EPICS at Purdue

My name is Stevie Jo Gregoricka and I am a junior in Industrial Engineering. I was a part of EPICS my freshmen year and was a part of the learning community. EPICS, or Engineering Projects in Community and Service, is a class offered to anyone on campus. In this class you are put in a team that tackles numerous projects that affect the West Lafayette and Lafayette community. EPICS was one of my most favorite things I have done here at Purdue. I was a part of team GLASS my first semester. Our team’s focus was to help special education classes in the Greater Lafayette area. We worked on iPad apps that helped these students communicate, schedule their daily activities, and practice counting change. There were a few field trips we went on to these classrooms so we could see how the students interacted with the iPads, what motions worked best for their motor skills (for example drag and drop, or touch and drop), and what skills were important for them to learn.

I liked being a part of EPICS because it gave me real-world work experience while being on campus. I had the chance to work on real issues in the community while also learning how to develop my engineering skills. In these classes we learned how to make schedules for the projects, weekly update presentations, and how to present our final results in a concise and well thought-out presentation.

One of the biggest advantages of being a part of EPICS is be being a part of a community. The EPICS community is so wonderful and accepting and you meet so many new friends through it. I came to Purdue not knowing anyone and my EPICS team was a great place to make new friends and have lasting friendships.