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EPICS Generator Awards honor projects serving global communities

Daniel Hoop holding a vile of pinkish tintted water as part of an EPICS project

Above: Daniel Hoop, who currently serves as the executive director of nonprofit organization 33 Buckets, spoke to current Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering students in the Engineering Projects in Community Service program about his own EPICS journey at the 2021 EPICS Generator Awards event. The 2020 Fulton Schools graduate started his career with 33 Buckets while pursuing his undergraduate degree in environmental engineering. Photographer: Erika Gronek/ASU

The Engineering Projects in Community Service program, known as EPICS, is a national, award-winning, social entrepreneurship program. About 400 students in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University participate each semester through more than 60 ongoing EPICS@ASU projects.

Those students work together in teams to design, build and deploy systems to solve engineering-based problems for charities, schools and other not-for-profit organizations. Currently, EPICS@ASU is working with over 50 community partners on projects that span four different themes: community development, education, health and sustainability.

At the end of each academic year, the EPICS Generator Awards provide the opportunity for students, faculty members, industry mentors and community partners to celebrate the success of the teams and individuals involved in EPICS.

For the 2020­–2021 academic year, three EPICS teams were recognized along with 22 individual student awardees in different categories. Additionally, an industry mentor and community partner were recognized for their contributions to EPICS@ASU.

Daniel Hoop, executive director of clean water access nonprofit organization 33 Buckets and a Fulton Schools environmental engineering alumnus, gave the keynote address during the EPICS Generator Awards event where he talked about his own EPICS journey and how he was able to leverage his experiences into a full-time career after graduation.

“I think that most importantly EPICS is a program that you’re going to get out what you put in, especially during the struggles,” says Hoop. “Ambiguity and unexpected obstacles come up.  That’s the first step in really becoming a great engineer and one who can solve real-world problems and work on impact-based projects.”

Hoop ended his presentation with a bit of inspiration for the current EPICS students.

“You rise to the level of your highest aspirations,” says Hoop. “While your goals are important, your system will determine your success and achieving them. So always focus on that system.”

RECOGNIZING EPIC TEAMS

The Impact Award is given to teams that have the potential for significant impact on local or global communities and have shown meaningful understanding of the populations they serve. This year’s Impact Award was presented to three teams that all worked closely together for the integrated project known as 33 Buckets. The winning teams were the Sensor Development team, the Internet of Things team and the Rainwater Harvesting team.

Water shortages are common all across the world. Vast numbers of people suffer due to this challenge, so 33 Buckets is working to provide improved water harvesting solutions. The EPICS teams worked to find methods that would fit the daily lifestyle of a given community and would not inconvenience people’s lives.

“This solution is going to help a lot in automating chlorine disinfection systems in Peru,” says Mark Huerta, a lecturer in the Fulton Schools and co-founder of 33 Buckets. “There are so many communities 33 Buckets is working with near Cusco, Peru. The new system is going to be piloted this summer, and it has tremendous scalability potential to provide clean water to a lot of people in these communities.”

Huerta began 33 Buckets as an undergraduate student in the Fulton Schools and has worked with many engineering students over the years to continue developing multiple aspects of the project that began while he was an EPICS student. This year Huerta was given an Outstanding Service Award for his work with the group.

“I specifically chose to work on the human-centered design side of the project because the problem was just so relatable to me,” says Tina Sindwani, a first-year computer systems engineering major who worked on the rainwater harvesting team. “When I used to live in India, we had water outages often. However, it rains tremendously during the monsoons there, and water could easily be collected. We just need a system in place. It is amazing to know that I could design a system to solve a problem I knew firsthand.”

The Innovation Award is given to a team that has developed an inventive solution for their project. These solutions involve conceptualizing, prototyping and implementing a unique design that has widespread opportunities to help those who need specific help.

This year’s Innovation Award was given to the Memory Glass team, which developed a digital smart glasses attachment that offers memory assistance to patients with Alzheimer’s disease. The Memory Glass team has been working on their solution for several years now. It started as a very rough prototype and went through multiple iterations get to the current attachment for eyeglasses.

Over the course of their project, the Memory Glass team has made significant progress and embraced valuable feedback from their mentors while taking advantage of the many different resources at ASU. They were able to expand their idea by learning how to go about complete the necessary steps to implement their solution to providing their product to everyone who needs it.

The Catalyst Award, given to a team that has progressed exponentially in their design and implementation process, was given to the Waste Audit team.

The Waste Audit team evaluates the process of identifying the particular types of waste entering local landfills.

The team is working to solve the problem through capturing information to aid local businesses with opportunities to divert some waste to create valuable products.

RECOGNIZING EPIC COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

In addition to recognizing students who are making an impact in communities around the world, the EPICS Generator Awards also acknowledge community partners and mentors who help the students reach their goals.

The Community Catalyst Award is given to a community partner that displays an exceptional level of involvement and goes above and beyond to support their EPICS project and student team. The community partners are the reason EPICS students become passionate about their projects as they are the principal customers of the program.

This year the award was given to ASU Project Cities, a team that over the last two years has worked with ASU students on five different EPICS projects. The award is shared by Steven Russell, program manager of Project Cities, and Tracie Hlavinka, town manager of Clarkdale, Arizona.

