The EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) in IEEE initiative had a report 12 months in 2025, funding 48 initiatives involving almost 1,000 college students from 17 international locations. The IEEE Educational Activities program accepted essentially the most initiatives this 12 months, distributing US $290,000 in funding and engaging more students than ever earlier than in progressive, hands-on engineering methods.
This system presents college students alternatives to interact in service studying and collaborate with engineering professionals and group organizations to develop options that handle area 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 supplies funding as much as $10,000, together with sources and mentorship, for initiatives centered on four key areas of community improvement: training and outreach, surroundings, entry and skills, and human companies.
This 12 months, EPICS partnered with 4 IEEE societies and the IEEE Standards Association on 23 of the 48 accepted 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 undertaking that concerned water storage, automated irrigation, and waste management. The purpose was to rework the Matoruco agroecological backyard on the Institución Educativa Los Garzones right into a extra vigorous, sustainable, and accessible area.
These EPICS in IEEE group members from the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Colombia are configuring a radio communications community that may ship knowledge to a web based dashboard displaying 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 group aimed to indicate how engineering ideas mix tutorial information and sensible utility. The initiative makes use of monocrystalline solar panels for energy, a programmable logic controller to mechanically handle pumps and valves, soil moisture sensors for real-time knowledge, and a LoRa One community (a proprietary radio communication system primarily based on unfold spectrum modulation) to ship knowledge to a web based dashboard displaying solar energy utilization, pump standing, and soil moisture.
Los Garzones preuniversity college students have been taught in regards to the irrigation system via hands-on initiatives, acquired coaching on natural waste administration from college college students, and took part in set up actions. The college group additionally organizes backyard cleanup occasions to interact youthful college students with the group backyard.
“We search to generate a real sense of belonging by providing college students and college a gathering place for hands-on studying and shared duty,” says Rafael Gustavo Ramos Noriega, the group lead and fourth-year electronics engineering pupil. “By integrating technical information with enjoyable actions and coaching periods, we empower the group to maintain the backyard alive and proceed bettering it.
“This undertaking has been an unmatched platform for making ready me for an expert profession,” he added. “By main every little thing from finances planning to the ultimate set up, I’ve skilled firsthand all of the phases of an actual engineering undertaking: scope definition, useful resource administration, group 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 undertaking acquired $7,950 from IAS.
College students give a tour of the methods they put in on the Matoruco agroecological backyard.
A wise braille system
Greater than 1.5 million people in Pakistan are blind, together with 1000’s of youngsters who face limitations to accessing important studying sources, in keeping with the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. To handle the necessity for accessible studying instruments, a pupil group 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 methods, says Kainat Fizzah Muhammad, a undertaking 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 consists of gamified modules designed to assist literacy, numeracy, logical reasoning, and voice recognition.
The group partnered with the Hands Welfare Foundation, a nonprofit in Pakistan that focuses on inclusive training, disability empowerment, and group growth. The group 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 various environments,” says Attiya Baqai, a professor within the MUET digital engineering division. Help from the Fingers basis ensured the answer was formed by the real-world wants of the visually impaired group.
SSCS supplied $9,155 in funding.
The scholar group reveals how the sensible braille system they developed works.
Macedonia’s capital, Skopje, is amongst Europe’s most polluted cities, notably in winter, attributable to thick smog attributable to temperature modifications, in keeping with the World Health Organization. The WHO experiences that the town’s air incorporates particles that may trigger well being points with out early warning indicators—often known as silent killers.
A group at Sts. Cyril and Methodius University created a system to measure and publicize native air pollution ranges via its What We Breathe undertaking. It goals to lift consciousness and enhance well being outcomes, notably among the many metropolis’s kids.
“Our purpose is to supply individuals with info on present air pollution ranges to allow them to make knowledgeable selections relating to their publicity and take protecting measures,” says Andrej Ilievski, an IEEE pupil member majoring in pc {hardware} engineering and electronics. “We selected to concentrate on faculties first as a result of kids’s lungs and immune methods are nonetheless creating, making them one in all our inhabitants’s most susceptible demographics.”
The undertaking 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 device that communicates by way of the Internet.
“By main every little thing from finances planning to the ultimate set up, I’ve skilled firsthand all of the phases of an actual engineering undertaking: scope definition, useful resource administration, group coordination, troubleshooting, and delivering tangible outcomes.” —Rafael Gustavo Ramos Noriega
“Our sensing unit detects particulate matter, temperature, and humidity,” says undertaking chief Josif Kjosev, an electronics professor on the college. “It then transmits that knowledge via a Wi-Fi connection to a public server each 5 minutes, whereas our show unit retrieves the information from the server.”
“Since deploying the system,” Ilievski says, “everybody on the group has been smitten by how effectively the undertaking connects with their highschool viewers.”
The group 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 because of our EPICS in IEEE undertaking, I lastly have an actual, bodily object that I helped create.
“We’re grateful for the chance to make this undertaking a actuality and be a part of one thing greater.”
The undertaking acquired $8,645 from the IMS.
Society partnerships rely
Because of partnerships with IEEE societies, EPICS can present extra alternatives to college students world wide. This system additionally consists of 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 learn to become involved with EPICS by visiting its web site.
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