What Is the Industrial Electronics Society?

The Industrial Electronics Society (IES) is a technical society of the IEEE devoted to advancing the theory and application of electronics, controls, communications, instrumentation, and computational intelligence to industrial and manufacturing systems. It serves engineers, researchers, and practitioners whose work spans power electronics, motion control, factory automation, robotics, and related disciplines. The Society functions as a focal point for research dissemination, professional networking, and the identification of emerging technologies relevant to industrial practice.

The IES occupies a distinctive position within IEEE because its field of interest is defined not by a single technology but by a domain: the application of electronic and computational methods to industrial processes. This broad orientation makes the Society a natural home for interdisciplinary work that bridges circuit design, control theory, signal processing, and industrial informatics.

Origins and Governance

The IES traces its institutional origins to the early 1950s. The first volume of the Transactions on Professional Group on Industrial Electronics was published in August 1953, establishing a continuous record of technical literature that runs to the present. Following the 1963 merger of IRE and AIEE, the industrial electronics groups of both organizations combined into the Professional Group on Industrial Electronics and Control Instrumentation. The Society adopted its current name, the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, in June 1982 after a period operating under the longer title Industrial Electronics and Control Instrumentation Society. Governance follows the standard IEEE model, with elected officers, an administrative committee, and chapter networks across dozens of countries.

Technical Scope and Publications

The Society's technical activities address intelligent and computer control systems, robotics, factory communications and automation, flexible manufacturing, data acquisition and signal processing, vision systems, and power electronics. Two flagship journals define the publication record: the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, which covers power electronics, motor drives, control, sensing, fault detection, and computational intelligence; and the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics, which addresses cyber-physical systems, industrial communication networks, and data-driven manufacturing. A third publication, the Open Journal of the Industrial Electronics Society, operates under open-access terms. The Society also co-sponsors the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, reflecting its early role in establishing mechatronics as a recognized sub-discipline.

Conferences and Community

The Annual Conference on Industrial Electronics (IECON) is the Society's primary technical conference, held each year and attracting contributions from power electronics, control systems, robotics, and emerging industrial applications. First convened in 1975 in Philadelphia as IECI'75, IECON has grown into one of the larger IEEE events in the industrial technology space. Beyond IECON, the IES co-sponsors and sponsors numerous specialized symposia and workshops on topics such as diagnostics, prognostics, and renewable energy integration. The Society maintains technical committees spanning more than two dozen specialized areas, from electric machines and drives to intelligent transportation and building automation, which organize focused sessions and guide journal editorial scopes.

Applications

The IEEE Industrial Electronics Society supports research and professional activity across a wide range of sectors, including:

• Industrial automation and smart manufacturing
• Power electronics for renewable energy and grid applications
• Robotics and mechatronics in production and logistics
• Electric vehicle drivetrains and charging systems
• Condition monitoring and predictive maintenance in heavy industry
• Industrial communication networks and cyber-physical systems