IEEE Launches 40 New Student Engineering Projects That Help Communities

IEEE — a global organization of electrical and electronics engineers — has approved 40 new projects for 2025. These projects pair university students with communities that need engineering help, according to an announcement on the EPICS in IEEE website published in January 2026. The program is growing, and it is now supporting a new type of work: artificial intelligence projects.

New Leadership and Growth

Dr. Pedro Wightman became the leader of EPICS in IEEE in 2025, as announced in January 2025. His arrival coincided with the program's expansion. The 40 newly funded projects, announced about a year later, confirm that growth.

The basic idea is straightforward: students work on real problems alongside experienced engineers, and communities get solutions they might not otherwise afford. The students gain practical experience. The communities receive working technology and engineering support. This is not a new concept — schools have done service-learning for decades — but having the support of a large professional organization like IEEE gives it staying power.

What These 40 Projects Are Doing

The January 2026 announcement did not list all 40 projects in detail — a breakdown that would have been helpful to understand where the work is happening and what kinds of problems are being tackled. What we know is that these projects went through a formal approval process and received funding.

Money matters. Funding pays for equipment, software, and the cost of connecting student teams with community partners. It also covers travel grants so students can present their work at engineering conferences. The program offers up to $1,000 per student to attend and present. For students from lower-income schools or countries, this can be the difference between sharing their work with the profession or not.

A New Focus: Artificial Intelligence Projects

Starting in 2025, EPICS in IEEE is formally funding projects that use artificial intelligence, according to documentation published in April 2026. The details of how AI projects will be judged or supported are not yet spelled out in public materials. But the direction is clear: the program is expanding into AI.

This shift raises real questions worth thinking about. Past EPICS projects have typically focused on concrete problems — building water-quality sensors, improving accessibility, monitoring the environment. Students can build these things and hand them over, and they work. AI is different. Once a student team builds an AI system, someone has to maintain it. The community partner needs to understand how the AI works and what it might get wrong. Data has to come from somewhere safe and legal. These challenges are not impossible, but they require different kinds of planning than a traditional engineering project.

The best way to know if this is working well will be to watch the program's yearly reports. A 2025 annual report is available online. Over time, these reports should tell us whether AI projects are succeeding at the same rate as other kinds of projects.

Recognition and Ways to Get Involved

The program does more than just fund projects. It also recognizes and honors students who do excellent work through contributor awards. Combined with travel funding and the chance to present at conferences, this creates a clear path: build something useful, share it with professionals in the field, and get recognized for it. For students early in their careers, that kind of recognition matters.

The program also offers webinars and workshops to help new students and institutions understand how to join in.

Why This Matters

Over the years, the programs that last are the ones that work well for both sides. EPICS in IEEE tries to do that — it gives students real engineering experience while creating value for communities that need technical help but cannot pay for it. Think of it as similar to how open-source software projects work: volunteers build software, they build their own skills and reputation, and the software becomes useful to everyone.

Whether this balance holds as the program grows, especially with the addition of AI projects, is a question the next few years will answer. The annual reports will be the clearest way to see how well things are working.

Right now, if you are a student interested in engineering that matters, or if you represent a community that needs technical help, the EPICS in IEEE public information is a good place to start learning what is available.