Changes

<span style="font-size:medium"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 17px">In order to respond to our Community Services needs and our undergraduate students future needs for solid expertise in their discipline, Purdue University has created&nbsp;</span>'''EPICS: Engineering Projects In Community Service.''' <span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 17px">EPICS is a unique program in which teams of undergraduates are designing, building, and deploying real systems to solve engineering-based problems for local community service and education organizations. EPICS was founded at Purdue University in Fall 1995.</span></span></span>

<span style="font-size:medium"><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica">The program begun in 1995 when their current Dean (Dr. Leah Jamieson) and Dr. Edward Coyle started EPICS. It has continued to expand to reach all majors on our campus. &nbsp;It was project teams from the concept and has continued that way. &nbsp;Each team has approximately 2-3 projects per team and is run by students. There is usually around 100 projects each year. A faculty instructor will oversee a division within EPICS. &nbsp;It has been replicated at approximately 21 other universities. &nbsp;</span></span>

<span style="font-size:medium"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">The Purpose of EPICS is to offer Community services at the same time that they improve their Undergraduate students skills.</span></span>

<span style="font-size:medium"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 17px">EPICS students gain long-term define-design-build-test-deploy-support experience, communication skills, experience on multidisciplinary teams, and leadership and project management skills. They gain an awareness of professional ethics, the role of the customer in engineering design, and the role that engineering can play in the community. Community organizations gain access to technology and expertise that would normally be prohibitively expensive, giving them the potential to improve their quality of service or to provide new services. In partnership with Purdue’s Discovery Park, the EPICS Entrepreneurship Initiative helps students and community partners explore entrepreneurship opportunities growing out of EPICS projects.</span></span></span>

<span style="font-size:medium">Each team has a multi-year partnership with a community service or education organization. Projects are in four broad areas: human services, access and abilities, education and outreach, and the environment. EPICS teams have delivered hundreds of projects to their community partners.</span>

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<li><span style="font-size:medium"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Gain design experience of real systems</span></span></li>

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[http://www.purdue.edu/epics http://www.purdue.edu/epics]

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dInAkncBx4g&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dInAkncBx4g&amp;feature=youtu.be]

<span style="font-size:medium"><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 17px">EPICS has received major awards from the Carnegie Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the American Society for Engineering Education, the IEEE Education Society, Campus Compact, the Corporate and Foundation Alliance, Purdue University, and the Governor and Legislature of Indiana. It was featured in the PBS series Communities Building Community. EPICS has been supported by over $5.1M in federal grants and over $5.5M in corporate and alumni gifts.</span></span></span>

==== Students ====

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The benefits of EPICS for a university are numerous. Students are more successful, it encourages retention, and the program is cost effective. Purdue in particular uses corporate sponsors to cover fees and provides good PR for the university. EPICS overall sees encouraging partnerships with the community and universities.

==== Community ====

= <span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Steps Required To Bring Resource to Campus</span> =

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<li><span style="font-size:medium"><span style="color:#000000">Be prepared to be surprised... Like in the real-world, unpredictable problems can arise.</span></span></li>

<span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">'''For information or general questions, please contact:<br/><br/>The EPICS Program at Purdue'''<br/><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; text-align: center">Neil Armstrong Hall of Engineering Room 1200</span><br/><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; text-align: center">701 West Stadium Avenue</span><br/><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; text-align: center">West Lafayette, IN 47907-2045</span><br/><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; text-align: center">Phone: 765-496-1068</span><br/><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; text-align: center">Fax: 765-494-0052</span><br/><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px; text-align: center">Email:&nbsp;</span>[mailto:epics@purdue.edu epics@purdue.edu]</span>