After a successful Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) pilot program that ran from March – June 2018, and a much acclaimed showcase at the American Center in June 2018, BUILD-IT strategic partners USAID, Dow Vietnam, and ASU will offer the Dow Vietnam STEM Program: Engineering Projects in Community Service for a second round, starting in September and running through January 2019.
EPICS is an international award-winning, designed-based, service-learning program founded at Purdue University in 1995. During EPICS student teams will partner with a community organization to design, build, and deploy systems to solve engineering-based problems. The program guides student teams through processes of design innovation, team management, testing, and presenting in technical English. EPICS projects span the spectrum - finding solutions to challenges in human health care, energy, sustainability, and more.
Faculty at BUILD-IT partner universities will lead five student teams through 12 weeks of EPICS curriculum. Lessons will begin in early September and go until the showcase at the American Center in early January.
EPICS student teams are encouraged to partner with community organizations that are serving their communities. By partnering with these organizations, students can learn to empathize with the community and understand the needs their projects aim to benefit. Through EPICS, community organizations gain valuable help from students that might otherwise be impossible to afford, furthering their impact.
The final EPICS showcase will provide students with real-world experience communicating their ideas, meeting deadlines, prototyping an innovation, writing a business plan and presenting their solution to the world. EPICS is a challenging program that builds both technical and soft skills and prepares students for a competitive work environment. Excitement is high -- three student projects will each be awarded a $500 USD grand prize to continue improving their innovation.
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