EPICS: documenting service-learning to meet EC 2000

Engineering Projects in Community Service-EPICS-is a service-learning program that was initiated at Purdue University (USA) in the Fall of 1995. Under this program, undergraduate students in engineering earn academic credit for long-term team projects that solve technology-based problems for local community service organizations. The program has grown to include 20 project teams with approximately 300 students participating each semester during the 2000-01 academic year. With its emphasis on start-to-finish design of significant projects that will be deployed by the community customers, EPICS addresses many of the program outcomes mandated for ABET accreditation. In this paper, the authors outline the procedures and documentation that have been developed to assess and track student outcomes in the EPICS courses.