EPICS
Engineering Projects in Community Service
EPICS - What is it?
Students
 Faculty & Staff
 Community partners

Working together to
make a difference
EPICS
Goals
Engineering Projects in Community Service
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
Organization
Engineering Projects in Community Service
Large-team experience:
teams of 10-15 students
 Vertically-integrated teams:
freshmen+sophomores+juniors+seniors+
graduate students
 Long-term design experience:
academic credit throughout the student’s
career

EPICS
Organization (cont.)
Engineering Projects in Community Service

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
Course Structure
Engineering Projects in Community Service
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
Movement Disabilities
Engineering Projects in Community Service

Students are working with
the Department of
Rehabilitation Medicine to
improve page turners for
quadriplegic patients

Advisor :
Prof. Frank Fronczak, ME
EPICS
Voice Improvement
Engineering Projects in Community Service

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
Biofeedback / Stress
Management
Engineering Projects in Community Service

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
Shared Volunteer System
Engineering Projects in Community Service

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
Coordinating Leadership
Opportunities
Engineering Projects in Community Service

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
Campus Sustainability
Engineering Projects in Community Service

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
Homelessness Prevention
Network
Engineering Projects in Community Service

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
Project Partners
Engineering Projects in Community Service

Community organizations:





Madison Community Development Block Grant Office,
Morgridge Center for Public Service,
Retired Senior and Volunteer Program,
United Way’s Volunteer Center
Departments:



Rehabilitation Medicine,
Communicative Disorders,
Medicine
EPICS
Project Partners
Engineering Projects in Community Service
 UW
service and outreach:
 Sustainability
Forum
 Environmental Management Center
 Center for Sustainability and Global
Environment
 Student Organization Office
 Leadership Institute and Office for Human
Resource Development
EPICS
Role of
Project Partners
Engineering Projects in Community Service
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
Benefits to
students
Engineering Projects in Community Service






Real-world problem
solving
Design
Teamwork
Communication skills
Multidisciplinary
experience
Project management






Leadership
Professional
responsibility
Web site
development
Community
involvement
Information systems
Creativity
EPICS
Benefits to
Community Partners
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
EPICS
Status
Engineering Projects in Community Service

Started at Purdue in 1995

Started in Wisconsin in Fall 2000

7 teams - 70 students, 5 faculty advisors, 1 staff

Support from NSF, Corporation for National
Service
EPICS
Engineering Projects in Community Service
What makes EPICS work?
Close partnerships
 Long-term commitment
 Institutional support
 The idea: making a
difference
 The people: students,
community partners,
faculty, staff

EPICS
Student view
Engineering Projects in Community Service

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: 608-263-1574
e-mail: webster@engr.wisc.edu
Web Site URL
http://epics.engr.wisc.edu