EPICS: Engineering Projects in Community Service
EGR 250/251/350/351/450/451 Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) Fall, Spring
If you have questions about registration for EPICS, please contact Victoria Dorman at vdorman@princeton.edu
Community service agencies face a future in which they must take advantage of technology to improve, coordinate, account for, and deliver the services they provide. They need the help of people with strong technical backgrounds. Undergraduate students face a future in which they will need more than solid expertise in their discipline to succeed. They will be expected to work with people of many different backgrounds to identify and achieve goals. They need educational experiences that can help them broaden their skills.
The challenge is to bring these two groups together in a mutually beneficial way. The end result? Benefits to the students and to the community!
In EPICS (EGR 250/251, 350/351, 450,451), you earn course credit while using your expertise to make a difference in the community! Partner with non-profit community organizations to address their technology-based needs.
- Help the local watershed association turn their nature scenter into a "green" building
- Restore a 110-year old tower clock in Trenton
- Teach concepts of renewable energy and engineering design to K-12 students
Read about the teams in this April 2007 article in the Princeton Weekly Bulletin.
Disciplines needed: ARC, CEE, CHE, COS, ECO, ELE, EEB, HIS, MAE, ORF, WWS...
Student teams meet and work throughout the academic year and must enroll in the 2-course sequence, e.g., EGR 250 AND EGR 251, to receive full credit for the EPICS course (either Fall/Spring or Spring/Fall). Freshman enroll in 250 & 251, Sophomores in 350 & 351, and Juniors in 450 & 451, respectively.
Two project teams are already in place with project partners Isles and the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed Association.
Isles has recently acquired a new property at One Johnston Avenue in Trenton. It is a historic factory building that Isles and its partners will renovate and redevelop to serve both not-for-profit and for-profit organizations. The initial projects will include: restoring the clock tower and reengineering its 110 year-old mechanical clock; researching the history of the factory and the surrounding community; and developing a curriculum for K-5 students at PYA that is based on the mechanics, economics, and sociology of early approaches to timekeeping (see the team's web site; download the project flyer).
The Buttinger Nature Center is the heart of the Watershed Association's environmental education initiative. The goal of this project is to make the Center a showcase of energy efficiency, renewable energy, and water conservation. Existing assets include a 15kW solar array on the roof of the Nature Center that is already operational. The team's goal is to design and implement green retrofitting strategies that simultaneously maximize energy conservation and preserve air quality. In addition, the project involves development of educational displays to increase homeowner awareness of strategies and benefits of green retrofitting of homes (see the team's web site; download the project flyer).