IEEE’s TryEngineering OnCampus Program Expands to Seven Universities

IEEE is widening a hands-on pathway into engineering education

IEEE’s TryEngineering OnCampus program expanded from two universities to seven over the past year, a move that signals growing institutional interest in earlier, more practical engineering outreach. The program, administered by IEEE Educational Activities, brings high school students onto university campuses for applied exposure to subjects including artificial intelligence, robotics, circuit design and the internet of things.

That may sound modest beside major research announcements or industrial launches, but the expansion matters because engineering talent pipelines are built well before students choose a degree. Programs that place teenagers in real academic settings, with visible links between theory and application, can influence who decides that engineering is accessible, relevant and worth pursuing.

From pilot scale to broader footprint

The supplied source text makes one fact clear: TryEngineering OnCampus has grown materially, moving from two universities to seven. That kind of increase suggests the initiative is shifting out of proof-of-concept territory and into a more repeatable model. Expansion alone does not prove impact, but it does indicate that IEEE and participating institutions see enough value to replicate the format.

The article excerpt describes the program as part of TryEngineering and notes that it is held at university sites. One example included in the supplied text is an event at Majan University College in Oman, where students explored circuit design concepts and learned about internet-of-things applications.

Those details show the program is not limited to passive career talks. It appears to emphasize direct engagement with technical material in an academic environment, which is a stronger intervention than generic STEM messaging.

Why exposure matters in engineering

Engineering recruitment often struggles with an old problem: many students are asked to commit to the field before they have seen what engineers actually do. That can narrow participation, especially for students without family or school networks that routinely open doors into technical careers.

A campus-based model helps address that gap in several ways. First, it lets students encounter engineering as a lived practice rather than an abstract school subject. Second, it gives universities a chance to present themselves as reachable destinations. Third, it shows how contemporary topics such as AI and robotics connect to foundational ideas like circuits, systems and sensing.

The source text also points toward breadth. AI, robotics, circuit design and IoT are not interchangeable subjects, and presenting them together reflects how engineering education is evolving. Students entering the field now are less likely to stay confined within a single hardware or software lane. Programs that mirror that reality may do a better job of attracting the next generation.

Scaling outreach is not the same as solving access, but it is a start

It would be a mistake to overstate what one outreach program can do. Expansion from two to seven universities does not by itself resolve structural issues in engineering education, including uneven school preparation, cost barriers or demographic imbalances in participation. The supplied source text does not offer outcome data on enrollment, persistence or long-term career trajectories, so those claims cannot be made here.

Still, there is a difference between symbolic outreach and operational outreach. Once a program is running across multiple campuses, it becomes easier to standardize materials, train facilitators, refine formats and compare what works in different settings. In that sense, scale can be an innovation in itself, not because it guarantees success, but because it creates the conditions to learn systematically.

That is especially relevant when the engineering sector is under pressure to replenish talent in fields that increasingly overlap. AI depends on hardware, embedded systems depend on software, and modern infrastructure depends on both. Exposure programs that reflect those connections may help students see engineering less as a narrow silo and more as a set of tools for working on real systems.

What the expansion signals

The growth of TryEngineering OnCampus suggests that professional societies still play a practical role in shaping who enters technical fields. IEEE is not only a publisher and standards body; through educational programs, it is also operating as a connector between schools, universities and industry-facing disciplines.

If the expansion continues, the more important question will be whether the program can demonstrate durable outcomes, particularly for students who might otherwise have limited contact with engineering pathways. For now, the development is best understood as an infrastructure story: a recognized technical organization is building a wider bridge between secondary education and university engineering environments.

• IEEE’s TryEngineering OnCampus program expanded from two universities to seven.
• The initiative gives high school students hands-on exposure to AI, robotics, circuit design and IoT.
• An example in the supplied source text showed students exploring circuits and IoT applications at Majan University College in Oman.
• The expansion suggests broader institutional support for early engineering outreach, though outcome data was not provided.

In an era defined by talent shortages, interdisciplinary technology and growing demand for technical literacy, that kind of bridge-building may prove more important than it first appears.

This article is based on reporting by IEEE Spectrum. Read the original article.