The EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) in IEEE initiative had a report 12 months in 2025, funding 48 initiatives involving practically 1,000 college students from 17 international locations. The IEEE Educational Activities program accredited probably the most initiatives this 12 months, distributing US $290,000 in funding and engaging more students than ever earlier than in modern, hands-on engineering techniques.
This system affords college students alternatives to have interaction in service studying and collaborate with engineering professionals and neighborhood organizations to develop options that handle local people challenges. The initiatives undertaken by IEEE groups embody pupil branches, sections, society chapters, and affinity teams together with Women in Engineering and Young Professionals.
EPICS in IEEE gives funding as much as $10,000, together with sources and mentorship, for initiatives centered on four key areas of community improvement: training and outreach, setting, entry and talents, and human providers.
This 12 months, EPICS partnered with 4 IEEE societies and the IEEE Standards Association on 23 of the 48 accredited initiatives. The Antennas and Propagation Society supported three, the Industry Applications Society (IAS) funded 9, the Instrumentation and Measurement Society (IMS) sponsored 5, the Robotics and Automation Society supported two, the Solid State Circuits Society (SSCS) supplied funding for 3, and the IEEE Standards Association sponsored one.
The tales of the partner-funded initiatives show the affect and the impact the initiatives have on the scholars and their communities.
Matoruco agroecological backyard
The IAS pupil department on the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Colombia labored on a mission that concerned water storage, automated irrigation, and waste management. The purpose was to remodel the Matoruco agroecological backyard on the Institución Educativa Los Garzones right into a extra full of life, sustainable, and accessible area.
These EPICS in IEEE crew members from the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Colombia are configuring a radio communications community that may ship knowledge to a web based dashboard exhibiting the solar power utilization, pump standing, and soil moisture for the Matoruco agroecological backyard on the Institución Educativa Los Garzones. EPICS in IEEE
Through the use of an irrigation automation system, electrical pump management, and soil moisture monitoring, the crew aimed to point out how engineering ideas mix tutorial information and sensible software. The initiative makes use of monocrystalline solar panels for energy, a programmable logic controller to robotically handle pumps and valves, soil moisture sensors for real-time knowledge, and a LoRa One community (a proprietary radio communication system based mostly on unfold spectrum modulation) to ship knowledge to a web based dashboard exhibiting solar energy utilization, pump standing, and soil moisture.
Los Garzones preuniversity college students have been taught concerning the irrigation system by way of hands-on initiatives, obtained coaching on natural waste administration from college college students, and took part in set up actions. The college crew additionally organizes backyard cleanup occasions to have interaction youthful college students with the neighborhood backyard.
“We search to generate a real sense of belonging by providing college students and school a gathering place for hands-on studying and shared duty,” says Rafael Gustavo Ramos Noriega, the crew lead and fourth-year electronics engineering pupil. “By integrating technical information with enjoyable actions and coaching periods, we empower the neighborhood to maintain the backyard alive and proceed enhancing it.
“This mission has been an unmatched platform for getting ready me for an expert profession,” he added. “By main every little thing from price range planning to the ultimate set up, I’ve skilled firsthand all of the phases of an actual engineering mission: scope definition, useful resource administration, crew coordination, troubleshooting, and delivering tangible outcomes. All of this reinforces my purpose of dedicating myself to analysis and growth in automation and embedded systems and contributing innovation within the agricultural and environmental sectors to assist extra communities and make my mark.”
The mission obtained $7,950 from IAS.
College students give a tour of the techniques they put in on the Matoruco agroecological backyard.
A sensible braille system
Greater than 1.5 million people in Pakistan are blind, together with 1000’s of youngsters who face boundaries to accessing important studying sources, in accordance with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. To handle the necessity for accessible studying instruments, a pupil crew from the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET) and the IEEE Karachi Section created BrailleGenAI: Empowering Braille Learning With Edge AI and Voice Interaction.
The interactive system for blind kids combines edge artificial intelligence, generative AI, and embedded techniques, says Kainat Fizzah Muhammad, a mission chief and electrical engineering pupil at MUET. The system makes use of a digicam to acknowledge tactile braille blocks and supply real-time audio suggestions by way of text-to-speech expertise. It contains gamified modules designed to help literacy, numeracy, logical reasoning, and voice recognition.
The crew partnered with the Hands Welfare Foundation, a nonprofit in Pakistan that focuses on inclusive training, disability empowerment, and neighborhood growth. The crew collaborated with the Ida Rieu School, a part of the Ida Rieu Welfare Association, which serves the visually and listening to impaired.
“These partnerships have been instrumental in serving to us plan outreach actions, collect enter from specialists and caregivers, and put together for usability testing throughout numerous environments,” says Attiya Baqai, a professor within the MUET digital engineering division. Assist from the Arms basis ensured the answer was formed by the real-world wants of the visually impaired neighborhood.
SSCS supplied $9,155 in funding.
The scholar crew reveals how the sensible braille system they developed works.
Macedonia’s capital, Skopje, is amongst Europe’s most polluted cities, notably in winter, as a result of thick smog attributable to temperature adjustments, in accordance with the World Health Organization. The WHO reviews that the town’s air accommodates particles that may trigger well being points with out early warning indicators—referred to as silent killers.
A crew at Sts. Cyril and Methodius University created a system to measure and publicize native air pollution ranges by way of its What We Breathe mission. It goals to boost consciousness and enhance well being outcomes, notably among the many metropolis’s kids.
“Our purpose is to offer folks with info on present air pollution ranges to allow them to make knowledgeable choices concerning their publicity and take protecting measures,” says Andrej Ilievski, an IEEE pupil member majoring in pc {hardware} engineering and electronics. “We selected to give attention to faculties first as a result of kids’s lungs and immune techniques are nonetheless creating, making them one in every of our inhabitants’s most weak demographics.”
The mission concerned 10 college college students working with excessive faculties, college, and the Society of Environmental Engineers of Macedonia to design and construct a sensing and show software that communicates by way of the Internet.
“By main every little thing from price range planning to the ultimate set up, I’ve skilled firsthand all of the phases of an actual engineering mission: scope definition, useful resource administration, crew coordination, troubleshooting, and delivering tangible outcomes.” —Rafael Gustavo Ramos Noriega
“Our sensing unit detects particulate matter, temperature, and humidity,” says mission chief Josif Kjosev, an electronics professor on the college. “It then transmits that knowledge by way of a Wi-Fi connection to a public server each 5 minutes, whereas our show unit retrieves the info from the server.”
“Since deploying the system,” Ilievski says, “everybody on the crew has been smitten by how properly the mission connects with their highschool viewers.”
The crew says it hopes college students will proceed to work on new variations of the gadgets and supply them to different faculties within the space.
“For many of my life, my tutorial success has been on paper,” Ilievski says. “However due to our EPICS in IEEE mission, I lastly have an actual, bodily object that I helped create.
“We’re grateful for the chance to make this mission a actuality and be a part of one thing greater.”
The mission obtained $8,645 from the IMS.
Society partnerships depend
Because of partnerships with IEEE societies, EPICS can present extra alternatives to college students all over the world. This system additionally contains mentors from societies and journey grants for conferences, enhancing the scholar expertise.
The collaborations encourage college students to use applied sciences within the IEEE societies’ areas of curiosity to real-world issues, serving to them enhance their communities and fostering continued engagement with the society and IEEE.
You’ll be able to discover ways to get entangled with EPICS by visiting its web site.
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