<p>Yes, I know it's owned by businesses and not by engineers per se, but that's not my question. I was wondering if any of you peeps have joined and what you thought of it, and their publications. Has it helped you academically or career-wise? What is involved in joining? A fee?</p>
<p>I’ve got some of their computational science and scientific computing magazines, and by and large they are very good. It’s one of the better professional organizations from what I hear. I’m not a member, but I may be some day soon.</p>
<p>Yes. Student membership is pretty cheap, and many colleges have chapters. There are geographically based chapters located around the world, but mainly in the US which have monthly meetings and presentations. Beyond that the main publication, Spectrum is interesting and there is much content online and a couple hundred specialty societies each with their own publications and meetings that you can join under the IEEE umbrella. So you can get deluged with journals if you want. The Computer Society in particular has the largest membership and may be more useful than the ACM and its many subsections. Also, for a working professional, membership dues are tax deductible.</p>
<p>^ I wouldn’t go that far about the IEEE computing section. Of course then one could define “useful” in a variety of ways.</p>
<p>I’ve been told those organizations are good places to network and make connections. I have not experienced this first-hand, yet.</p>
<p>I cancelled my subscription. I can read engineering articles for free online.</p>