What's UP and down: Insidious as well as blatant changes have occurred in 25 years; our inventory reveals some surprises

From college to retirement, electrical engineers chart a checkered course, borne forward or pushed aside by advancing technology, buoyed up or sunk by shifting government priorities, and vulnerable to global change. In the United States, as elsewhere, the picture today is obviously different from the one 25 years ago, when the IEEE was founded, but some elements have stayed the same.