During Administrative Committee in Madrid on 18 Oct 2025, President Milos Manic announced IES reached the milestone of 13k members.

 

Under the inspiring leadership of Professor Milos Manic, President of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society (IES), our community is entering a new phase of connectivity, collaboration, and sustainable growth. Guided by his vision of “One IES” (a globally unified yet locally empowered new structuring), the Society is transforming through the IES Hubs and Nodes model, a dynamic framework designed to strengthen local engagement, and extend the Society’s global outreach. A testament to the success of this vision came during the Administrative Committee meeting on 18 October 2025 in Madrid, where President Milos Manic proudly announced that our society had reached a remarkable milestone: 13,000 IES members worldwide! In 2025, IES increased from 11,260 members to 13,000 (+15%), and year is not over yet!

A Model for Sustainable and Scalable Growth

An IES Hub is a regional center strategically positioned in areas with strong academic and industrial potential. Each Hub coordinates local Nodes (also called Spokes), creating a network that promotes continuous development through collaboration among students, young professionals, senior academics and industry experts.

This model moves beyond linear or horizontal growth, it builds a scalable ecosystem where members support one another, ensuring long-term sustainability and engagement.

The 5 Pillars of the Hubs & Spokes Vision

  1. Retaining Young Professionals
    Many young members leave IES and IEEE after graduation, often heading to industry. The Hubs model helps retain these Young Professionals (YPs) by offering continued opportunities for involvement, networking, and leadership, even after university life.

  2. Bridging the Gap Between Young and Senior Members
    As young professionals transition from academia to industry, they remain active in IES, bringing fresh perspectives and continuity. Meanwhile, senior members share their experience, ensuring that knowledge and mentorship flow seamlessly between generations.

  3. Bringing (Young) Industry Back to IES
    Industrial engagement is at the core of IES’s mission. The Hubs structure reconnects the Society with young professionals in industry, strengthening innovation pipelines and reinforcing IES’s industrial roots.

  4. Growing the Existing IEEE Structure
    Hubs and Nodes do not replace existing Sections, Chapters, or Branches, they enhance and grow them. In fact, the Hubs & Nodes framework acts as a true force multiplier for the IEEE membership structure, bringing new life into existing local units. Many of today’s new Sections, Chapters, and Student Branches are being initiated and led directly by Hub leaders, proving the model’s power to organically expand IEEE’s global reach.
    The system is recursive: students become teachers, mentors, and future leaders, driving a culture of continuous renewal and growth.

  5. Focusing on Physical and Regional Proximity
    Each Hub is tailored to its geographical and cultural context, aligning local interests for maximum impact. This localized focus ensures that initiatives are physically close and contextually relevant.

Proven Success: Brazil and India Lead the Way

The model is already showing impressive results. Since its launch in January 2025, the Brazil Hub secured $70,000 in funding, organized five major events, and plans to double or quadruple IES participation through its upcoming student branch chapters. In India, the Bhubaneswar Hub gathered 50 industry booths at its August Conclave, demonstrating the potential of regional collaboration to connect academia and industry.

Through Hubs and Nodes, IES is evolving into a globally connected yet locally empowered community, ensuring that growth is not just measured in numbers, but in impact, continuity, and shared purpose.

 

Look into the near future: 6 regions – 9 Hubs – 39 Nodes

Brazil – 2 Hubs + 7 Nodes

Led by Leandro Buss Becker (South – Florianópolis/SC) and João Teixeira (Northeast – Natal/RN)

  • Hub South (Florianópolis/SC)
    3 Nodes: Santa Maria/RS, Curitiba/PR, Rio de Janeiro/RJ
  • Hub Northeast (Natal/RN)
    4 Nodes: Salvador/BA, Mossoró/RN, Recife/PE, Manaus/AM

 

India – 2 Hubs + 10 Nodes

Led by Dr. Tripura Pidikiti (Hyderabad) and Dr. Ranjeetha Patel (Bhubaneswar)

  • Hub Hyderabad
    5 Nodes: Bengaluru, Chennai, Kerala, Pune, and Maldives
  • Hub Bhubaneswar
    5 Nodes: Kolkata, Gujarat, MP, Guwahati, and Delhi

 

Mexico and Central America – 2 Hubs + 7 Nodes

Led by Gerardo Barbosa

  • Hub Mexico
    4 Nodes: Monterrey, Guanajuato, Mexico City, Guadalajara

  • Hub Central America
    3 Nodes: Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panamá

 

Africa – 1 Hub + 7 Nodes

Led by Chayma Bouattour and Ala Chalghaf

  • Hub Tunisia
    7 Nodes: Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, South Africa

 

South East Europe – 1 Hub + 4 Nodes

Led by Prof. Dr. Dejan Jokic, Vice-Chair, IEEE Section of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

  • Hub Bosnia and Herzegovina
    4 Nodes: Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia
    4 More Nodes from 2027: Hungary, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria

 

East Africa – 1 Hub + 5 Nodes

Led by Sheila Otuko and Jenipher Ogara.

  • Hub East Africa (Nairobi, Kenya)
    5 Nodes: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Ethiopia

 

Milos Manic presented his vision for IES Hubs and Nodes at AdCom#3 in Madrid

 

Through this scalable, volunteer-led framework, IES Hubs and Nodes express President Milos Manic’s forward-looking vision for a structured, comprehensive growth that actually scales ; for this generation… and the next.