2005 Bernard M.

Gordon Prize Lecture*

Integrating Engineering Education and Community Service: Themes for the Future of Engineering Education

EDWARD J. COYLE
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering Purdue University

II. OVERVIEW OF EPICS

A. Motivation EPICS was created as a result of discussions in the early 1990s LEAH H. JAMIESO about the state of engineering education [14]. The engineering N School of Electrical and Computer Engineering education community was drawing fire for graduating students Purdue University who had strong technical backgrounds but few of the other skills needed for successful careers. The consensus was that students, to W ILLIA C. OAKES be ready for the future, would need: M Department of Engineering Education professional skills, including the ability to work in a team enPurdue vironment, communicate effectively, work with customers, University and manage projects; awareness of the many issues affecting any engineering proI. I ject, including ethical, legal, and environmental issues; NTRODUCTION and ability to work with people from many different the backOn February 20, 2005, the National Academy of grounds and in many social Engineering recognized the achievements of the Engineering Projects in Com- challenge was that these are notoriously difficult to teach or deThe settings. munity Service (EPICS) program with the Bernard M. velop in a traditional engineering curriculum. A new curricular strucGordon Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education. Prize for ture was needed that continued to provide technical depth but also As its founders and directors, we were commended For innova- created experiences that would build these additional capabilities. tions in the education of tomorrows engineering leaders by develAt the same time, community service organizations were facing oping and disseminating the Engineering Projects in Community a future in which they must take advantage of technology to imService (EPICS) program. prove, coordinate, account for, and deliver the services they provide. We are very proud that our program has been honored with this Their challenge was to find the long-term, low-cost, customized prestigious award. We hope the attention it focuses on the program technical assistance that they required. highlights the ways that long-term, for-credit projects in the comEPICS was created out of the realization that these mutual munity provide thetim and contextfor experiences that enable our needs created a unique opportunity to form long-term partnerships e students to: between the university and the community [7]. The vision was that develop technical depth and multi-disciplinary the partnership would provide two breadth; start-to-finish design; benefits: experience academic credit for engineering students via long-term, acquire and hone many professional large-scale, real-world design projects that benefit the comskills; products that have a significant impact on their comcreate munity; and for the community partners to the low-cost technical munity; access and grow as individuals, engineers, and expertise they needed to improve their capability to serve the These citizens. of EPICS were outcomes that the engineering edubenefits community. cation community was seeking in the early 1990s [14]. This combination of challenging engineering design projects and We believe integrating time and context into other aspects of long-term service to the community has proven to be extremely sucthe curriculum will lead to further innovations that provide outcessful. EPICS students are learning both the technical and profescomes that the engineering education community seeks for the sional skills they need. The products they develop and deliver to their coming decades [5, 6]. community partners are being used every day in the community.
*This invited feature article is based on the 2005 Bernard M. Gordon Prize Lecture given at the Annual Meeting of the National Academy of Engineering on October 9, 2005. TheJournal of Engineering Education is pleased to archive the innovations chronicled in these annual lectures.

B. Curricular Structure is built around the concept of long-term partnerships EPICS between student teams and not-for-profit organizations in the Journal of Engineering Education 7

January 2006

community. Each team and its community partner work closely together to identify and solve the partners technology-based problems. Table 1 presents four examples of EPICS teams and projects, selected from the 17 schools that currently have EPICS programs. These illustrate the technical depth, multidisciplinary breadth, and

community impact of projects. The projects fall broadly in four areas: education and outreach, access and abilities, human services, and the environment. The sampling of projects also demonstrates the range of ways in which this model has been disseminated and how it takes on different forms in different environments.

