For some electronics experts, Mohamed’s windfall is unfair to students that actually invent things. Bryan Bergeron, an author of electronics books and editor in chief of the magazine Nuts & Volts, said that Mohamed’s project “would be ‘cute’ for someone age 7. But even then, not ‘inventive.’”

“The problem with giving this 14-year-old—whom I have nothing against; I really know very little of him—kudos for being inventive, is that there are tens of thousands of 11-year-olds out there actually designing circuits, building them from scratch and ‘innovating,’” Bergeron told The Daily Beast.

Bergeron said Mohamed’s special treatment was “political” and in reaction to the public backlash over the teen’s arrest, an idea that will probably not be disputed by anyone following the story—Mohamed has received more attention than other young inventors because he was put in cuffs and other young inventors were not.

Bergeron continues, “This treatment does a big disservice to the tens of thousands of pre-teens out there doing REAL innovative things with electronics and technology.”