Since its founding in 1995 at Purdue College, the Engineering Initiatives in Neighborhood Service (EPICS) in IEEE program has been offering nonprofit organizations with expertise to enhance and ship providers to their neighborhood whereas broadening undergraduate EE college students’ hands-on experiences.
In 2009 the EPICS program was dropped at IEEE by Moshe Kam, an IEEE Fellow and the 2005–2007 vp of IEEE Academic Actions; Senior Member Kapil Dandekar; and Fellow Saurabh Sinha. Collectively they based EPICS in IEEE as an IEEE Academic Actions program. Funding for this system got here from a seed grant by way of the IEEE New Initiatives Committee.
This yr this system marks its fifteenth anniversary.
“After we created EPICS in IEEE,” Dandekar says, “we have been very desperate to align the attitude of service-learning from the EPICS program at Purdue with IEEE’s mission to foster technological innovation for the good thing about humanity.
“I’m notably happy with the persevering with stakeholder engagement by engineers with humanitarian organizations in shaping initiatives. I firmly consider that this results in a greater studying expertise for the engineering college students and a extra helpful consequence for the humanitarian accomplice group.”
In the course of the previous 15 years, greater than 219 initiatives in 34 nations have been accomplished, involving greater than 11,000 college students in service-learning initiatives. Of these college students, 47 p.c recognized as feminine.
“EPICS in IEEE has performed a key function in increasing the worldwide attain of initiatives by which engineering college students convey their studying and abilities to bear in addressing challenges confronted by their native communities,” says Leah Jamieson, 2007 IEEE president and a cofounder of EPICS at Purdue, which is in West Lafayette, Ind. “By tackling neighborhood wants within the areas of entry and talents, training and outreach, human providers, and the setting, college students collaborating in EPICS in IEEE are gaining firsthand expertise in marrying engineering and neighborhood. Challenge by venture, they’re contributing to IEEE’s purpose of advancing expertise for the good thing about humanity.”
A concentrate on studying outcomes
This system differs from different humanitarian efforts inside IEEE due to its concentrate on engineering-student studying outcomes in addition to the advantages to the native communities.
“EPICS in IEEE is an ideal strategy to merge engineering training and engagement,” Sinha says. “It gives a possibility for universities to attach their college students’ instructional experiences to help the U.N. sustainable improvement objectives.
“I’ve had the privilege of seeing EPICS in IEEE in lots of nations,” he provides, “and loved the globalizing profit that this system dropped at all events concerned.”
The initiatives embrace a recycling middle to cut back plastic waste at Ankole Institute, in southwestern Uganda. The middle was constructed by college students from Kyambogo College of Kampala, Uganda.
A crew of scholars from the College of Florida, in Gainesville, designed a laptop mouse for these whose palms or arms have an abnormality, so they might extra simply play video games.
Arizona State College college students created a solar-powered air filtration system for nomadic individuals in Mongolia.
“By tackling neighborhood wants within the areas of entry and talents, training and outreach, human providers, and the setting, college students collaborating in EPICS in IEEE are gaining firsthand expertise in marrying engineering and neighborhood.” —Leah Jamieson, 2007 IEEE president and cofounder of EPICS at Purdue.
In Panama, engineering college students from Universidad Tecnológica de Panama’s electrical engineering and laptop science departments used their tech know-how to make the college’s campus extra accessible for individuals with disabilities. They employed a 3D printer to make indicators in braille, they constructed a wheelchair, they usually automated the varsity’s doorways to enhance entry.
In follow-up surveys about their EPICS in IEEE participation, college students have shared that it was in contrast to something they did within the classroom.
“This expertise has been a profound studying alternative,” says Leonardo Vergara, a techniques engineering scholar at Universidad del Norte, Barranquilla, in Colombia.
“My collaboration and communication abilities have additionally been significantly enhanced,” Vergara provides. “It has reaffirmed my perception in expertise’s energy to create constructive social impression and ignited a way of social accountability.”
Continued development
To take this system to the subsequent degree, EPICS in IEEE in 2014 created a fund by way of the IEEE Basis to assist donors help this system. The Basis is IEEE’s philanthropic accomplice.
EPICS in IEEE continues to accomplice with EPICS Purdue and participates in its College Consortium, a community of establishments that strives to share concepts and help improvement for service-learning applications.
“Over the previous 15 years, the time period service studying has been evolving and is commonly now known as community-engaged studying,” says IEEE Member Stephanie Gillespie, chair of EPICS in IEEE. “This up to date terminology higher displays the numerous function the neighborhood has within the studying course of. EPICS in IEEE requires important community-partner engagement alongside the IEEE and scholar involvement as a result of this partnership with a neighborhood group is extra prone to result in long-term venture help and upkeep as soon as deployed right into a neighborhood.
“As the sector of service studying and community-engaged studying evolves, so does EPICS in IEEE. We’re excited to rejoice how far EPICS in IEEE has are available in 15 years.”
Prior to now two years, the committee has observed elevated curiosity in service studying, reviewing 190 proposals in 2023, in contrast with 77 the yr earlier than. The committee accepted 39 initiatives final yr, up from 23 in 2022.
This system has streamlined its processes and elevated its advertising and marketing efforts. It now gives extra assets to assist make sure the success of the initiatives. As well as, EPICS volunteers have strengthened partnerships with IEEE affinity teams, technical societies, and areas and sections to boost consciousness of this system amongst scholar and IEEE members.
Celebratory occasions
EPICS in IEEE is commemorating its fifteenth anniversary with quite a few occasions. The celebration kicked off throughout the IEEE Rising Stars convention, held from 5 to 7 January in Las Vegas. On the convention, program volunteers and workers members gave displays about its progress, and scholar groups showcased their prototypes.
Digital occasions are deliberate for this yr, in addition to tales posted on the EPICS in IEEE web site, highlighting previous and present initiatives.