Table 1. projects. 8

Examples

of

EPICS January 2006

Journal of Engineering Education

A unique curricular structure enables each EPICS team to A. Context maintain a long-term relationship with its community partner and The long-term community partnerships have created a comto successfully design and deliver products that have significant pelling context for projects that can engage students and hold their technical complexity and significant community impact. interest and commitment over the course of several semesters and EPICS is implemented as a track of courses, where a team corre- years. Because the projects are defined by needs identified by the sponds to a division or lab section of the course. Each team is large community, the students know that, if the project is done well, it 10 to 20 studentsand vertically integratedcomposed of fresh- will in fact be put to use. This adds the very important dimensions men, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. A student may be a member of responsibility, accountability, and commitment. Together these of a team for up to four years, registering for one to two credits eachdimensions of EPICS projects help our students mature as individsemester. When seniors graduate each year, returning students uals, as engineers, and as citizens. move up a year and new students are added to the team. Many The learning via real projects also allows exploration of start-toEPICS teams have developed formal training processes for new finish design, including problem definition, development of specifimembers. The large team size, vertical integration, and credit struc- cations, version control, design/coding standards, and rigorous testture enable each team to continue with a core of returning students ing. That the projects will be used by real customers adds many each semester and year. In effect, the teams function as a small engi-dimensions to the design criteria including design for reliability, usneering design firm, with the community partner as its customer. ability, maintainability, safety, aesthetics, and manufacturability. This enables the teams to tackle and complete projects of significantThe nature of the projects requires our students to address key quessize, complexity and impact in the community. Some teams have tions if their projects are to be successful:Will the exhibit for a chilbeen in operation for ten years and have delivered a series of projects rens museum be able to withstand the use and abuse that hundreds of d to their community partner. children can administer over many months? Will the upgraded software From an educational point of view, the long-term continuity en- nterface increase the efficiency of the social service workers who will use it i ables the students to experience the whole design cycle, from prob- or will it slow them downor, even worse, annoy them? Does the system lem definition through support of fielded projects. The EPICS En- designed to detect and reward good posture in young children with ceretrepreneurship Initiative takes this cycle one step further by bral palsy help improve their posture? are questions that rarely These providing opportunities for students to learn about and pursue the ariseand certainly cannot be answeredin courses that do not commercialization of their projects. The long-term continuity also have real customers. Yet it is in answering these questions that stuenables each student to experience different roles on the team, from dents learn if they are really making a difference in the world. trainee to design engineer, to project or team leader. Complementing the long-term structure of EPICS teams is the B. multidisciplinary nature of the teams. Started in electrical and com- Time few real-world projects fit cleanly into 15-week semesters Very puter engineering at Purdue in 1995, EPICS spread rapidly both or 30-week academic years. One of the most significant aspects of across engineering and outside engineering, to computer science, the EPICS curriculum is that it enables project teams to bridge sociology, and many other disciplines. Each team advertises for the these artificial boundaries. Teams therefore have the time to deliver students and disciplines it needs each semester for its project. The well-designed, well-tested projects to their partner; gather feedback multidisciplinarity adds an important educational dimension and from their partner and improve on their design; and work with their has proven critical to the quality of the products that the teams de- community partner to identify new opportunities. From the stuvelop and deliver. dents perspective, their extended participation on a team provides time to learn both disciplinary depth and multidisciplinary breadth. C. It also provides time to gain a sense of the role of engineering in soStatus EPICS program at Purdue currently has 30 teams and a The ciety, self- and team-awareness, and professional skills. Assessment total enrollment of more than 300 students per year. In the ten years data has shown that the time spent in EPICS has indeed allowed since EPICS was created, more than 2000 students have participatedstudents to develop these skills [8]. at Purdue. In a typical semester more than 20 disciplines are repreThe long-term participation of advisors, as well as students, provides sented. The teams have delivered over 200 projects to the Lafayette,many opportunities for mentoring in all of the areas listed above. One Indiana community. of the greatest rewards of advising a team is getting to know the stuEPICS has been named an exemplary program by the Nation- dents and watching them develop throughout their academic careers. al Science Foundations (NSF) Corporate and Foundation Alliance. Dissemination has been supported by the NSF, the IV. T Corporation for National and Community Service, and several HOUGHTS FOR THE FUTURE OF ENGINEERING EDUCATION corporate partners. With this support, EPICS programs are operating at 15 additional universities and one high school, and dissemination continues through an annual conference and EPICS is successfully addressing many of the challenges for regional workshops. which it was designed. As we all know, the world changes and the challenges facing engineering continue to evolve, and we must evolve with them. So it is appropriate now for us to reflect on three topics: III. T new challenges that are emerging for engineering education; HEMES what insights the EPICS program offers into those chalWhen we consider the impact of EPICS on our students, two lenges; and themes have emerged as key: contextand time what else may lie ahead? . January 2006 Journal of Engineering Education 9

