New York City was the site of this year’s IEEE Honors Ceremony, held on April 24.
This event celebrates engineering pioneers who have developed technologies that have changed the way people connect with and learn about the world. This year’s celebrants include engineers who innovate such as text-to-donate technology, AI-powered diagnostic tools, and a graphics processing unit, among many others.
Prior to the Honors Ceremony, IEEE hosted a forum on April 23 for a select group of early winners to exchange ideas and experiences with honorees and awardees, speakers, and IEEE leaders. Guests from around the world, working in various areas of technology, share their journeys and explore the intersections of technology, disciplines, and equipment.
The event culminated with the Black Equality Honors Ceremony on Friday evening, where the IEEE celebrated award recipients, including Jensen Huang, who received the IEEE’s highest honor, the IEEE Medal of Honor. Huang is Nvidia’s co-founder and CEO.
“IEEE has always been home to those who see the future before others do,” said Mary Ellen Randall, IEEE president and CEO, in her acceptance speech.
Video highlights and photos of the event are available on the IEEE Awards website.
Exploring goal-driven technology and AI in art
Friday morning began with a discussion between Randall and Marian Croak, recipient of this year’s IEEE Innovators Award. Croak was honored for “leadership in social media, including accelerating digital equity, responsible artificial intelligence, and promoting diversity and inclusion.”
Croak, who serves as vice president of engineering at Google, headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., invented Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. When someone speaks on the phone, VoIP converts their voice into digital signals that are transmitted over the Internet rather than traditional phone lines. His work enabled audio and video conferencing. He also developed the technology to donate documents to raise money for those affected by Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005. This technology allows customers to donate money to a charity using their mobile service provider, and then pay them back.
“Compassion has always been in the engineering I have done for them,” he said.
She shared advice on how to stay creative: “Get out of the office. Go to an art museum, exercise, or play with the kids.” Croak said his grandchildren inspire him.
The afternoon program also highlighted the use of AI in the visual arts. Kathleen Kramer, IEEE 2025 president, interviewed artist Refik Anadol, who is scheduled to open a museum of AI art on June 20 in Los Angeles. Dataland shows are powered by an open access model developed by Anadol studio.
For the museum’s first exhibit, “Dreams of the Machine: The Rainforest,” the model collected visual data about the natural world from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the Natural History Museum of London, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, with their permission. The information, including up to half a billion images, will form the basis of a variety of AI-generated art, Anadol said.
Anadol said he was inspired to mix AI and art through film Blade Runner. He said he believes that “machines can be collaborators,” as “data is a form of color.”
Data also plays an important role in the work of artist and writer Giorgia Lupi. The artist is a partner at design firm Pentagram.
Lupi said he uses data to tell stories, including his struggles with chronic illness.
“Data is a summary of our reality,” he said.
One of his latest projects, “Data’s Love Letter to the Subway,” was exhibited last year on the Dey Street Passageway in New York City. The video was created using data from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority about each train line, including timetables, ridership, and people’s travel habits. Based on the information collected by Lupi, he wrote how passengers traveling on different train lines meet each other without realizing it.
By examining data on this year’s IEEE award recipients, he collaborated with IEEE to create an animated video that showcases shared approaches and collaborations among the honorees. It started at the Honor Ceremony.
Honoring the giants of engineering
The Awards Ceremony, held at Cipriani 42nd Street, recognized more than 20 award winners and innovators.
More than 92 million selfies are taken worldwide every day, PhotoAiD estimates. The selfie would not have been possible without Eric Fossum’s invention of the CMOS image sensor. Developed at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, Calif., the “camera on a chip” was originally intended for use in space, but is now found in smartphones, medical devices and cars. Fossum, an IEEE Life Fellow, received the IEEE Jun-ichi Nishizawa Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to materials and device science and technology.
“Engineering is the pursuit of what needs to happen. [IEEE is] the spirit, the conscience, of our work.” -Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia
The award, he said, “is at the top of the IEEE ladder of recognition by your peers.”
The IEEE Holonyak Medal for Semiconductor Optoelectronic Technologies went to Steven P. DenBaars, professor of materials and electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. DenBaars is recognized for his work in semiconductors, which laid the foundation for high-resolution LED and laser displays, modern solid-state lighting, and more.
“This project has been a team effort … I am excited and curious about the role gallium nitride micro LEDs will play in optical communication,” he said in his acceptance speech.
The ceremony ended with the presentation of the Medal of Honor to Huang, who received a standing ovation. He was recognized for his “leadership in the design of graphics processing units and their applications in scientific computing and artificial intelligence.”
The IEEE honorary member donated his cash prize to IEEE TryEngineering, which provides educators with a curriculum library and offers summer teaching camps. The Jen-Hsun and Lori Huang Foundation matched her gift, and an additional donation is intended to support undergraduate scholarships.
“Engineering is the pursuit of what needs to happen. [IEEE is] the spirit, the conscience, of our work,” said Huang.
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