To all interested in
Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) design courses at
University of Wisconsin-Madison starting in September 2000. From John Webster
608-263-1574, webster@engr.wisc.edu,
272CAE building
EPICS was started at Purdue
University in 1995 to improve engineering design courses. Purdue, like
Wisconsin had a few engineering design courses that lasted 1 or 2 semesters.
During this time the students designed projects, wrote a report, gave a
presentation, then stopped work on the project. Most times the project could
not be completed and thus did not serve the needs of the clients. There was
little or no followup.
To solve this problem, they
identified nonprofit service organizations in the community and set up design
teams of students to serve these clients over a period of years. The teams
included freshman+sophomores+juniors+seniors, so after the seniors graduated,
the team could continue the established relationship with the client on the
original or new projects.
Examples of Purdue University
projects
Habitat
for humanity (minimize home construction and energy costs)
Homelessness
prevention network (centralized database for coordination and tracking)
Crisis
center (kiosk with remote update, dialing of service agency phone numbers)
Speech-language
clinic (automate calculation of speech rate, speech recognition)
Center
industries (aids to help disabled workers to perform manufacturing)
Zoo
(multimedia learning center, kiosks, sound systems)
Dept
Natural Resources (develop test wetlands to clean farm runoff)
School
(develop weather station, TV studio, media facilities)
National program. Purdue University is now
expanding toward a national program with 6 universities including Wisconsin.
See http://epics.ecn.purdue.edu/root.asp.
Features of EPICS are:
1
Large
team experience (teams of 10 to 15 students)
2
Vertically
integrated teams (freshman+sophomores+juniors+seniors)
3
Long
term design experience, academic credit throughout the student’s undergraduate
career
4
Partnerships
with local community organizations
5
Multidisciplinary
projects
6
Realistic
(define-design-build-test-deploy-support) experience
7
One
faculty or industrial advisor for each team
8
May
fulfill technical elective or senior design requirements
EPICS at Wisconsin:
1
John
Webster is directing EPICS and is assisted by Frank Fronczak.
2
BME
students can take EPICS under regular course numbers BME200, 201, 300, 301,
400, 402 provided the problems are biomedical
3
Other
students can take EPICS under Webster sections in EPD199 (freshmen, 1 credit),
EPD299 (sophomores, 1 credit), EPD399 (juniors, 1 or 2 credits, depending on
how much effort they wish to make), EPD699 (seniors, 1 or 2 credits). See
http://www.engr.wisc.edu/epd/courses/. Students may request their home
departments to register them under similar numbers. Students should send
Webster their full university name+ID-number+class+department and a request to
register. Webster will authorize registration and inform the student to
register. Students should expect to attend a class meeting 1 hour/week plus
work on projects outside of class another 3 hours/week for each credit.
4
We
are creating a Wisconsin EPICS web site (draft at http://epics.engr.wisc.edu/)
5
We
are collecting problems from various sites into one comprehensive site. See 61
BME projects at http://courses.engr.wisc.edu/ecow/get/bme/200/webster/bme201spri/spring2000/projectlist.htm
See 16 Interdisciplinary Design and Problem Solving projects at http://www.cae.wisc.edu/~fc_inter/projects_list.html
See 19 EPD160 projects at http://www.cae.wisc.edu/~epd160/projects/projects.htm
6
We
are collecting additional problems from faculty. For example Frank Fronczak has
projects designing bicycles and wheelchairs for individuals with movement
disabilities. Paul Bachy-Rita has projects designing devices for the blind to
interface with computers. The ASME student chapter will design a “Sip-and-puff
fishing rod” for disabled persons. See
http://www.asme.org/students/design_contest/Y2001Rules.html
7
We
will solicit problems from community service organizations
8
We
will expand some Purdue University projects to Wisconsin, such as Habitat for
humanity and Homelessness prevention network
9
We
will hold a general meeting Tuesday September 5 from 7 to 9 pm in room 1610
Engineering Hall, where students can select their teams and schedule meeting
times when all on team can meet
Some
faculty who are interested in design courses and may be interested in serving
as EPICs advisors:
1
John
Webster, BME, webster@engr.wisc.edu
2
Fred
Bradley, MSE, bradley@engr.wisc.edu
3
Frank
Fronczak, ME, fronczak@engr.wisc.edu
4
Jay
Martin, ME, martin@engr.wisc.edu
5
Pat
Farrell, ME, farrell@engr.wisc.edu
6
Awad
Hanna, CEE, hanna@engr.wisc.edu
7
David
Bohnhoff, BSE, bohnhoff@facstaff.wisc.edu
8
Jordan
Lee, ME, cjordan1@facstaff.wisc.edu
9
Mark
Nicosia, BME, mnicosia@facstaff.wisc.edu
Some
students who have expressed interest in EPICS (* = registered):
*Tracy
Allen tracyallen@students.wisc.edu
junior in IE
Jason
Blackney jbblackney@students.wisc.edu
sophomore in engineering
Neil
Dunn nbdunn@students.wisc.edu
senior
Jacob
Feala jdfeala@students.wisc.edu
junior in BME
Michael
Gregor mtgregor@students.wisc.edu
senior in ME
Scott
Hackel sphackel@students.wisc.edu
sophomore in ME
Chris
Holland cholland@aosmith.com coop
Jenny
Hoff jlhoff@students.wisc.edu
senior in CEE
*Laura
Itzkowitz itzie1@hotmail.com junior in
ChE
Aman
Karwa aman_karwa@hotmail.com junior
in ChE
Himanshu
Khadilkar smushk@yahoo.com in ECE
Paul
Laeseke plaeseke@students.wisc.edu
senior in BME
Ryan
Lynes rjlynes@students.wisc.edu
freshman in computer engineering
Melly
melly@cae.wisc.edu
Alissa
Misun armisun@students.wisc.edu sophomore in ME or BME
Darcee
Nelson ddnelson@students.wisc.edu
freshman in BME
Kelly
Stevens krsteven@students.wisc.edu senior in BME
Ryan
Sydnor rhsydnor@students.wisc.edu
Jamon
Van Den Hoek jlvandenhoek@students.wisc.edu
Mike
Vogel mvogel@students.wisc.edu
sophomore
*Shannan
Volley snvolley@students.wisc.edu
sophomore in IE
*Andreas
Winardi awinardi@yahoo.com senior in
ChE internship
Jamie
Wolff JamieWolff@lunarcorp.com
coop senior in ME
Contact me if you are interested in
EPICS as a student or as faculty or wish changes in your listing above or
suggest additional information I should add. There is a link to this EPICS page
at the bottom of my homepage http://www.engr.wisc.edu/bme/faculty/webster_john.html
John Webster