IEEE New Initiative -EPICS High School

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IEEE New Initiative -EPICS High School
Kapil R. Dandekar, Ph.D. Saurabh Sinha, Ph.D.
15/Nov/2008 New Brunswick, IEEE Meeting Series
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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

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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 dont 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

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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 cant 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

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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

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South Africa Section EPICS High Pilot Program

• Project approval June 2008
• Money transferred to SA Section Oct. 2008
• Whos 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

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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 students 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.

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Implementation at Univ. of Pretoria (2)Project
Example (1) Grinder
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Implementation at Univ. of Pretoria (3)Project
Example (2) Jungle Gym
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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