Recent reports [5, 6] have made the compelling case that engi- sented groups, a major factor in career choice has to do with making neering education is at a crossroads: that our graduates will be calleda difference. This has not been a widespread imageengineers as on to bring to bear bold new technologies to address issues ranging members of one of the caring professions. But its an image that from economic development to poverty, the environment, health- we can build, both for our students and for the community as a care, and energy. We must construct educational experiences that whole, as they see the results of our students work. will prepare them for this pivotal role. The demands on engineering As we think about the future of engineering and engineering education therefore continue to grow, and we find ourselves asking education, a fitting way to conclude is simply to quote the statement fundamental questions about how we will teach and how students made by a Purdue EPICS student on an anonymous end-of-semester will learn all that is needed for twenty-first century careers. Engi- course evaluation: neering is built on foundations of technical depth and, increasingly, No longer is engineering just a bunch of equations, now I see it breadth. ABETs EC 2000 [9] added the criteria 3 (a-k): commu- as a means to help mankind. nication, teamwork, professional and ethical standards, lifelong We are proud to be a part of this transformation. learning, global/economic/environmental/societal issues. The Engineer of 2020[5] has added ingenuity, creativity, business and manACKNOWLEDGMENT agement skills, leadership, dynamism, agility, resilience, and flexiS bility. As the world continues to expect more of our students, we face what can be framed as a grand challenge for engineering educa- The EPICS Program has been supported by grants from the tion: how do we integrate the growing set of skillsanalytical, U.S. Department of Educations Fund for the Improvement of problem solving, design, professional skillsacross the curriculum?Postsecondary Education (grant P116F50129), the National SciWe believe that programs such as EPICS create new opportuni- ence Foundations Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement ties to integrate what are often disparate components of the curricu- Program (grants DUE96-50771 and DUE 98-51200), the Corpolum in order to better prepare our students. The attributes of ration for National Services Learn and Serve America Higher Educontextand tim can be key enablers of this integration by: cation Program (grants 97LHEIN025 and 00LHEIN025 00), the e motivating learning of fundamentals via compelling National Science Foundation Action Agenda for Engineering Curapplications; riculum Innovation Program (grant EEC-0002638), the National providing a setting where students can bring both analysis Science Foundation CCLI National Dissemination Program and design to bear; (DUE-0231361) and by grants and donations from numerous stretching students desire to learn on their own to meet the companies and foundations, including Microsoft Research, needs of their project; Hewlett-Packard, National Instruments, the 3M Foundation, realizing efficiencies in the curriculum by continually build- Abbott Labs, Alcoa, AMD, the ADC Foundation, BAE Systems,Borland, Bose, McKinney and Evans, Caterpillar, the ing on what came before; Boeing, providing a time scale that bridges semesters and years to Christopher Reeves Foundation, DuPont, Eli Lilly, General weave connections between content knowledge and design Motors, Great Lakes Chemical, Guidant, Harris, Hawkins skills; and Environmental, Hollister, Honeywell, Indigo Bio Systems, the taking advantage of compelling contexts to make students Lilly Endowment, MDBS, Motorola, NASA, PPG, Rea passionate about what they are achieving and therefore pas- Magnet Texas Instruments, Thompson, Triad Associates, Wire Co., sionate about what they are learning. TRW, United Technology, Vectren and Xilinx. A second crucial challenge facing engineering is the question of who will become an engineer. We are hopeful that the partnership REFERENCE between engineering and community will not only transform our stuS dents, but will also play a role in transforming the face of engineering. [1] Dahir, M., Educating Engineers for the Real World, Technology Since the early 1990s, the U.S., as a nation, has made no Revie , 1993, August/September, pp. 1416. progress in diversifying engineering in some key dimensions. There w [2] Peterson, C.R., Why integrate design? PRIS , 1993, May, M are fewer female first-year engineering students today than there pp. 2633. were in 1990 and significantly fewer female computer science stu[3] American Society for Engineering Education, Engineering Educadents [10]. Yet EPICS is resonating with young women. Twenty- tion for a Changing World Joint project report of the Engineering Deans , five percent of the students who have participated in the EPICS Council and the Corporate Roundtable of the ASEE, 1994, www.asee.org. courses at Purdue have been women. Since the mix of disciplines [4] American Society for Engineering Education, Educating tomorincludes students from fields such as environmental engineering, as rows engineers,PRIS , 1995, May/June, pp. 1115. M well as liberal arts, which traditionally have more women, it is more [5] National Academy of Engineering, The Engineer of 2020: Visions of enlightening to look at the numbers for students coming from disci- Engineering in the New CenturyWashington, D.C.: The National Acade, plines where women are significantly underrepresented. During a mies Press, 2004. period when enrollment of women in electrical, computer, and me[6] National Academy of Engineering, Educating the Engineer of 2020: chanical engineering at Purdue has ranged between nine and Adapting Engineering Education to the New Century, Washington, D.C.: 12 percent, 20 percent of the ECE and ME students in EPICS The National Academies Press, 2005. were women. In a semester snapshot, 33 percent of the computer [7] Coyle, E.J., Jamieson, L.H., and Dietz, H.G., Long-Term Comscience students in EPICS were women, compared to 11.5 percent munity Projects in the Purdue Engineering Curriculum, Proceedings, 1996 of the undergraduates in CS. There is a growing understanding ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Washington, D.C.: American [1117] that, for women and for students from some under-repre- Society for Engineering Education. 10 Journal of Engineering Education January 2006

