What Is Outreach Council?

An outreach council is an organizational body within a professional or technical association that coordinates programs designed to extend the organization's mission to broader communities beyond its current membership. In the context of IEEE, the Outreach Council and its associated bodies oversee pre-university education, public awareness campaigns, and volunteer-led STEM engagement activities that introduce engineering and technology concepts to students at every level from elementary school through secondary education. The goal is to build interest in engineering careers among populations that may not otherwise encounter technical mentorship, with particular attention to underserved communities and underrepresented demographic groups.

IEEE's outreach activities draw on the resources of the world's largest professional engineering society, channeling expertise from over 400,000 active members into structured programs that deliver engineering content in classroom, after-school, and community settings. The organizational infrastructure supporting outreach connects national IEEE entities with regional sections and local chapter volunteers who implement programs on the ground.

STEM Education Programs

The primary programmatic vehicle for IEEE pre-university outreach is TryEngineering, a platform launched in partnership with IBM and the New York Hall of Science in 2006 and subsequently sustained by IEEE. TryEngineering offers over 130 hands-on engineering lesson plans aligned to national curriculum standards, covering topics from semiconductors and artificial intelligence to ocean engineering and sustainable energy systems. Lessons are designed so that teachers and IEEE volunteers with no specialized curriculum training can deliver them effectively, using materials that are low-cost and widely available. The platform serves educators and students in more than 100 countries and provides supplementary resources including career profiles, interactive games, and virtual learning modules.

Volunteer and Grant Programs

IEEE outreach is executed primarily through volunteer activity organized through regional sections and technical society chapters. The IEEE TryEngineering STEM Grant Program, launched in 2021 with support from the IEEE Foundation, provides financial support to volunteers who develop new STEM activities or scale existing programs. Since its inception the program has distributed over $176,000 to more than 144 projects worldwide, engaging over 19,000 students and supported by more than 1,000 IEEE volunteers. Grant recipients have conducted programs across nine IEEE geographic regions, with significant activity in countries including Indonesia, India, Kenya, Tunisia, and Malaysia. A companion initiative, TryEngineering Together, pairs IEEE volunteers with students in grades 3 through 5 in under-resourced schools through an eMentoring format developed in collaboration with Cricket Media.

Community and Pre-University Engagement

Beyond classroom curricula, IEEE outreach extends to summer programs and competitions that provide deeper engineering exposure. The TryEngineering Summer Institute offers a two-week residential experience for students in grades 8 through 12, providing hands-on project work and direct engagement with engineering professionals. IEEE student branches at universities contribute to outreach by hosting demonstrations and workshops at local schools. The broader outreach function also includes public communication activities that explain the societal relevance of IEEE standards and technologies to non-specialist audiences. A paper examining STEM education outreach through IEEE pre-university programs analyzed the organizational structure connecting IEEE volunteers to K-12 communities and identified volunteer engagement as the key scaling factor for program reach.

Applications

IEEE Outreach Council activities connect to broader goals across several domains, including:

• Workforce development in engineering and technology fields
• STEM diversity and inclusion initiatives targeting underrepresented groups
• International capacity building in technology education
• Public understanding of IEEE standards and engineering contributions
• Collaboration with schools, government agencies, and industry sponsors