ASME

ASME
Name	American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Formation	1880
Type	Professional association
Headquarters	New York City
Region served	International
Leader title	President

ASME

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers is a professional association and standards-developing organization focused on mechanical engineering, known for codes, publications, and conferences connecting practitioners from across United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, and India. It serves as a hub linking members who work at institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, General Electric, Siemens', and Boeing while interacting with organizations including National Institute of Standards and Technology, International Organization for Standardization, American National Standards Institute, European Committee for Standardization, and United Nations Industrial Development Organization. The society influences infrastructure projects like Hoover Dam, Panama Canal, Three Gorges Dam, Channel Tunnel, and Burj Khalifa through its standards and professional networks.

History

Founded in 1880 amid industrial expansion involving companies such as Westinghouse Electric Company, Edison Electric Light Company, Otis Elevator Company, Pullman Company, and Bethlehem Steel, the society emerged as engineers addressed steam boiler incidents tied to firms like Babcock & Wilcox and events comparable to the Great Chicago Fire. Early figures associated with the era included engineers from Cornell University, Pratt Institute, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Lehigh University, and Columbia University who sought collective action comparable to formations like American Society of Civil Engineers and Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Over decades the society expanded during periods marked by World War I, World War II, the Cold War, the Space Race, and the Information Age, collaborating with entities such as National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Department of Energy, Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories. Milestones included involvement in industrial standards parallel to efforts by American Petroleum Institute, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), and partnerships with international bodies like International Electrotechnical Commission and World Bank projects.

Organization and Governance

The governance structure resembles models used by American Bar Association, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Royal Society, Royal Academy of Engineering, and National Academy of Engineering, featuring a board of governors, committees, and regional sections in cities such as New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, London, and Tokyo. Leadership interacts with regulatory and funding institutions including U.S. Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, European Commission, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and World Health Organization while coordinating technical committees akin to those in International Organization for Standardization, American National Standards Institute, Underwriters Laboratories, and Det Norske Veritas. Membership categories mirror those of American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Society of Automotive Engineers, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, and Association for Computing Machinery, and the organization runs certification programs comparable to Project Management Institute and National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies.

Standards and Codes

The society is renowned for developing technical standards and codes comparable in influence to publications by International Organization for Standardization, American National Standards Institute, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, British Standards Institution, and European Committee for Standardization. Its codes affect sectors involving companies like Shell, ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, and TotalEnergies and projects including Yamal LNG, Kashagan Field, Gulf of Mexico oil fields, North Sea platforms, and urban infrastructure in Singapore. Standards committees coordinate with organizations such as Underwriters Laboratories, Det Norske Veritas, Lloyd's Register, American Petroleum Institute, and World Bank to address safety, materials, and design in power plants like Three Mile Island, Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, and in renewable projects such as Hornsea Project, Gansu Wind Farm, and Alta Wind Energy Center.

Publications and Conferences

The society publishes journals, conference proceedings, and books comparable to outlets from Nature Publishing Group, Science Magazine, IEEE Xplore, Springer Verlag, and Elsevier, and organizes conferences and symposia similar to Consumer Electronics Show, Hannover Messe, International Conference on Robotics and Automation, ASCO, and Society of Petroleum Engineers meetings. Its periodicals are cited alongside journals from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Applied Physics, Physical Review Letters, and Chemical Engineering Journal, and conferences draw presenters from MIT, Caltech, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, CERN, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Education and Professional Development

Education initiatives align with programs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon University, and Imperial College London offering continuing education, short courses, and distance learning similar to offerings by Coursera, edX, Udacity, Khan Academy, and LinkedIn Learning. Professional development partnerships involve accreditation and licensure bodies such as ABET, National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying, State licensure boards, Project Management Institute, and Chartered Institution of Mechanical Engineers to support pathways used by engineers working at General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Toyota, Tesla, Inc., and SpaceX.

Awards and Recognition

The society bestows awards and recognition comparable to honors such as the Nobel Prize, Fields Medal, Turing Award, National Medal of Technology and Innovation, and Royal Medal and collaborates with award-giving bodies like National Academy of Engineering, American Physical Society, Royal Society, IEEE Foundation, and American Chemical Society. Recipients have included engineers affiliated with Bell Labs, IBM, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pratt & Whitney, and Rolls-Royce whose achievements intersect with projects like Apollo program, Mars Rover, Hubble Space Telescope, International Space Station, and James Webb Space Telescope.

Category:Professional associations