Address Electrical & Computer Engineering, 465 Northwestern : [8] Coyle, E.J., Jamieson, L.H., and Oakes, W.C., EPICS: Engineering Projects in Community Service, International Journal of Engineering Avenue, West Lafayette, IN 47907-2035, telephone: ( 1) 765.494.3470; e-mail: coyle@purdue.edu. Education 2005, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 139150. , [9] ABET, Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs Engi, The Leah H. Jamieson is Ransburg Professor of Electrical and Comneering Accreditation Commission of the Accreditation Board for Engiputer Engineering at Purdue University, associate dean of Engineering and Technology, 1999, www.abet.org. neering for Undergraduate Education, and co-founder and director [10] Engineering Workforce Commission of the American Association of Engineering Societies, Engineering and Technology Enrollments of the EPICS program. She holds an S.B. in Mathematics from , M.I.T. and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer SciWashington, D.C.: American Association of Engineering Societies, ence from Princeton. Jamieson was elected a Fellow of the IEEE 2004. [11] Tinto, V., Leaving College: Rethinking the Causes and Cures of Stu-for her research on parallel processing algorithms. She has been President of the IEEE Signal Processing Society, IEEE Vice President Attrition, Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, 1993. [12] Seymour, E. and Hewitt, N., Talking About Leaving: Why Under- dent for Technical Activities, IEEE Vice President for Publication Services and Products and has been elected to be the 2007 President graduates Leave the Sciences , Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1997. [13] Noddings, N., Gender and Curriculum, in Handbook of Research of IEEE. She was an inaugural recipient of the NSF Directors Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars and was named 2002 on Curriculum P. W. Jackson (ed.), New York, N.Y.: Macmillan, 1992. , Indiana Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation. In 2005 [14] Rosser, S.V., Female-Friendly Science , Elmsford, N.Y.: Pergamon she was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. Drs. Press, 1990. [15] Rosser, S.V., Teaching the Majority: Breaking the Gender Barrier in Jamieson, Coyle, and Oakes were awarded the NAEs 2005 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Science, Mathematics, and Engineering , New York, N.Y.: Teachers College Technology Education. Press, 1995. Address: College of Engineering, Purdue University, 400 [16] Matyas, M.L., and Malcolm, S., Investing in Human Potential: Centennial Mall Drive, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1180; teleScience and Engineering at the Crossroads , Washington, D.C.: American phone: ( 1) 765.494.4966; fax ( 1) 765.496.1180; e-mail: lhj@ Association for the Advancement of Science, 1991. purdue.edu. [17] Oakes, J., Gamoran, A., and Page, R.N., Curriculum Differentiation: Opportunities, Outcomes, and Meanings, in Handbook of William C. Oakes is associate professor in the Department of Research on Curriculum , P.W. Jackson (ed.), New York, N.Y.: Macmillan, Engineering Education at Purdue University and co-director of the 1992.

AUTHORS B IOGRAPHIES
Edward J. Coyle is professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. He is a co-founder of the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program and is currently Director of the EPICS Entrepreneurship Initiative. For his contributions to engineering education he was co-recipient, with Leah Jamieson, of the American Society for Engineering Educations 1997 Chester F. Carlson Award for Innovation in Engineering Education. Most recently, he was co-recipient, with Drs. Leah Jamieson and Bill Oakes, of the National Academy of Engineerings 2005 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education. Dr. Coyle is a Fellow of the IEEE and was named an Outstanding Engineering Alumnus of the University of Delaware. From 20002004, he served Purdue as Assistant Vice Provost for Research in Computing and Communications.

EPICS Program. He earned his B.S.M.E. and M.S.M.E. from Michigan State University, worked as a design engineer for GE Aircraft Engines and earned Ph.D. at Purdue. He has served as chair for the ASEE Illinois/Indiana Section, member of the board for the ASEE Freshman Programs Division and co-chair for the 2005 Frontiers in Education Conference. He has received numerous awards including the National Society of Professional Engineers Educational Excellence Award, Purdues Charles B. Murphy Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching Award and Purdue Engineerings Dean A.A. Potter Outstanding Teaching Award. He is a Fellow of Purdues Teaching Academy, Purdues Community of Service-Learning Fellows and Indiana Campus Compact. Drs. Jamieson, Coyle, and Oakes were awarded the National Academy of Engineerings 2005 Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education. Address Purdue University, Department of Engineering Educa: tion, 400 Centennial Mall Dr., West Lafayette, IN 47907-2016, telephone: ( 1) 765.494.3892, fax: ( 1) 765.494.5819, e-mail: oakes@purdue.edu.

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