Russell collaborates with ASU faculty working with EPICS programs and provides numerous resources. The student teams that work with Project Cities ultimately get their project written up in an ASU Project Cities report that is published and presented to town managers, city managers and city leaders throughout the state for consideration for implementation.

Hlavinka and her staff meet with the students on Clarkdale teams on a regular basis.

“One of the Project Cities teams has researched and analyzed the lack of broadband [internet access] in Clarkdale,” says Hlavinka. “Because of their work, we are able to give good reliable information to our Regional Broadband Action team to apply for state and federal funding for broadband infrastructure.”

One of the biggest accomplishments that the ASU students have had so far in Clarkdale is their work in the downtown business district.

“The Project Cities students have drafted design standards for the downtown area of Clarkdale,” says Hlavinka. “These standards were developed after the ASU students held a thorough public input meeting. The document was so well written that the design standards will be included in the Town of Clarkdale’s upcoming 2022 general plan. The Town of Clarkdale values the work and time that each of the facilitators, faculty members and students contribute to the program and the success of Clarkdale.”

The Navigator Award is given to an academic associate who consistently provides guidance, mentorship and support to teams while helping them to challenge assumptions, pivot when necessary and arrive at innovative solutions.

The 2021 Navigator Award was given to Tom Zender, a mentor to CEOs, business coach and leadership developer. He has also been an EPICS mentor for several semesters and brings both engineering expertise as well as business acumen to his guidance for EPICS students. For example, Zender has been able to help teams with interpersonal communications. Many EPICS projects involve working with overseas partners and Zender has been able to help them overcome the challenges of connecting cross-culturally.

RECOGNIZING EPIC INDIVIDUALS

EPICS projects rely on student-led teams, and the Outstanding Team Leader Award is given to students who go above and beyond. These students are organized, motivate their team and keep their projects moving forward. This year, a total of 10 students were awarded the honor.

These leaders are often described as driven and hardworking; they motivate others and create an inclusive environment where their collaborators can share ideas. They also display enthusiasm that matches their technical knowledge. These leaders also do a great job of seeking feedback and input in their projects.

Finally, the Rising Star Award is given to EPICS students in either their first or second semester who are making significant contributions to their team and bring enthusiasm, passion and dedication to EPICS.

Rising Star Award students are relatively new to EPICS and are still learning how to best be successful with their projects. They take it upon themselves to try to achieve as much as they possibly can. This year, 12 rising stars were recognized for their contributions and program leaders look forward to seeing what these inspiring students have in store on their epic journeys.

2021 EPICS Generator Awardees

Catalyst Award

Waste Audit
Michael Backlund, Isaias Gutierrez, Imraan Mushtaq, Asif Razack, John Scranton, Dylan Walton

Impact Award

33 Buckets Sensor Development
Lucianne Morin, Wyatt Blackson, Diven Dhir, Justin Reyes, Owen Jones, Stone Xia, Sydnee Layer, Aarya Mecwan

33 Buckets Internet of Things

Edyssa Cervantes, Dimitri Mihaylov, Jacob Kenny, Joshua Szeto, Nolan Yee, Kyle Wu, Haley McMahon, Devesh Nath, Adrian Villegas

33 Buckets Rainwater Harvesting

Ruhi Dharan, Tina Sindwani, Amanda Dionisio, Anna Kylat, Daniel Bruce, Austin Berg

Innovation Award

Memory Glass (Hardware and business team)

Andrew Deros, Alexander Hollar, John Navas, Tilak Raj Thanga Raj, William Noll, Alyssa Rose, William Lombardi, Michael Rodi

Memory Glass (Software team)
Michael Rodi, Shiv Patel, Varun Rajput, Jenny Zhang, Hannah Lenoir, Avinash Achari, Matthew Szeto

Rising Star Award

Gabriella Alessio, Jasmine Amoako-Agyei, Nathaniel Anbar, Alison Fahy, Sanjin Gonilovic, Arnob Kabir, Philip Kyeh, Luke Macy, Sharmila Nimbkar, Tyler Porter, Zachary Whaley, Cristine Zambrano-Ortega

Outstanding Team Leader Award

Michael Backlund, Lidija Buchanan, Andrew Deros, Mikayla Gerdes, Annika Giesa, Gabriel Gutierrez, Emily Hagood, Abigail Jansen, Dimitri Mihaylov, Lucianne Morin

Community Catalyst Award

Project Cities
Steven Russell (Program Manager, Project Cities), Tracie Hlavinka (Town of Clarkdale)

Navigator Award

Tom Zender

Outstanding Service

Mark Huerta

About The Author

Erik Wirtanen

Erik Wirtanen graduated from Arizona State in 2001 with a BS in Recreation Management and Tourism. He got his start in the communications field as an undergrad with the ASU Athletics Media Relations office. He worked at UC Irvine from 2002 until 2014 in the Department of Athletics and then The Henry Samueli School of Engineering. In August of 2014, Wirtanen joined the communications office at the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering. Media Contact: [email protected] | 480-727-1957 | Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering Communications

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