Milestones:IEEE Milestones Program

IEEE Milestones in Electrical Engineering and Computing

Program Guidelines: The IEEE Milestones in Electrical Engineering and Computing program honors significant technical achievements in areas associated with IEEE.  It is a program of the IEEE History Committee, administered through the IEEE History Center. Milestones recognize the technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity found in unique products, services, seminal papers and patents. Milestones are proposed, nominated, and sponsored by an IEEE Organizational Unit (OU)—such as an IEEE section, society or chapter. After recommendation by the IEEE History Committee and approval by the IEEE Board of Directors, a bronze plaque commemorating the achievement is placed at an appropriate site with an accompanying dedication ceremony. The program is administered for the IEEE History Committee by the IEEE History Center.

IEEE established the Milestones Program in 1983 in conjunction with the 1984 Centennial Celebration to recognize the achievements of the Century of Giants who formed the profession and technologies represented by IEEE.

Each milestone recognizes a significant technical achievement that occurred at least twenty-five years ago in an area of technology represented in IEEE and having at least regional impact. To date, more than ninety-five Milestones have been approved and dedicated around the world.

Special Citations

The IEEE History Committee also administers a === special citation program === to recognize events or institutions which – although not technical achievements as defined by the Milestone Program – have contributed to the profession. Examples might be: museums or archives with substantial holdings pertaining to the history of electrical engineering and computing, the holding of a seminal conference, or the formation of a technical society.

See a list of IEEE Milestones dedicated to date

Is your organizational unit interested in proposing a Milestone?

It is a two-step process. You will first have to propose the idea. Your proposal will then be evaluated and the decision will be made on whether or not to invite you to make the full nomination. 

However, before proceeding any further, please read the Proposing a Milestone page for guidelines and more detailed information. 

If you are looking for ideas for technical achievements which might make good milestone proposals, here is a list of technical achievements which might be suitable for proposal, but which have not yet been recognized.

You must be logged into the GHN using your IEEE logon (or guest account logon if you have been given one) in order to submit a milestone proposal.

If you would like an example of a proposal to follow in preparing your own proposal, please click on the "List Milestone Proposals" link in the grey bar on the left of this page.  It will show you the list of proposals which you can then click on to view the filled-out ones.

 When you get to the nomination stage (after your proposal has been approved), here is an example of a nomination to follow, First Practical Photovoltaic Solar Cell