Sample EPICS Projects from Consortium Sites

Arizona State University

Doc Talk

Description: Doc Talk uses information technology to allow people to securely store medical data and conveniently access it from anywhere. Patients are able to give information to health care providers whenever needed.

Project TOTO

Description: Project TOTO is working to create above ground tornado shelters that can be placed in heavily populated ares or areas isolated from other shelters with the goal of reducing deaths and injuries during a tornado.

(go to the Arizona State University EPICS page)

Butler University

Spanish in Action (SIA)

Project Partner: Crispus Attucks Middle School/Indianapolis, Indiana
Description: In connection with Crispus Attucks Middle School, SIA is developing an environment where students can play games, take tests, and check their progress, while still enjoying a video-game atmosphere. The team's objective is to make learning fun and to provide teachers with an easy and customizable method of evaluating their students.
Delivered: The team has created a game, .QuickDrop. and is in the process of completing a class management system that includes management systems for users, words, and quizzes.

SAVI (Social Assets and Vulnerabilities Indicators)

Project Partner: The Polis Center/Indianapolis, Indiana
Description: The Polis Center Social Assets and Vulnerabilities Indicators (SAVI) project features a set of powerful tools allowing users to quickly navigate and see correlation in a large data pool compiled regarding the Indianapolis area. The initial goal for the Butler team is to create a "Google-like" search engine; that is, the goal of the team is to great an engine that can perform searches based on natural language. The end goal of this project is to create an intelligent search agent for the SAVI tools. The agent will use implicit data gained based on previous user searches and patterns, and it will allow users searching SAVI information to see related data and queries. In short, the goal is to create a new method of using SAVI that includes a nearly transparent agent to help direct user queries.

Butler Undergraduate Research Conference (URC)

Project Partner: Butler Undergraduate Research Conference
Facts: The Butler Undergraduate Research Conference (URC) in partnership with Eli Lilly and Company is an annual regional conference, which now routinely hosts over 500 students and faculty from approximately 45 area colleges and universities.
Description: The URC EPICS team is in the process of re-engineering and modernizing the existing URC management system. Some of the goals of the project include robustness, ease-of-use, maintainability and expandability of the system. After the gathering of requirement specifications, the team is building a prototype version. Additional features are planned.
Delivered: The team developed an in-house Web-based registration and database system to help manage the conference.

George Fox University

Description: Projects at George Fox University include: a new rickshaw design to enable micro-enterprise in Bangladesh, assisting in science and engineering outreach to local elementary and high school students with the NASA Oregon Space Grant balloon launch program and postural assist device for blind students at the Oregon School for the Blind.

(go to the George Fox University Servant Engineering page)

University of Notre Dame

St. Joseph River Project

Project Partner: The Cities of Elkhart, Mishawaka, and South Bend, Indiana.
Description: Began in Fall, 2000. This EPICS group works on the creation of a web-based data entry system for use by the cities of Elkhart, Mishawaka, and South Bend. Working closely with a representative from the Elkhart Public Water Works, the group is customizing an on-line database to serve as a mechanism for the storage and retrieval of measurements and readings used to monitor the changing water quality of the St. Joseph River as it flows through these three cities on its way to Lake Michigan.

Potawatomi Project

Project Partner: Potawatomi Zoo, City of South Bend, Indiana.
Description: Began in Fall 2000. This group assists the zoo maintenance staff in planning, designing, and constructing needed utilities, animal housing, roads, parking, animal waste pollution control and pollution prevention, and site development. Its first project focuses on site planning, which includes production of utility and site maps, using both manually prepared drawing and computer-generated site maps. Some site description data exists and other data will require field surveys.

Small Community Mentoring Center Project (SCMC)

Project Partner: Small Community Mentoring Center Project (SCMC)
Description: The SCMC EPICS has the objective of assisting small nearby communities to more effectively supply water and treat wastewater. During each of the last three summers, teams of students visited the plants to assess the needs. Students were then teamed with plant operators to conduct full-scale plant studies to address a well-defined need.

Habitat for Humanity

Project Partner: Habitat for Humanity Administration Database Project
Description: This team involves many projects including: database design and implementation for the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity; this database project will develop tools for the Habitat organization to track materials, donors, and other information related to the mission of Habitat. Another project focuses on a database project to develop tools for the Habitat organization to track materials, donors, and other information. Another group of EPICS students will work with the local Habitat for Humanity chapter to develop tools to measure, and ultimately improve the energy efficiency of the structures built by the local Habitat Chapter(s).

Ohio Northern University

Gormley Park Cannon Project

Description: Students, under the guidance of Tom Zechman, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, are refurbishing the bases of civil war era cannons. The current bases date to 1906 and structural integrity is unknown.

Princeton University

Power in a Box

Description: students are developing technology to provide portable renewable energy to recovering and off-the-grid communities, serving to replace diesel generators. The 1 kW system includes a wind turbine that can be transported in a shipping container, and erected to 40 ft in about 45 minutes using only human power. In the spring of 2012, "Power-in-a-Box" won a $90,000 grant at the EPA P3 National Sustainable Design EXPO.

(go to the Princeton University EPICS page)

University of California – Merced

Wetlands Project

Description: The mission of this project is to expand awareness of and appreciation for the Grassland Ecological Area (GEA) through the development of an interactive webcam and engaging web content focusing on attracting and educating "K through gray" citizens in California and beyond. Launching a website to engage and educate people about the GEA and its value to society, developing a solar-powered webcam which will be accessible via the website and creating a digital library to facilitate archiving and sharing of images, geospatial information, scientific research, and policies related to the GEA.