Presto Electro

Student organizations: They're everywhere. At UNT there are literally hundreds of them. Finding the right organization is not always easy, but it is definitely worth the effort. Student organizations like the Badminton Club and the Campus Cat Coalition are a great way to meet like-minded (and probably awesome) people, but many organizations offer unique benefits to students wishing to pursue careers in engineering.

Here is a list of those organizations: IEEE, SWE, SHPE, NSBE, IEEECS, SPE, AGC, NAHB, and UNTRS.

That wasn't entirely helpful, was it? Of course not. That's why, throughout the course of this semester, I will be zeroing-in on each one of these organizations. Together we'll find out who they are, how they can help you, what you need to do to sign up.

This week, I'll be tackling the biggest, juiciest engineering organization of them all: IEEE. Originally IEEE stood for "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers". These days IEEE (pronounced eye-triple-e) is more of a proper name than an acronym, because the scope of the organization has axpanded to encompass many more disciplines and interests. With this increase in scope came a tremendous increase in membership. Today IEEE boasts more than 375,000 members.

Like all engineering organizations, IEEE is a great way to meet your peers and potential employers. Any opportunity to network in your field will prove to be invaluable when it comes time to find a summer internship or full-blown career. The tremendous size and scope of IEEE creates a huge amount of opportunities for the industrious engineer.

IEEE is also dedicated to educating members about the latest and greatest technological advancements. Membership includes a free subscription to two magazines, Spectrum and Potentials, designed to bring you the latest in tech news, and access to a wealth of online technical resources.

Signing up for the UNT branch of IEEE is as easy as clicking here and filling out that form! Any interested student may join, and I would recommend it to every student with a stake in cutting-edge technology.

For more information about IEEE, feel free to visit the organization's website at http://www.ieee.org. Additionally, http://ieee.unt.edu is the homepage for IEEE at UNT.