EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Students Faculty & Staff Community partners EPICS - What is it? Working together to make a difference

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Goals Design and implement engineering solutions to real problems Develop teamwork & communication skills Gain project planning & leadership experience Develop customer-awareness Gain awareness of ethical, economic, & legal issues Foster community involvement

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Organization Large-team experience: teams of students Vertically-integrated teams: freshmen+sophomores+juniors+seniors+ graduate students Long-term design experience: academic credit throughout the student’s career

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Organization (cont.) Partnerships with local community organizations: together, the students and community partner identify engineering problems faced by the agency Multidisciplinary projects: BME, ME, IE, ECE, ChE, MS&E, Business, EMA, Art, CS, and others Realistic Experience define-design-build-test-deploy-support

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Course Structure Common meeting time for all teams (Wed. 4:30-7:30 p.m.) Faculty advisor for each team 1-3 credits/semester May register for up to 7 semesters May fulfill technical elective or senior design requirements

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Current Projects

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Movement Disabilities Students are working with the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine to improve page turners for quadriplegic patients Advisor : Prof. Frank Fronczak, ME

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Voice Improvement Students are working with the Department of Communicative Disorders to design a portable device that monitors the voice loudness of speech impaired patients by using a throat microphone Advisor: Prof. Willis Tompkins, BME

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Biofeedback / Stress Management Students are working with the Department of Medicine to design a device for measuring brain waves and providing feedback during meditation Advisor: Prof. John Webster, BME

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Shared Volunteer System Students are designing an information management system for the Morgridge Center, RSVP and United Way’s Volunteer System Advisors: Prof. Fred Bradley, MS&E Leah Newman, IE

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Coordinating Leadership Opportunities Students are collaborating with the Student Organization Office to develop a web-based information management system Advisors: Prof. Fred Bradley, MS&E Leah Newman, IE

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Campus Sustainability Students are working with the Sustainability Forum and Center for Sustainability to design systems to educate the public about material flows and human activity to contribute to the quality of life Advisors: Prof. Fred Bradley, MS&E Leah Newman, IE

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Homelessness Prevention Network Students are working with the Madison Homelessness Prevention Network to create an information management system for the Madison community service organizations Advisors: Prof. Fred Bradley, MS&E Leah Newman, IE

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Project Partners Community organizations: z Madison Community Development Block Grant Office, z Morgridge Center for Public Service, z Retired Senior and Volunteer Program, z United Way’s Volunteer Center Departments: z Rehabilitation Medicine, z Communicative Disorders, z Medicine

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Project Partners UW service and outreach: z Sustainability Forum z Environmental Management Center z Center for Sustainability and Global Environment z Student Organization Office z Leadership Institute and Office for Human Resource Development

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Role of Project Partners Project Partners Provide challenging, real projects Be involved throughout the project Evaluate prototypes; suggest improvements Use the final project Suggest further projects Demonstrate their mission to students Provide better service to the community

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Benefits to students Real-world problem solving Design Teamwork Communication skills Multidisciplinary experience Project management Leadership Professional responsibility Web site development Community involvement Information systems Creativity

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Improve current services and realize opportunities for new services via access to technology and expertise that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive Benefits to Community Partners Community Partners

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Status Started at Purdue in 1995 Started in Wisconsin in Fall teams - 70 students, 5 faculty advisors, 1 staff Support from NSF, Corporation for National Service

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Close partnerships Long-term commitment Institutional support The idea: making a difference The people: students, community partners, faculty, staff What makes EPICS work?

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service Student view Benefits of EPICS from a student’s point of view: “The issues worked on have real importance” “Real world customers/clients” “Cross functional: work with business, marketing, other engineering majors, design majors” “Project management: we don’t just answer to a professor, real people are counting on us” “Build relationships and learn from other students and clients”

EPICS Engineering Projects in Community Service CONTACT INFORMATION John Webster, Director Phone: Web Site URL