I've found the ACM more interesting than IEEE for some time now.
True, but it does depend on your field. I was fortunate/unfortunate to have my feet in both over the years, and could not afford either early on, when I truly needed access.
IEEE President's Note: Why Students Should Stay with IEEE
41–50 of 56 posts
Re: IEEE President's Note: Why Students Should Stay with IEEE
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm truly interested in your thoughts... where would you discover truly hard problems? What do you feel would make you qualified to work on them, over, say someone else? enough to prove it to someone that could authorize such a salary and expenditure of time? Unless you were self-funded, of course. I've always wondered where and how would you discover what the edge of the knowledge and science actually is, and stay a…
In academia this is typically accomplished through staying up-to-date with top tier journals and conferences. I would say this is one of the benefits of IEEE--they have quite a few high-quality venues. However, there are also plenty of top-tier venues that are not associated with IEEE.
Exactly; if you wish I replied below. That is exactly the point of staying in such organizations, especially if you wish to be on the edge, and especially if you wish to publish, yourself.
Re: IEEE President's Note: Why Students Should Stay with IEEE
#43Years ago I tried to point out some inconsistencies in an IEEE standard. I failed to reach anyone who cared and eventually gave up, disgusted at the absolute pay to play nature of the entire thing. I certainly won’t join or review for this unnecessary, unhelpful organization.
Re: IEEE President's Note: Why Students Should Stay with IEEE
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm still in academia, and IEEE runs quite a few high-quality / top-tier journals and conferences in my research area (TAC, TRO, RA-L, LCSS, ACC, CDC, etc.) I'm a part of the control systems society, and their Controls Systems Magazine is a good read. On the perhaps more trivial side an Overleaf professional subscription was included with my membership. So again, there are benefits. But I am frustrated that I'm being…
> So again, there are benefits. But I am frustrated that I'm being advertised to and having my data sold to third-party companies after paying over $200 per year for a membership. Isn't your library covering IEEE access?
Yes, my University library covers access to many (but not all) IEEE articles, but the ability to download and read IEEE articles from a library is completely separate from being an IEEE member.
IEEE membership costs ~$229 for 2025 in the U.S. for Professionals [1]. This fee typically is not covered by universities in my experience.
If you're asking why I don't simply access articles through my library and forget about the membership, members typically are given fairly significant discounts and enhanced options for publishing in conferences and open access journals.
Re: IEEE President's Note: Why Students Should Stay with IEEE
#45A point of contention for me is the IEEE Code of Conduct [1] whose point 5.e. can be summarized as "I will not infringe the intellectual property of others". If you are critical of copyright itself (something not unusual among hackers) then the IEEE may not be the association for you. [10 https://www.ieee.org/about/corporate/governance/code-of-cond...
That seems to be a small minority in software. 2% of Github repos are Unlicense licensed, 16% are something else I don't know and for everything else, the authors have chosen to use copyright to restrict how others can use it in some way, even if it's just keeping their name on it. [1] https://github.blog/open-source/open-source-license-usage-on...
One can be against something and still make use of it. Don’t be ”Mister Gotcha”: https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/>
Re: IEEE President's Note: Why Students Should Stay with IEEE
#46I've found the ACM more interesting than IEEE for some time now.
CACM is also a nice magazine subscription to have.
Re: IEEE President's Note: Why Students Should Stay with IEEE
#47I have to caution students that the discount isn't for as long as you're a student, it's 8 years total, so if you do a BS, MS, and then PhD, you probably won't get the discount the whole time (and that's $200 extra a year). I had to pare my membership down from societies and magazines to just the membership, as punishment for having been an excited high schooler.
Re: IEEE President's Note: Why Students Should Stay with IEEE
#48Ok, let's see why Mr. President believe people should be members. I'll try to extract the arguments as to why that is beneficial for 1. Humanity. 2. Engineering/Technology 3. Me personally.
> IEEE is ... an international community
How is it a community, as opposed to part of a community? Are engineers who aren't IEEE members "not in the community"? It's not like there are secret weekly sessions with masks in the basement which only IEEE members know about.
> that can help students build and sustain successful careers as technical professionals
That's a conclusion you want me to reach. You need to tell us _how_ IEEE helps us do that.
> For more than 40 years, IEEE has been a great place to build my personal brand
Ugh. Why can't you say something like "recognition for having supported the collective and collaborative activity in my field"?
> and to create a valuable professional network. I know it can do the same for the next generation of engineers.
How does IEEE membership help me "create a valuable professional network"? Is the idea that luminaries in their field tend to answer IEEE members and engage with them more than non-IEEE members? Maybe, I don't know, but you haven't actually said that.
> access to more resources—both professional and personal—that can help them advance within their field
1. Like, what resources?
2. If you mean the journals you're preventing the public from accessing, then really, shame on you. Scientific and technological information should be freely accessible by all.
> and discover new interests.
How would membership be useful for me in discovering new interests?
> They will also have the opportunity to build soft skills,
What opportunity?
> raise their visibility,
1. You already said that.
2. Will they really? I don't think I notice people more because they are IEEE members. But, convince me, maybe I'm missing something (or maybe it's true in fields other than my own).
> and make friendships that last a lifetime.
How would IEEE membership make me friends? Not very convincing.
> The organization provides professional contacts
Again, how does it provide contacts other than those non-members have?
> and a community that offers support, advice, and mentoring, independent of where they work.
Does it really? Again, if that's actually true, then maybe it is worth it to be a member. But how does it do so? How community-like is the IEEE membership?
> Within the organization, there are young people ... also... active engineers ... in industry, government, and academia, as well as retired professionals ...
That is also true for the telephone directory. What do these people actually _do_ in the IEEE?
> Through its technical societies, IEEE also has a tremendous reach
Say what they do!
> Whatever your focus is, there is a community within IEEE that will meet your needs.
But what does it do?
> It can lead to meaningful collaborative research opportunities that jump-start and advance one’s career
How?
> and it can provide professional-development pathways that refine skills through leadership opportunities.
How?
> Many of the key benefits of volunteering
This is the first sentence in this whole f'ing spiel which is starting to make sense. Instead of "IEEE will help you", it's an "IEEE is vehicle for helping others, volunteering, promoting the profession / the field etc."
Ok, then why did you waste our time with the verbiage before, instead of telling us what we can do _for_ others via the IEEE, plus what the IEEE does for everyone with the dues we pay it or with our volunteering efforts?
> provide opportunities to help guide the evolution of numerous fields,
Which opportunities, man? Come on!
> Serving as a volunteer can also help empower members to champion their ideas and hone their communication and presentation skills, as well as management experience, which are important for professional development.
How? Through what mechanisms?
... (sigh) I give up.
Re: IEEE President's Note: Why Students Should Stay with IEEE
#49Counterpoint: what has IEEE done for me lately?
Re: IEEE President's Note: Why Students Should Stay with IEEE
#50I like to think that students are well advised to spend their money elsewhere. Namely to pay back any student loans. To save up for home loan deposit. Etcetera.
There are other (cheaper) ways to build a professional network. Local meetups, hackathons and whatnot. The best advice I could give graduates is to focus all of their energy on getting ahead in their career, ie. in their job at their employer. This will pay off way better than any IEEE membership could.