Creation and Evaluation of the National Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) Program

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9903195CoyleThe Engineering Projects in community Service (EPICS) Program is unique and meets current educational and societal needs is confirmed by its selection for (1) the ASEE's 1997 Chester F. Carlson Award for Innovation in Engineering Education, and (2) finalist in the 1998 Boeing Outstanding Educator Award Competition. Evidence of the compelling nature of EPICS includes (1) participation in EPICS at Purdue by the Schools of Civil, Electrical and Computer, and Mechanical Engineering and the School of Liberal Arts, and (2) the creation within the last year of EPICS Programs at Notre Dame and Iowa State.In EPICS, teams of 10 to 15 engineering undergraduates earn academic credit for multi-year projects that solve challenging technology-based problems for local community organizations. Each EPICS project team is a mix of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, ard seniors, and each student may participate on a team for up to seven semesters. This structure makes a long-term, real-world, define-design-build-test-deploy--support experience an integral part of the student's entire academic career. It also provides the continuity required to complete large-scale, multidisciplinary projects.EPICS provides the real-life context, the time, and the personal mentoring by faculty necessary for students to: execute the design process from initial discussions with a customer through delivery of a functioning system for daily use by the customer; learn how to approach and solve challenging problems; learn how to write well and speak effectively; work as part of, and eventually lead, a team; apply knowledge gained in classes; identify and acquire knowledge not available in classes that is critical for technical progress on projects; determine and operate within legal and economic constraints; and learn the importance and role of other disciplines in solving complex problems. EPICS also enables students to develop first-hand knowledge of the role that engineering and technology can play in solving social problems.Proposed to extend the benefits of the EPICS Program from the local to the national level, thus achieving systemic reform of engineering- education include expansion and Dissemination of the EPICS Program. Purdue and Notre Dame will continue to expand and improve their EPICS Programs and to increase industrial participation. Georgia Tech and the University of Wisconsin-Madison will initiate EPICS programs.