What is EPICS?

EPICS is a service learning course that was founded here at Purdue over 20 years ago. The program pairs interdisciplinary teams of students with a real-world client and it is up to the students to design and manufacture a solution to the problem presented by the client.

There are a few things about this program that makes it unique. The first is that it is entirely student lead, which means that every decision that is made in regard to the project is made by the students rather than our advisors. Students learn to independently use the iterative design cycle too; develop user needs, generate designs, test those designs, and manufacture their products. We do have advisors, but they play a more supportive role rather than a directorial role, I like to say they’re there to make sure we don’t hurt ourselves in the lab. Secondly, because the project is created directly by the students, it is the students’ intellectual property, many EPICS students patent their designs or work with faculty to publish a research paper on their project, all while in their undergrad. Finally, at the end of a project’s cycle, which may take many semesters and be worked on by several teams, it will be reviewed and delivered to the client to be used in the real world. This is an amazing way to have a tangible impact on the community you are serving and it was what made me realize I wanted to pursue my current track.

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My projects are summarized below. If you're interested in a particular project, select the associated image for more in-depth details. I have been a member of the NABL team since the start of my freshman year. We work with non-profits and families to create specialized assistive devices to enable users to live with higher levels of independence and freedom. I've loved being part of this team and will forever be grateful for the opportunities I've had there, but I am very excited to transition into the Engineering without Boarders EPICS team in the coming spring 2023 semester.