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 individuals join and be taught concerning the world. This yr’s celebrants included the engineers behind improvements corresponding to text-to-donate know-how, 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 all over the world, 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 longer term earlier than others see it,” Mary Ellen Randall, IEEE president and CEO, stated 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 variety and inclusion.”
Croak, who serves as vice chairman 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 alerts which might be transmitted over the Web fairly than conventional telephone traces. Her work enabled audio and video conferencing. She additionally developed text-to-donate know-how to boost cash for these affected by Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005. The know-how permits clients to donate cash to a charity through their cell service supplier, which then payments them.
“Empathy has at all times been a driving power within the engineering that I’ve achieved,” she stated.
She shared recommendation on keep artistic: “Get out of the workplace. Go to an artwork museum, train, or play with youngsters.” Croak stated 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 knowledge concerning 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 photos, will kind the premise for quite a lot of AI-produced artwork, Anadol stated.
Anadol stated he was impressed to combine AI with artwork by the film Blade Runner. He stated he believes “machines can change into collaborators,” as “knowledge is a type of pigment.”
Knowledge additionally performs an vital function within the work of artist and creator Giorgia Lupi. The artist is a accomplice at design agency Pentagram.
Lupi stated she makes use of knowledge to inform tales, together with chronicling her struggles with a persistent sickness.
“Knowledge is an abstraction of our actuality,” she stated.
One among her current tasks, “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 knowledge from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority about every practice line, together with timetables, ridership, and other people’s journey habits. Based mostly on the data Lupi gathered, she documented how commuters touring on completely different subway traces encountered each other with out realizing it.
By exploring knowledge 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 on daily basis, PhotoAiD estimates. A selfie wouldn’t be doable 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 house, however it’s now present in smartphones, medical devices, and automobiles. Fossum, an IEEE Life Fellow, acquired the IEEE Jun-ichi Nishizawa Medal, which acknowledges excellent contributions to supplies and machine science and know-how.
“Engineering is a pursuit of what should be doable. [IEEE is] the spirit, the conscience, of our occupation.” —Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia
The medal, he stated, “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 muse for high-resolution LED and laser shows, fashionable solid-state lighting, and extra.
“This work has at all times been a staff effort…I’m excited and curious concerning the function gallium nitride micro LEDs will play in optical communications,” he stated 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 models and their utility to scientific computing and synthetic intelligence.”
The IEEE honorary member donated his money prize to IEEE TryEngineering, which supplies lecturers with a library of lesson plans and presents academic summer season camps. The Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Foundation matched his reward, and the extra donation is destined to fund scholarships for brand new graduates.
“Engineering is a pursuit of what should be doable. [IEEE is] the spirit, the conscience, of our occupation,” Huang stated.
From Your Website Articles
Associated Articles Across the Net
