IEEE Industry Applications Society’s 60th Anniversary

By  IEEE Industry Applications Society Board

The IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS) will be celebrating its 60^th anniversary in 2025.  While IAS continues to support members, students, Young Professionals, and WIE through webinars, publications, educational courses, and conferences, the society has been active in recent years, focusing on “Technology for the Benefit of Humanity,” focusing on contributions to humanitarian activities and partnerships throughout IEEE.

IEEE Smart Village (ISV): Over the years, IAS has not only contributed almost one million dollars to IEEE Smart Village, but IAS members have also taken on key ISV volunteer positions, including Chair, Treasurer, and Project Leader.  Some of the specific projects IAS has sponsored include Walk-in Cold Storage for Increased Agricultural Income, Women’s Gemstone Enterprise, Solar Rice Mill, and Scalable Mini-grid –Darway Coast.

Humanitarian Projects Contest: IEEE IAS Chapters & Membership Department (CMD) Humanitarian Programs Subcommittee initiated the Humanitarian Projects Contest in 2016 with the slogan of “empowering communities for a better future.” Communities face challenges related to energy, water, health, sanitation, transport, and agriculture throughout the world. The Humanitarian Projects Contest encourages young volunteers to discover and implement feasible solutions through projects supporting underserved communities.

Humanitarian Project Contests depict an engineering solution benefiting humanity and should be at the middle-final stage of execution. The proposed challenge and solution must be inspired by an IAS member’s town/city, country, or region. 

EPICS in IEEE: In 2024, IAS engaged in a partnership with Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) in IEEE at the $75,000 highest partnership level. EPICS in IEEE sponsors IEEE student-led humanitarian-based service-learning projects. With over 325 IAS student branch chapters, alignment between the IAS and EPICS in IEEE was a natural fit.  A February Call for Proposals for project submissions up to $10,000 each resulted in 78 applications. IAS members and volunteers participated in online training and served as project reviewers. The final review by EPICS in IEEE resulted in the approval of 11 new projects.  Some of the projects selected included Snapping Shrimps in Northern Aegean Sea, Swarm DC Grid for Rural Electrification, Empowering Rural Schools: Early Engineering, and Smart Energy for Equity.  IAS members will serve as volunteer mentors to assist in project execution. After project completion, student project teams are required to provide updates and final reports. 

IEEE TryEngineering: IAS has annually supported the IEEE TryEngineering Summer Institute program with donations specified for underserving institutions with more than $30,000 in donations over 5 years.

YESIST: IAS continues to sponsor and provide speakers/judges for IEEE Youth Endeavors for Social Innovation Using Sustainable Technology (YESIST), an initiative unifying social responsibility and ethics in young minds while unleashing the power of fresh ideas that reshape communities through humanitarian activities. It provides a platform for students and young professionals to showcase innovative ideas, identifying the key to humanitarian and social issues directly affecting their community. The talent show encourages service-oriented engineering practice and inspires the next generation of engineers to embrace social responsibility and ethical practices. It’s more than a showcase; it’s a call to action, promoting a community of service-oriented engineering practitioners committed to making a real difference. IAS has been a Platinum Sponsor at $10,000 for the last two editions of the YESIST12 event and has provided keynote speakers for both events.