Original Engineering Societies Established in the U.S.
As one of the original engineering societies established in the United States, AIME represents its Member Societies on the Board of the United Engineering Foundation, along with AIChE (chemical), ASCE (civil), ASME (mechanical), and IEEE (electrical) engineering associations. Each group has two voting Trustees. Learn about AIME's representatives here. The UEF provides hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual grants to collaborative efforts that further the profession. To learn more, go to www.uefoundation.org.
The Founding of the United Engineering Societies
The UEF was founded in New York in 1904 by three of the groups above, AIME, ASME, and IEEE's predecessor. ASCE was added in 1916, and AIChE joined in 1958. The purpose then was the advancement of the engineering arts and sciences in all their branches and to maintain a free public engineering library. The Founders Agreement, at the time, specified that the societies agreed "to permanently maintain their respective principal offices in the building..." i.e., the United Engineering Center on 39th Street.
The Engineering Societies Building and Library - The United Engineering Center
Subsequently, they constructed offices at 47th Street and First Avenue. In 1995, the Wheeler Collection of the Engineering Societies Library was transferred to New York Public Library, and the remainder of the ESL went to Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, MO. In 1997, Donald Trump and his partners, including the Daewoo Corp., a South Korean chaebol, signed a deal to purchase the site from the United Engineering Trustees for $52 million. Prior to that, AIME, ASCE, and IEEE had been moving some staff outside of New York. So, the remaining operations were able to lease space at 3 Park Avenue until 2003 when AIME relocated to its mining group's building in Denver, CO. None of AIME New York staff moved to Colorado. In 2015, ASME and AIChE were the last to move out of 3 Park Avenue but still maintained a headquarter presence in Manhattan.
Ongoing Collaboration
The UEF Board meets annually in person each fall. Adjacent to that meeting, the Founder Society Presidents and Executive Directors also hold a meeting. The groups also collaborate in many other initiatives to promote and enhance the profession and society as a whole.
