The electrical century. I. Introduction and overview

A little bit of close inspection reveals that not only the beginning and end of our century but every decade in between has been underpinned by electrical, electronic, or computing technologies of monumental importance. No one would deny that even the technologies we associate most closely with our nuclear and space ages are themselves dependent on electronics and computing. In all, this truly has been the century of electrical and computing engineering. To celebrate the accomplishments of the Electrical Century, the IEEE History Center have launched a series of articles looking back at 100 years of electrical history and pointing the way to the future.