South Wales Institute of Engineers was founded in 1857 as a learned society for engineers and scientists in the area, arranging lectures and publishing the Proceedings of the South Wales Institute of Engineers. William Menelaus founded the organisation at a meeting at the Castle Hotel, Merthyr, and became its first president. In 2007, the body was re-constituted as South Wales Institute of Engineers Educational Trust 2007 (SWIEET2007).