New York City was the backdrop of this yr’s IEEE Honors Ceremony, held on 24 April.
The occasion celebrates engineering pioneers who’ve developed applied sciences which have modified how folks join and study in regards to the world. This yr’s celebrants included the engineers behind improvements comparable to text-to-donate expertise, AI-powered diagnostic tools, and the graphics processing unit, amongst many others.
Previous to the Honors Ceremony, IEEE hosted a discussion board on 23 April for a choose group of early-career achievers to trade concepts and experiences with laureates and awardees, audio system, and IEEE leaders. Attendees from around the globe, working in quite a lot of technical areas, shared their journeys and explored the intersections of applied sciences, disciplines, and missions.
The occasion culminated in Friday night’s black tie Honors Ceremony, the place IEEE celebrated medal laureates, together with Jensen Huang, who acquired IEEE’s highest recognition, the IEEE Medal of Honor. Huang is a cofounder of Nvidia and its chief govt.
“IEEE has at all times been a house to those that see the long run earlier than others see it,” Mary Ellen Randall, IEEE president and CEO, mentioned in her welcome speech.
Video highlights and photos from the event can be found on the IEEE Awards website.
Exploring mission-driven tech and AI in artwork
Friday morning started with a dialog between Randall and Marian Croak, the recipient of this yr’s IEEE Founders Medal. Croak was honored for “management in communication networks, together with acceleration of digital fairness, accountable artificial intelligence, and the promotion of range and inclusion.”
Croak, who serves as vp of engineering at Google, headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., pioneered Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) applied sciences. When an individual speaks right into a phone, VoIP converts their voice into digital indicators which can be transmitted over the Web relatively than conventional telephone strains. Her work enabled audio and video conferencing. She additionally developed text-to-donate expertise to boost cash for these affected by Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005. The expertise allows prospects to donate cash to a charity by way of their cellular service supplier, which then payments them.
“Empathy has at all times been a driving drive within the engineering that I’ve completed,” she mentioned.
She shared recommendation on methods to keep artistic: “Get out of the workplace. Go to an artwork museum, train, or play with youngsters.” Croak mentioned her grandchildren encourage her.
The daytime program additionally spotlighted AI’s use within the visible arts. Kathleen Kramer, the 2025 IEEE president, interviewed artist Refik Anadol, who’s scheduled to open an AI art museum on 20 June in Los Angeles. Dataland’s displays are powered by an open-access mannequin developed by Anadol’s studio.
For the museum’s first exhibition, “Machine Goals: Rainforest,” the mannequin collected visible information in regards to the pure world from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, London’s Natural History Museum, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, with their permission. The knowledge, together with as much as a half billion photographs, will kind the premise for quite a lot of AI-produced artwork, Anadol mentioned.
Anadol mentioned he was impressed to combine AI with artwork by the film Blade Runner. He mentioned he believes “machines can turn out to be collaborators,” as “information is a type of pigment.”
Information additionally performs an vital function within the work of artist and writer Giorgia Lupi. The artist is a associate at design agency Pentagram.
Lupi mentioned she makes use of information to inform tales, together with chronicling her struggles with a persistent sickness.
“Information is an abstraction of our actuality,” she mentioned.
One in all her current initiatives, “A Data Love Letter to the Subway,” was proven final yr within the Dey Street Passageway in New York Metropolis. The video was made utilizing information from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority about every prepare line, together with timetables, ridership, and other people’s journey habits. Primarily based on the knowledge Lupi gathered, she documented how commuters touring on completely different subway strains encountered each other with out realizing it.
By exploring information on this yr’s IEEE award recipients, she collaborated with IEEE to create an animated video illustrating the shared pathways and collaborations among the honorees. It debuted on the Honors Ceremony.
Honoring engineering giants
The Honors Ceremony, held at Cipriani 42nd Street, acknowledged greater than 20 laureates and innovators.
Greater than 92 million selfies are taken worldwide daily, PhotoAiD estimates. A selfie wouldn’t be potential with out Eric Fossum’s invention of the CMOS image sensor. Developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif., the “digicam on a chip” was supposed to be used in area, however it’s now present in smartphones, medical devices, and autos. Fossum, an IEEE Life Fellow, acquired the IEEE Jun-ichi Nishizawa Medal, which acknowledges excellent contributions to supplies and system science and expertise.
“Engineering is a pursuit of what have to be potential. [IEEE is] the spirit, the conscience, of our occupation.” —Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia
The medal, he mentioned, “is on the high of the IEEE staircase of being acknowledged by your friends.”
The IEEE Holonyak Medal for Semiconductor Optoelectronic Technologies went to Steven P. DenBaars, a professor of supplies and electrical and computer engineering on the University of California, Santa Barbara. DenBaars was honored for his work in semiconductors, which laid the inspiration for high-resolution LED and laser shows, fashionable solid-state lighting, and extra.
“This work has at all times been a group effort…I’m excited and curious in regards to the function gallium nitride micro LEDs will play in optical communications,” he mentioned in his acceptance speech.
The ceremony ended with the Medal of Honor presentation to Huang, who acquired a standing ovation. He was acknowledged for his “management within the growth of graphics processing items and their utility to scientific computing and synthetic intelligence.”
The IEEE honorary member donated his money prize to IEEE TryEngineering, which supplies academics with a library of lesson plans and presents academic summer season camps. The Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Foundation matched his present, and the extra donation is destined to fund scholarships for brand new graduates.
“Engineering is a pursuit of what have to be potential. [IEEE is] the spirit, the conscience, of our occupation,” Huang mentioned.
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