New Course EPCS 201

Engineering Faculty Document No. 33-04

February 10, 2005

TO:                 The Engineering Faculty

FROM:           The EPICS Curriculum Committee

RE:                 New EPCS Course Numbers

            The EPICS Curriculum Committee has approved the following new course number.  This action is now submitted to the Engineering Faculty with a recommendation for approval.

EPCS  201  SOPHOMORE PARTICIPATION IN EPICS

                    Offered Fall and Spring, Summer by special arrangement. Credit 1.

                    Prerequisite:  Sophomore standing.

Course Description:  Continuation of EPCS courses (see EPCS 101).  Sophomores participating in EPCS 201 gain insight into the specific project, and, more generally, into the design and development process.  They attend planning and reporting meetings with the customer and are expected attend all team meetings.  Under the mentorship of the team’s juniors and seniors they perform and report upon tasks consistent with their level of discipline expertise.  May be repeated for credit. 

REASON:

The Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) courses are currently offered under 18 different course numbers within 9 different disciplines.   The new course numbers aim to reflect the multidisciplinary nature of the course while also easing the registration difficulties of multiple, co-listed course numbers.  Each participating department /school would determine how their students’ credits in EPICS count toward graduation requirements.

Normally Offered: Each Fall, Spring.  Offered Summer by special arrangement.

Required Text(s): Service-Learning: Engineering in Your Community, Marybeth Lima and William Oakes, Great Lakes Press, 2004.

Recommended Reference(s): None.

Course Outcomes:

A student who successfully fulfills the course requirements with at least 3 credits of EPICS taken over 2 or more semesters will have demonstrated:

               i.      an ability to apply material from their discipline to the design of community-based projects

             ii.      an understanding of design as a start-to-finish process

            iii.      an ability to identify and acquire new knowledge as a part of the problem-solving/design process

           iv.      an awareness of the customer

             v.      an ability to function on multidisciplinary teams and an appreciation for the contributions from individuals from multiple disciplines

           vi.      an ability to communicate effectively with audiences with widely-varying backgrounds

          vii.      an awareness of professional ethics and responsibility

        viii.      an appreciation of the role that their discipline can play in social contexts

Lecture Outline:

Lab Outline: