About AIPT

In 1948, two men and the Board of Trustees at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) sought ways in which the institute could join the international cooperative undertaking to rebuild war-torn Europe. As a result of their efforts, they formed the U.S. chapter of the newly created IAESTE (International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience).

Two years later, their first exchange programs occurred when they sent 37 American students to apply their engineering skills in jobs abroad, while American employers welcomed 30 foreign trainees to complete short-term training assignments in the United States. By 1980, the organization had grown beyond the technical fields and established professional programs, becoming AIPT (Association for International Practical Training).

Pictured is Dr. Karl Compton, President of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1930-1948) who, along with Earl Eames (a graduating chemical engineering student at MIT) and the MIT Board of Trustees, was instrumental in creating the organization now known as AIPT.