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Life Members are encouraged to remain active in IEEE activities and engage with students and young professionals by mentoring this next generation of technologists. The IEEE Foundation Life Member Fund is managed by the IEEE Life Member Committee, which uses the money to benefit the 38,000 IEEE Life Members worldwide.

One of the programs supported by the Life Member Committee is the Life Member Affinity Groups (LMAGs). Life Members have formed 144 LMAGs in every region of the world. Dedicated to life-long learning and giving back to humanity, Life Members come together to learn new things, contribute ideas, mentor students, and participate in IEEE events.

Stem Outreach Activities

Life Members actively support STEM activities. The Central Texas LMAG in Austin, Texas, worked with Central Texas Discover Engineering, a local non-profit, to give K-12 students science and engineering experiences through hands-on experiments and STEM activities at the Bullock State History Museum. Life Members staffed four activities, including a Van de Gaaff generator, Electric Pickle, Mars Lander shock absorber, and Mars helicopter and parachute origami project. Four schools participated from as far away as Dallas. Six different student groups attended the events totaling approximately 180 students and teachers.

Student Competitions

Mentoring and supporting student events provide an opportunity to share knowledge and experiences with the next generation. One of the major events financially supported by the North Macedonia LMAG was a pre-university competition organized by IEEE student branches and student branch chapters. The RoboMac competition was held for the 11th time in May 2023 with participants from several surrounding countries.  Approximately 80 students were engaged in the final competition.

LMAGs Interact with Local IEEE Members

LMAGs hold interesting technical talks and tours throughout the year for their membership and are active in their local IEEE Sections and Societies. North Macedonia’s LMAG Chair, Goce Arsov, gave an invited talk on “Celebrating 75th Anniversary of the Transistor” at the Summer Symposium on Electronics and Signal Processing held in Krushevo on 24-25 June 2022. Arsov also repeated the talk on IEEE Day for the local IEEE Section.

Technical Tours

The Lone Star LMAG in San Antonio, TX, ran a Texas Technical Tour for 42 Life Members and spouses—visiting several significant technical sites in Houston, Austin, Waco and Dallas over several days. A Texas Instruments staffer explained three IEEE Milestones in front of the Texas Instruments headquarters in Dallas: one for the Development of the First Integrated Circuit, the second for the first application of a digital signal processor to speech synthesis in the TI Speak and Spell, and the third for the development of the first 16-bit DAC.

For more information about LMAG activities, you can find a complete listing of upcoming LMAG events on the Life Member Website.

Check to see if you have a local LMAG in your section on a world map providing a complete listing of all current LMAG with contact information for the local LMAG chair. You can also petition to help to form a new LMAG. The IEEE Life Members Fund was moved into the IEEE Foundation portfolio of funds in 1973, making it a staple of the Foundation’s 50 year history. Helping IEEE Life Members expand its programs is a core objective of the IEEE Foundation 50th Anniversary Celebration. To discuss how you can support this initiative, contact Rich Allen, CFRE at richard.allen@ieee.org or +1 732 465 5871.