By Dalma Novak, 2025 VP Technical Activities
Recently, the IEEE Board of Directors updated the IEEE’s 5-year strategic plan for 2025 – 2030 and approved a set of six strategic goals outlining its ongoing mission to advance technology for the benefit of humanity. One of these strategic goals is to provide opportunities for technology-related interdisciplinary collaboration, research, and knowledge sharing across industry, academia, and government. IEEE Technical Activities’ approach to achieving this specific goal is to strengthen systems that encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and increase impacts across multiple audiences.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration
The inclusion of interdisciplinary collaboration in the new IEEE strategic plan is especially timely as both interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches to technology have become essential for driving the technological innovation needed to solve complex global problems. Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary are often used interchangeably; however, multidisciplinary approaches involve drawing knowledge from different disciplines but staying within their boundaries. Interdisciplinary approaches go further by integrating knowledge and methods from different disciplines into a cohesive framework, which leads to new ways of thinking and problem-solving. While both models promote collaboration, interdisciplinary approaches often lead to more significant innovation by synthesizing perspectives and fostering a broader understanding of complex issues.
IEEE Councils Foster Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Despite the benefits, enabling interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary technology collaboration can be challenging due to factors like technical discipline silos and differences in methodology. Within IEEE Technical Activities, Technical Councils are key to fostering environments that support successful cross-disciplinary collaboration. Councils are groups of IEEE Societies that work together to advance technology by facilitating collaboration and knowledge sharing in broad technical areas within IEEE’s diverse technical community. Councils sponsor activities that benefit individuals in all of the member Societies, and any IEEE member can participate in a Technical Council by joining for free. There are currently eight Technical Councils with fields of interest that cover a broad range of technologies. There are also a number of Technical Communities that have been established, which bring together technologists with an interest in an emerging multidisciplinary topic to enable increased connection and awareness of developments.
Many IEEE members have technical backgrounds and interests that are multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary in nature and statistics show that increasingly, members are choosing to join more than just one IEEE Society. My own main technical interest area is microwave photonics, which is an interdisciplinary field that combines the principles of microwave engineering and photonics to generate, process, transport, and detect microwave and millimeter-wave signals using optical techniques. By leveraging the large bandwidth and low transmission loss of optical fibers, microwave photonics enables advanced functionalities that are difficult to achieve with more traditional electronic-based systems.
My Journey
To support my multidisciplinary technology interests, I became a member of a number of IEEE Societies early on in my academic career and regularly attended conferences and published in journals sponsored by different Societies. When I moved from academia to industry, I continued to extend the multidisciplinary nature of my work, first leading cross-disciplinary teams developing optical networking hardware for long-haul transmission systems and now in my current role as VP of Engineering at Octane Wireless. I joined several Technical Councils and Technical Communities and by actively participating in the various initiatives and programs offered by all of these technical entities, I have greatly expanded my knowledge base and improved my ability to think, communicate and problem-solve beyond a single technical discipline. This has been hugely beneficial in many facets of my work life.
In our interconnected, rapidly evolving world, no challenge exists in a vacuum. Interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary technologies are a strategic necessity and offer an opportunity for communal problem-solving and innovation to play a critical role in shaping the future. IEEE Technical Activities is embracing these approaches and continuing to work towards developing the necessary collaborative opportunities to enable the full potential of technological advancement to be achieved. As boundaries between disciplines continue to recede, the most transformative breakthroughs will arise from the areas where ideas, tools, and minds converge. The future will belong to those who can think beyond disciplines and harness the full spectrum of human knowledge and creativity.
Dalma Novak
2025 VP IEEE Technical Activities
