In Macedonia, winter weather can trap a heavy layer of smog over the valley in which the capital, Skopje, is located. As a result, measurements of air pollution have revealed dangerous levels of ultra tiny particulate matter linked to a range of diseases. Through Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS in IEEE), a group of students set about raising awareness among young people. The group built custom sensing units and placed them in schools. The units collected information about particulate matter in the air, as well as temperature and humidity, sending the information to servers every five minutes.

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In Kampung Kendaie, a border community that relied entirely on the conventional utility grid, an IEEE team supported by IEEE Tech4Good installed a hybrid solar-powered hydroponic farming system. The project paired solar panels, an inverter and battery storage with a smart-grid controller that optimized how the energy is used. The system's 600 planting holes serve about 30 households, roughly 120 people, with a deliberate focus on women's skills, decision-making and income. Participants left with working knowledge of both solar power and pesticide-free farming that uses far less water.

What began as a family beekeeping project has grown the Rural Development Organization, a vocational enterprise powered by IEEE Smart Village, which funds equipment and technical support. Honey revenue is reinvested into the community — including into solar lighting and infrastructure — and the training center now teaches trades from masonry and hospitality to solar technology. It's a grassroots model: not a single power plant, but a self-sustaining enterprise that folds clean energy into how a rural community earns, learns and keeps the lights on.

How IEEE Humanitarian Projects Use Volunteers to Tackle Local Needs

July 30, 2026

Every day, around the world, IEEE members and volunteers dedicate their time and expertise to problems that rarely make headlines. This year’s IEEE Social Impact Report gathers that work under a fitting theme: shaping the future through technology and service. The initiatives below are a small selection — sensors built to raise awareness about air pollution, a community trained to run its own solar farm, honey sales that pay for the next stretch of wiring.

The solutions, just a small sample of the work IEEE supports every year, are as different as the communities that produced them. Each reflects the same idea: these are local challenges, best understood by the people living closest to them. Through channels like IEEE Tech4Good, EPICS in IEEE and IEEE Smart Village, members are turning that local knowledge into lasting change — and giving back to their communities in the process.