IEEE New Initiative -EPICS High School

Kapil R. Dandekar, Ph.D.Saurabh Sinha, Ph.D.15/Nov/2008 New Brunswick,

IEEE Meeting Series

Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS)

EPICS (http://epics.ecn.purdue.edu/) Organizes University and high-school

students to work on engineering-related projects for local area non-profit organizations

Purpose of IEEE New Initiative is to bring EPICS-High School to IEEE

EPICS-High: Motivation and Vision

Recruitment and retention of students, particularly women and under-represented minority students, to engineering programs

Provides context to students who don’t know what engineering is Earlier access to real engineering problems Mentoring by undergraduates or local area professionals

Currently approximately 20 high schools in Indiana, Massachusetts, California, New York, and Michigan

Seek to expand to other school districts, but prefer to view EPICS High as a “movement” with adaptive, flexible implementation rather than rigidly as “just another STEM program”

EPICS-High: Current effort More information at: http://epics-high.ecn.purdue.edu/

Example project (Bedford North Lawrence High School in Indiana) “Swallowing Monitoring Device” - Necklace sensitive to swallowing muscle

motion to address the problem of monitoring excess saliva production for people who can’t remember to swallow.

Team was successful in several competitions and have filed a patent on their project

Dandekar attended an EPICS High School Planning meeting as a representative of IEEE-EAB

Goal was to determine how IEEE could support EPICS-High New Initiative grant funding proposed and accepted to use IEEE student

branches in Philadelphia Section and South Africa Section to mentor EPICS-high teams

Philadelphia Section EPICS High IEEE Pilot Program

EPICS Projects Philadelphia Clean Air Council

Development of an air quality sensor network for monitoring residential areas in South Philadelphia

Philadelphia Urban Farms Development of a soil quality sensor network for

monitoring urban farms in Philadelphia

Vertical Integration of undergraduate seniors, undergraduate freshman, and high school students

Senior undergraduates and community partners identified Freshman undergraduate and high school students currently being

recruited

South Africa Section EPICS High Pilot Program

Project approval: June 2008 Money transferred to SA Section: Oct. 2008

Who’s involved? IEEE Student Branch: University of Pretoria IEEE Student Branch: University of Cape Town

University of Pretoria Community-Based Project

This project-orientated module is a form of applied learning which is directed at specific community needs and is integrated into all undergraduate academic programmes offered by the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology.

University of Cape Town

Implementation at Univ. of Pretoria (1)Vehicle: Community-Based Project

Main objectives: (1) The execution of a community related project aimed at achieving a beneficial

impact on a chosen section of society, preferably but not exclusively, by engagement with a section of society which is different from the student’s own social background.

(2) The development of an awareness of personal, social and cultural values, an attitude to be of service, and an understanding of social issues, for the purpose of being a responsible professional.

(3) The development of important multidisciplinary and life skills, such as communication, interpersonal and leadership skills.

Assessment in the module includes all or most of the following components: evaluation and approval of the project proposal, assessment of oral and/or written progress reports, peer assessment in the event of team projects, written report-back by those at which the project was aimed at, final assessment on grounds of the submission of a portfolio, and a written report.

Implementation at Univ. of Pretoria (2)Project Example (1): Grinder

Implementation at Univ. of Pretoria (3)Project Example (2): Jungle Gym

Road-Ahead for IEEE EPICS-High in South Africa

Formalize relationship between IEEE South Africa Section, IEEE Student Branch (Univ. of Pretoria) and Community Based Project Module, Univ. of Pretoria

Mapping of process at Univ. of Cape Town

Mapping of process at schools?

Challenges Different academic structures between Universities Distance between Pretoria and Cape Town Academic year differences to PA Section