Ieee history

From Punch Cards to Python

September 13, 2024
Computer & Information Technology

In today’s digital world, it’s easy for just about anyone to create a mobile app or write software, thanks to Java, JavaScript, Python, and other programming languages.But that wasn’t always the case. Because the primary language of computers is binary code, early programmers used punch cards to instruct computers what…

18 Apr 24

50 Years Later, This Apollo-Era Antenna Still Talks to Voyager 2

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

For more than 50 years, Deep Space Station 43 has been an invaluable tool for space probes as they explore our solar system and push into the beyond. The DSS-43 radio antenna, located at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, near Canberra, Australia, keeps open the line of communication between…

16 Apr 24

The Legacy of the Datapoint 2200 Microcomputer

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

As the history committee chair of the IEEE Lone Star Section, in San Antonio, Texas, I am responsible for documenting, preserving, and raising the visibility of technologies developed in the local area. One such technology is the Datapoint 2200, a programmable terminal that laid the foundation for the personal computer…

07 Apr 24

How Engineers at Digital Equipment Corp. Saved Ethernet

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

I’ve enjoyed reading magazine articles about Ethernet’s 50th anniversary, including one in the The Institute. Invented by computer scientists Robert Metcalfe and David Boggs, Ethernet has been extraordinarily impactful. Metcalfe, an IEEE Fellow, received the 1996 IEEE Medal of Honor as well as the 2022 Turing Award from the Association…

21 Mar 24

The Story Behind Pixar’s RenderMan CGI Software

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Watching movies and TV series that use digital visual effects to create fantastical worlds lets people escape reality for a few hours. Thanks to advancements in computer-generated technology used to produce films and shows, those worlds are highly realistic. In many cases, it can be difficult to tell what’s real…

17 Dec 23

35 Years Ago, Researchers Used Brain Waves to Control a Robot

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Using the brain to directly control an object was long the stuff of science fiction, and in 1988 the vision became a reality.IEEE Life Senior Member Stevo Bozinovski and Members Mihail Sestakov and Dr. Liljana Bozinovska used a student volunteer’s electroencephalogram (EEG) brain signals to move a robot along a…

17 Nov 23

Ethernet is Still Going Strong After 50 Years

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

The Xerox Palo Alto Research Center in California has spawned many pioneering computer technologies including the Alto—the first personal computer to use a graphical user interface—and the first laser printer.The PARC facility also is known for the invention of Ethernet, a networking technology that allows high-speed data transmission over coaxial…

03 Oct 23

Happy IEEE Day!

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

Happy IEEE Day! IEEE Day commemorates the first gathering of IEEE members to share their technical ideas in 1884. Worldwide celebrations demonstrate the ways thousands of IEEE members in local communities join together to collaborate on ideas that leverage technology for a better tomorrow. IEEE Day’s theme is: “Leveraging Technology…

06 Sep 23

This USC Professor is Developing an Artificial Brain

Electrical, Electronics & Instrumentation, Mechanical, Production & Manufacturing

People have expected great things from Alice Parker, who was raised in a family of distinguished scientists and engineers. And Parker, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Southern California has delivered. She helped develop high-level (behavioral) synthesis, an automated computer design process that assists with…

11 Jul 23

The Pioneer Behind Electromagnetism

Metallurgy & Material Science

Without an understanding of the fundamental relationship between electricity and magnetism, it would not have been possible to invent motors, telecommunications equipment, kitchen appliances and more. A key part of our understanding of that relationship, known as classical electromagnetics or classical electrodynamics, was first theorized in the 1820s by André-Marie…