Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) was founded in 1995 at Purdue University by Professors Edward Coyle and Leah Jamieson as a solution to two problems.
[1] First, many engineering graduates lacked real world skills needed for project management, such as budgeting and scheduling.
Second, many non-profit organizations did not have funding for needed professional engineering services to design displays and exhibits or keep relevant databases.
EPICS functions as a class usually with a set number of lecture sessions to attend each semester and weekly lab time with teams.
[13] In 2017, five students finished their charity project started through the EPICS program in 2013, a mobile dental clinic that will serve thousands of people in Nicaragua, Arizona and California.
Catalina Laboratory Products, a Tucson-based startup, donated thousands of dollars to help furnish and stock the clinic.