Eta Kappa Nu

Eta Kappa Nu (ΗΚΝ) is the international electrical and computer engineering honor society of the IEEE, founded in October 1904 by Maurice L. Carr at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. The organization currently has around 200 student chapters and several thousand members. Effective 1 September 2010, formerly-independent HKN became an organizational unit of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), making membership in the IEEE a requirement for membership in HKN. Membership in HKN thus became equivalent to an "honor student" member category of IEEE membership. Originally headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, as a result of the merger its headquarters are now located at the IEEE Operations Center in Piscataway, New Jersey.

The Greek letters ΗΚΝ were chosen from the first, fourth, and last letter of the Greek word for amber or electron: ΗΛΕΚΤΡΟΝ. In 1927, the HKN Shield and coat-of-arms were adopted (see right). The emblem of HKN (incorporated at the top of the Shield) is the Wheatstone bridge.

HKN was originally established for electrical engineering students, but expanded to include computer engineering in 2000. Membership in the local chapter is offered to the top 20% of sophomores, top 25% of juniors and top 33% of seniors at each college. Some colleges, such as the University of Texas at Arlington, only admit juniors and seniors.

Since 1992 Eta Kappa Nu has celebrated the exemplary engineer Vladimir Karapetoff by dispensing the Vladimir Karapetoff Outstanding Technical Achievement Award to worthy engineers.

In 2004, the organization received 501(c)(3) non-profit status from the IRS.

The Bridge, the official magazine of HKN, is published quarterly yearly and provides timely articles of interest covering ECE and HKN news to professional and student members.