History of the technical structure of the IAS
8 history | f.a. (tony) furfari History of the Technical Structure of the IAS previous article in IEEE Industry Applications Magazine [1] described the beginnings , in 1964, of the Industry and General Applications Group (I&GA) in the newly created IEEE. When the IEEE created the organizational structures known as technical societies in 1971, the I&GA became the IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS) with which we are all familiar. When the I&GA was created, it included 23 technical committees (TCs) divided into two groups—14 industry committees and nine technology committees. This article will trace the changes over the last 40+ years which have lead to our present structure of four operating departments (ODs) and 18 TCs. The chief sources for the investigation of these structural changes over time are two IAS publications—the first [2] issued in 1984 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the IEEE and the second [3] issued in 1995 on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the IAS Annual Meeting—plus the series of IAS organizational guides issued annually between 1985–2000. These highly reliable printed sources have been supplemented in certain instances by the somewhat less reliable memory of the author. Of the 14 TCs listed as industry committees in 1964, seven are still active and remain essentially unchanged in scope. Five of these— Cement, Metal, Mining, Petroleum and Chemical, and Pulp and Paper—make up the present Process Industries Department. Domestic Appliance (now called simply Appliance) is part of the Manufacturing Systems Development and Applications Department. Rural Electric Power is part of the Industrial and Commercial Power Systems Department. The seven Industry Committees no longer on our list have disappeared through several means. ■ General Industry Applications apparently became the General Industries Department, including (in 1985) such committees The General Industries Department disappeared in a 1991 restructuring of the IAS technical structure. ■ Land Transportation was moved in 1986 to the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society, a change made at the commit-tee's request. ■ Marine Transportation was moved in 1991 to the IAS Standards Department because its only activity had become the maintenance of IEEE Standard 45 relating to shipboard electrical systems. In 2001, Marine Transportation was moved to the Petroleum and Chemical Industry Committee, where it is now the Marine Industry Subcommittee.