night and day to create the mathematical computations that made every Allied bomb and bullet more deadly.
The Rosies went on to program the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), the first programmable, electronic, general-purpose digital computer, an IEEE Milestone.
 |
| The top-secret Rosies of the ENIAC |
Learn why IEEE Computer Society created the “Women of ENIAC Computer Pioneer Award” and why one young female engineer reviewer said the documentary film left her “in awe of what these women were able to accomplish” and said she was “forever grateful for all the ‘Rosies’ who pushed the boundaries of STEM!”
Top Secret Rosies: The Female “Computers” of WWII was produced by PBS and funded by an IEEE Foundation grant in 2010!
Check out this donor-funded IEEE History Center Oral History with Jean Bartik, one of the original women programmers of the ENIAC computer.