The Beginning (1971-2000)
Digging into the IEEE organisation records uncovered a letter dated 15 Dec 1971, from Emily Sirjane, Manager, Membership services to Mr HB Shah, Bombay informing the approval of IEEE President’s visit (1974): From L to R Dr BI Gururaj, Prof. Paramashivaiah, Dr RP Shenoy, Mr Guarrera, IEEE President,Mr Ravi Kirloskar Chairman Bangalore Subsection, Mr PN Hiriyannaiah, Dr HV Gopalakrishna the petition to establish Bangalore Subsection of the India Section on 14 Dec 1971.
The letter goes on to add that the territory of the new Subsection was all the state of Mysore. Mr PN Hiriyannaiah, founder secretary/treasurer of Bangalore Section recounting the establishment of Bangalore subsection and initial activities said, “IEEE Bangalore sub-section was established at the instance of the then India Section and the initiative of two senior members, Mr L Subramanyam of Bombay Section and Dr HV Gopalakrishnan. When they thought about it, they wanted a firm ground to start and a dynamic person with professional attitude to take over the chairmanship. Hence Mr Ravi L.Kirloskar was approached and he not only accepted to become Chairman, but also contributed to its growth. He attended all the committee meetings and gave both secretarial help and financial support. The India Section found the growth phenomenal. Bangalore sub-section was asked to host Annual Convention and Exhibition (ACE) during 1975, which turned out to be very successful with technical sessions at the premises of the Institute of Engineers and the exhibition at Banquet Hall of Vidhana Soudha.”
The number of members as on 31 Dec 1976 was 313 consisting of 240 higher grade members and 73 student. In comparison, as on 31 Dec 2000, membership stands at 1657 ( Higher grade: 1188 and Students: 469). The higher grade members include 4 Fellows, 99 Senior members, 744 members and 341 Associate Members. There were 18 Life members in the higher grade members.
Society Chapters/Groups
The Section launched an Industrial Electronics/Control Systems joint chapter, a Computer Society chapter, a Power Engineering chapter, an Industrial Applications chapter and an Industrial Electronics chapter in 1982. Some of the founding Chairmen of these chapters were Mr N Ramachandra, Prof. V Rajaraman and Prof. K Parthasarathy. Some of the later Chairmen of the Computer Society Chapter included Prof. LM Patnaik and Dr R Srinivasan. The Computer Society chapter was active in the late 1980’s, and then became inactive in the early 1990’s. Other chapters had a few years of fruitful operation, and then had to be discontinued, due to relocation of office-bearers, and changes in the interests of members. The Computer society chapter has been revived in the year 2000 with Mr S Nagarajan as Chairman, as part of a Computer, Communication and Engineering Management Joint Chapter,and is operating successfully. A Signal Processing Society Chapter was launched in 2000 with Prof. VU Reddy as the Chairman. The GOLD (Graduates Of the Last Decade) group of the Bangalore Section was formed on August 3, 2000 with Mr A Anoop as the Chairman. Since its formation, the group has conducted several programs, attended mainly by young engineers from the IT industry. The group has been successful in generating enthusiasm about the IEEE among the young engineers in Bangalore.
