The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of Boumerdes University, formerly called the National Institute of Electricity and Electronics, INELEC, came into existence as a result of an agreement signed between the National Company for Manufacture and Assembly of Electrical and Electronic Equipment, SONELEC, and Education Development Center, EDC, Newton, Mass., USA. The agreement was signed as early as March 1976, according to the program set forth in the planning study conducted for SONATRACH in March 1974.

The main objective assigned to the agreement was the creation of an adapted version of an American type higher educational institution to serve as a technological pole offering the state of the art in the various fields of Electrical Engineering. This led to a set of goals assigned to the newly created institution :

• Training engineers and technicians to serve the emerging national electronic industry.
• Training and updating continuously the know-how of field engineers and technicians already working in industry.
• Developing applied research and graduate education in relation with industry.
• Developing a good documentation/library center to support research and pedagogical activities.

To meet these requirements, it was necessary to settle for an adapted version of a typical American Higher Educational Institution having the following characteristics:

• Selection of English as the language of education.
• Selection of a curriculum insuring an optimal balance between theoretical and experimental work.
• Use of a small ratio of students to teachers.
• Involvement of students and faculty staff in the achievement of training objectives.
• Integration of industrial training periods in the curriculum.
• Development of close ties with industry through the direct involvement of faculty members and students.
• Creation of sound pedagogical management structures (curriculum, library, equipment, committees, etc.
• Creation of a sound set of support services with a special emphasis on the library / doc center, the computer center, the audiovisual centers, etc.).

The implementation of such an important project could not be achieved relying only on local resources. To this end, a consortium of American universities and some major industrial institutions were created to provide the required resources. Some of the institutions forming the consortium:
• Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio.
• Oklahoma State University, Still Water, Oklahoma.
• Stevens Institute of Technology.
• University of Houston, Houston, Texas.
• University of Missouri-Rolla, Rolla, Missouri.
• University of Wisconsin Stout, Menomonie, Wisconsin.
• Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston, Massachusetts.
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard, Massachusetts.
• Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.
• GTE Sylvania.
• Harris Corporation.
• Raytheon Service Company.

At the beginning, all faculty members and staff were American nationals from institutions of the consortium; At the same time, a program for training Algerian faculty members was under way.

By the end of 1989 a graduate program in Applied Electronics and Electronic Systems Engineering was initiated for of a Master (Doctorat) Degree.

In 1998, INELEC ceased to exist as such and became an Electrical Engineering Department within the Faculty of Engineering of Boumerdes University with more than 600 students currently enrolled. Despite this change, the new Department still works as an American type of higher educational institution, and English is still the education language.

Under Executive Decree No. 10-15 of January 12th, 2010, the DGEE was promoted to an Institute within the University of Boumerdes and was referred to as Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (Institut de Génie Electrique et Electronique).