IEEE Celebrates Technology’s Brightest Minds at Annual Event

New York City was the backdrop of this year’s IEEE Honors Ceremony, held on 24 April. The event celebrates engineering pioneers who have developed technologies that have changed how people connect and learn about the world. This year’s celebrants included the engineers behind innovations such as text-to-donate technology, AI-powered diagnostic tools, and the graphics processing unit, among many others. Prior to the Honors Ceremony, IEEE hosted a forum on 23 April for a select group of early-career achievers to exchange ideas and experiences with laureates and awardees, speakers, and IEEE leaders. Attendees from around the world, working in a variety of technical areas, shared their journeys and explored the intersections of technologies, disciplines, and missions. The event culminated in Friday evening’s black tie Honors Ceremony, where IEEE celebrated medal laureates, including Jensen Huang, who received IEEE’s highest recognition, the IEEE Medal of Honor. Huang is a cofounder of Nvidia and its chief executive. “IEEE has always been a home to those who see the future before others see it,” Mary Ellen Randall, IEEE president and CEO, said in her welcome speech. Video highlights and photos from the event are available on the IEEE Awards website. Exploring mission-driven tech and AI in art Friday morning began with a conversation between Randall and Marian Croak, the recipient of this year’s IEEE Founders Medal. Croak was honored for “leadership in communication networks, including acceleration of digital equity, responsible artificial intelligence, and the promotion of diversity and inclusion.” Croak, who serves as vice president of engineering at Google, headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., pioneered Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies. When a person speaks into a telephone, VoIP converts their voice into digital signals that are transmitted over the Internet rather than traditional phone lines. Her work enabled audio and video conferencing. She also developed text-to-donate technology to raise money for those affected by Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005. The technology enables customers to donate money to a charity via their mobile service provider, which then bills them. “Empathy has always been a driving force in the engineering that I’ve done,” she said. She shared advice on how to stay creative: “Get out of the office. Go to an art museum, exercise, or play with children.” Croak said her grandchildren inspire her. An inside look at microchips During Friday evening’s Honors Ceremony cocktail hour, attendees explored the history of microchips at the IEEE Global Museum’s Microchips That Shook the World exhibit. The Global Museum, an IEEE History and Heritage program, develops traveling and digital exhibits focused on the history of technology. The museum’s mission is to promote awareness of how technological progress unfolds over generations and how engineers and researchers build on past achievements to benefit humanity. Drawing from IEEE Spectrum’s Chip Hall of Fame, the Microchips That Shook the World exhibit conveys the roles integrated circuits play in fields such as signal processing, audio engineering, and telecommunications. Co-curators Stephen Cass, Spectrum’s special projects editor, and Daniel Mitchell, the IEEE senior historian, served as onsite docents for guests. The Commodore 64, one of the artifacts on display, brought up many treasured childhood memories for guests who used the home computer. The exhibit also featured a preview of IEEE’s immersive video project “Inside the Microchip,” which delves beneath the silicon surface of the Nvidia NV20 microchip thanks to forensic photography and sophisticated computer-generated renders. The video, which will be released later this year, aims to teach preuniversity students about the technology. Microchips that Shook the World is possible thanks to donations from semiconductor company ASML, the Bill and Dianne Mensch Foundation, and the IEEE Electron Devices and IEEE Electronics Packaging societies The daytime program also spotlighted AI’s use in the visual arts. Kathleen Kramer, the 2025 IEEE president, interviewed artist Refik Anadol, who is scheduled to open an AI art museum on 20 June in Los Angeles. Dataland’s exhibits are powered by an open-access model developed by Anadol’s studio. For the museum’s first exhibition, “Machine Dreams: Rainforest,” the model collected visual data about the natural world from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, London’s Natural History Museum, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, with their permission. The information, including up to a half billion images, will form the basis for a variety of AI-produced art, Anadol said. Anadol said he was inspired to mix AI with art by the movie Blade Runner. He said he believes “machines can become collaborators,” as “data is a form of pigment.” Data also plays an important role in the work of artist and author Gior

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