Standards Education Program

As the world’s leading standards developer, IEEE is also a leading source of information and resources on standards, their applications, and their impact on designing new products, processes, and services.

Commitment to standards education

IEEE is committed to:

  • promoting the importance of standards in meeting technical, economic, environmental, and societal challenges;
  • disseminating learning materials on the application of standards in the design and development aspects of educational programs;
  • actively promoting the integration of standards into academic programs;
  • providing short courses about standards needed in the design and development phases of professional practice.

What are Standards?

Standards are published documents that establish specifications and procedures designed to ensure the reliability of the materials, products, methods, and/or services people use every day. Standards address a range of issues, including but not limited to various protocols to help ensure product functionality and compatibility, facilitate interoperability and support consumer safety and public health.

Standards form the fundamental building blocks for product development by establishing consistent protocols that can be universally understood and adopted. This helps fuel compatibility and interoperability and simplifies product development, and speeds time-to-market. Standards also make it easier to understand and compare competing products. As standards are globally adopted and applied in many markets, they also fuel international trade. Find out more about the IEEE Standards Association.

What are SDOs?

Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) typically oversee the development of standards. SDOs serve as facilitators for the standards development process, offering the platforms, rules, governance, methodologies and even facilitation services that objectively address the standards development lifecycle. Each SDO is independently run, maintaining their own methods, policies and process to ensure high quality outputs and reinforce the market relevance of industry and technology standards. Learn more on the Standards website.

How is a Standard Created?

The process of developing a standard is typically facilitated by a Standards Development Organization (SDO), which adheres to fair and equitable processes that ensure the highest quality outputs and reinforce the market relevance of standards. SDOs such as IEEE, IEC, ISO, and others offer time-tested platforms, rules, governance, methodologies and even facilitation services that objectively address the standards development lifecycle, and help facilitate the development, distribution and maintenance of standards. While the goals of each SDO are essentially the same, each SDO applies its own rules, processes, terminology to the standards development process. Learn more about the standards development process at the IEEE Standards Association website.

Why Standards Education is Important

Technical standards are formal documents that establish uniform engineering or technical criteria, methods, processes and practices developed through an accredited consensus process. Recognizing the important role standards play within the engineering, technology and computing fields, IEEE is providing resources to help introduce and teach undergraduate and graduate students, as well as professors and educators, about technical standards. Knowledge of standards can help facilitate the transition from classroom to professional practice by aligning educational concepts with real-world applications.