IEEE, an association dedicated to advancing innovation and technological excellence for the benefit of humanity, is the world’s largest technical professional society. It is designed to serve professionals involved in all aspects of the electrical, electronic, and computing fields and related areas of science and technology that underlie modern civilization.

IEEE's core purpose is to foster technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity.

IEEE will be essential to the global technical community and to technical professionals everywhere, and be universally recognized for the contributions of technology and of technical professionals in improving global conditions.

IEEE is organized into:

• 333 local sections in ten geographic regions;
• more than 2,230 chapters comprised of local members with similar technical interests;
• 39 societies and ten technical councils that compose ten technical divisions;
• more than 2500 student branches at colleges and universities in 80 countries;
• 790 student branch chapters;
• more than 430 Affinity groups.

The voting membership of IEEE elects a new president each year, who serves for three years - first as President-elect, then as President and CEO, and finally as Past President. IEEE presidents also serve on the two top-tier IEEE governing bodies:

• IEEE Board of Directors
• IEEE Assembly

Six subordinate boards govern major areas of IEEE interest. Each has an elected volunteer leader.

• Educational Activities Board
• IEEE-USA Board
• Member and Geographic Activities Board (MGA Board)
• Publication Services and Products Board
• Standards Association Board
• Technical Activities Board

There are currently 13 committees of the IEEE Board of Directors.

• Audit Committee, Awards Board, Employee Benefits and Compensation Committee, Ethics and Member Conduct Committee, Fellow Committee, Finance Committee, Governance Committee, History Committee, Investment Committee, New Inititiatives Committee, Nominations & Appointments (N&A) Committee, Public Visibility Committee, Tellers Committee

"IEEE’s roots go back to 1884 when electricity began to become a major influence in society. There was one major established electrical industry, the telegraph, which since the 1840s had come to connect the world with a data communications system faster than the speed of transportation. The telephone and electric power and light industries had just gotten underway."

• 1884 - "A small group of individuals in the electrical professions met in New York, USA. They formed a new organization to support professionals in their nascent field and to aid them in their efforts to apply innovation for the betterment of humanity—the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, or AIEE for short." ... "Companies such as AEG, General Electric, Siemens & Halske, and Westinghouse underwrote its commercialization." ... "Through technical meetings, publications, and promotion of standards, the AIEE led the growth of the electrical engineering profession, while through local sections and student branches, it brought its benefits to engineers in widespread places."

• 1912 - "The Institute of Radio Engineers. The IRE was modeled on the AIEE but was devoted to radio, and then broadly to electronics. It also furthered its profession by linking members through publications, standards, and conferences and encouraging them to organize local sections and meetings to exchange information and ideas."

• 1963, January 1st, "the AIEE and the IRE merged to form the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, or IEEE. At its formation, the IEEE had 150,000 members, 140,000 of whom resided in the United States."
"Over the decades that followed, the social roles of the technologies under IEEE’s aegis continued to spread across the world and reach into more and more areas of people's lives. The professional groups and technical boards of the predecessor institutions evolved into IEEE Societies."

IEEE has:

• more than 426,000 members in more than 160 countries, more than 50 percent of whom are from outside the United States;
• more than 117,000 Student members;
• 334 Sections in ten geographic Regions worldwide;
• 2,116 Chapters that unite local members with similar technical interests;
• 2,669 student branches at colleges and universities in 80 countries;
• 922 student branch chapters of IEEE technical societies;
• 440 affinity groups; IEEE Affinity Groups are non-technical sub-units of one or more Sections or a Council. The Affinity Group patent entities are the IEEE-USA Consultants' Network, Young Professionals (YP), Women in Engineering (WIE), and Life Members (LM).

IEEE:

• has 39 Societies and six technical councils representing the wide range of IEEE technical interests;
• has more than 3.5 million documents in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library, with more than 8 million downloads each month;
• has more than 1,671 standards and projects under development;
• publishes approximately 180 transactions, journals, and magazines;
• sponsors more than 1,600 conferences in 91 countries while:

a) partnering with more than 1,000 non-IEEE entities globally;
b) attracting more than 480,000 conference attendees;
c) publishing more than 1,400 conference proceedings via IEEE Xplore®.

*Data current as of 31 December 2014. This information is updated annually.