Leveraging Technology for a Better Tomorrow” is something IEEE has been familiar with since 1884. Our first meeting was a technical one; we met in order to exchange ideas, discuss concepts, and move our profession forward. In more than 125 years, that has not changed—it has merely increased exponentially.
Individual engineers, staying up until all hours of the night, alone in labs…yes, there are plenty of us who have done this. But this is not the complete picture. The engineers who are producing incremental, breakthrough, or radical innovations within our profession are doing so with the benefit of interaction and exchange with teams of colleagues, not just long nights alone in the lab.
Leveraging technology does not only involve using one technological advance to serve as a springboard for other advances. It encompasses networking within our vast community of technologists to provide insights, ideas, and approaches that lead to the creation and implementation of those advances.
The possibilities for you to leverage technology for a better tomorrow are limited only by the restrictions you place upon yourself. A good idea in Brussels will benefit from the perspectives shared by colleagues in Mumbai and Buenos Aires, and that idea becomes more effective and comprehensive for those exchanges. And as a result, our world is better for your mutual efforts.
More than a century ago, IEEE members came together, and their discussions created the groundwork for bettering their world. Today’s global IEEE community comes together through conferences, through social media, through professional networks and many other venues. One thing, however, has not changed in more than a century: IEEE’s ongoing commitment to better our world.

 

J. Roberto de Marca   

2013 IEEE President-Elect