A New IEEE STEM Book Series for Tweens from TryEngineering

We talk a lot about the talent gap in tech. Usually, that conversation focuses on senior engineers who can't ship fast enough or the lack of specialized AI talent. But if you look ten years down the line, the real bottleneck isn't going to be a lack of people who know how to use tools. It will be a lack of people who understand how the tools actually work under the hood. We are raising a generation of digital natives who are ironically becoming less literate in the hardware and logic that governs their lives.

IEEE TryEngineering recently launched a book series targeting the 8 to 12-year-old demographic. The series, titled Tomorrow’s Technology With TryEngineering, is a partnership with Lerner Publishing Group. It covers the heavy hitters: Artificial Intelligence, Semiconductors, Signal Power, Electric Vehicles, Ocean Engineering, and Communication Tech. As a founder, I see this as a necessary course correction for how we introduce STEM to kids.

Moving Beyond the Screen

For the last decade, the push for kids in tech has been almost exclusively about "learning to code." While that is valuable, it has created a skewed perspective. We have a lot of kids who can drag and drop blocks in Scratch, but very few who understand what a semiconductor is or how a signal travels through a wireless network. If everyone is a software layer builder and no one knows how the physical layer works, we are building our future on a foundation we don't control.

The IEEE series seems to recognize this. By focusing on semiconductors and signal processing, they are pointing young minds toward the hardest problems we currently face. It is easy to take for granted that a smartphone just works. It is much harder to explain the physics of insulators and conductors or how a microchip is manufactured. For a builder, understanding the constraints of the hardware is what allows you to write better software. Teaching that to a ten-year-old is a smart long-term play.

The AI Literacy Problem

The AI book in this series is particularly interesting because it doesn't just hype up the magic of LLMs. It reportedly digs into bias, deepfakes, and hallucinations. This is the skeptical, founder-first perspective we need. We shouldn't be teaching kids that AI is a crystal ball; we should be teaching them that it is a statistical engine with specific failure points.

When a kid understands that AI is a system that can be biased based on its training data, they stop being a passive consumer and start being a critical evaluator. That is the first step toward becoming a founder. Founders don't look at new tech and say "wow." They look at it and ask, "Where is this broken, and how can I fix it?"

Why Semiconductors and Signal Power Matter

It is rare to see books for tweens covering signal processing. It isn't a "sexy" topic like robotics or game design. However, signal power is the hidden wave behind everything. Whether it is filtering background noise for a medical device or ensuring a 6G network stays stable, this is the grunt work of the modern world. By introducing this to kids, IEEE is essentially saying that the invisible infrastructure is just as important as the shiny interface.

The same goes for semiconductors. We’ve seen over the last few years how fragile the global supply chain for chips is. The next generation of engineers needs to be interested in the building blocks of modern electronics, not just the apps that run on them. If we can get a middle-schooler interested in how a microchip is etched, we are solving the talent crisis of the 2030s today.

The Founder Perspective: Start Early, Be Honest

As builders, we often get caught up in the "now." We want the next update, the next seed round, the next feature release. But true innovation is a multi-generational relay race. If we don't give the next runners the right context, they won't know which way to run. The IEEE series is a bridge between the high-level concepts and the messy reality of engineering.

What I like about this approach is the focus on design challenges. Engineering isn't about memorizing facts; it is about solving problems under constraints. By giving kids real-world examples—like how to protect marine environments or how to make electric vehicles more efficient—you are teaching them the mental framework of a creator.

Engineering isn't just about what you can build; it's about understanding the limits of the physical world so you can push past them.

The Takeaway for Builders

If you have kids, or if you mentor young people, stop just pushing them toward "coding." Start pushing them toward systems thinking. The IEEE series is a good resource because it treats kids like they are capable of understanding complex systems. It doesn't talk down to them; it invites them into the room where the real work happens.

We need more people who understand the spectrum, the signal, and the silicon. The software is the easy part. The hard stuff is where the value is created. It is encouraging to see an institution like IEEE doubling down on the fundamentals for the next generation. It makes me slightly less skeptical about the future of our workforce.

Read the original at IEEE Spectrum →