What EPICS does

EPICS (Engineering Projects In Community Service) is an academic service-learning program within Purdue University's College of Engineering, founded in 2006 and headquartered in West Lafayette, Indiana. The program engages multidisciplinary engineering student teams in long-term, multi-semester design projects that address real-world engineering challenges identified by community partners and nonprofit organizations. Students gain hands-on design experience, project management skills, and community engagement experience while delivering engineering-based solutions to underserved communities; the primary customer segments are Purdue College of Engineering students and external community partners.

EPICS operates a single integrated program offering rather than a portfolio of discrete products. Its underlying "technology" is a pedagogical and project-management model — student-led design teams paired with community partners on sustained engagements — rather than a software or hardware platform. There are no proprietary software components, APIs, or commercial licensing arrangements described in the input. Operational expansion has occurred through institutional partnerships, most notably the 2022 partnership with Morgan State University (a Historically Black University in Baltimore), where Purdue EPICS and Morgan State civil engineering students jointly run the 'Better Waverly' community design project focused on environmental justice and access education in the Waverly neighborhood.

The business model is non-commercial. EPICS is funded through Purdue University's institutional budget, governed by the Indiana state university system, and does not have independent ownership or external investors. It has no disclosed revenue, no pricing for external customers, and follows Purdue's standard engineering tuition structure for enrolled students. Charese Williams serves as the EPICS K-12 Coordinator and Environmental Justice and Access Education (EJAE) advisor, anchoring the program's outreach to K-12 schools and to the Morgan State collaboration. As an educational initiative, EPICS's value proposition combines engineering pedagogy with measurable social impact rather than commercial monetization.

Name

EPICS

Legal name

Purdue University - College of Engineering EPICS Program

Website

https://engineering.purdue.edu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2006

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Engineering Education

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Engineering Design & Project-Based Learning Programs (EDAMADAB)

akta.pro secondary industries

Innovation & Design Thinking Programs (EDAMAHAD), Assistive, Biomedical & Human-Centered Engineering Programs (EDAMADAL), After-School, Tutoring & Academic Enrichment Nonprofits (BPAGADAC)

Keywords

• Service learning programs
• Engineering education
• Community design projects
• Experiential engineering learning
• University engineering programs

Headquarters

HQ city

West Lafayette

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D

Core offering

EPICS (Engineering Projects In Community Service) is a service-learning program within Purdue University's College of Engineering that engages multidisciplinary student teams in long-term, real-world engineering design projects in partnership with community organizations and nonprofits. The program also includes a K-12 outreach component that enables high school students to connect engineering and computing design with community needs.

Product overview

EPICS (Engineering Projects In Community Service) is an educational program within Purdue University's College of Engineering. It is not a software product but rather a service-learning initiative that connects students with community partners to work on real-world engineering design challenges. The program operates as a single unified program offering students experiential learning opportunities in engineering while addressing community needs.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• EPICS (Engineering Projects In Community Service) University Program An educational service-learning program within Purdue University's College of Engineering in which multidisciplinary student teams complete long-term engineering design projects for community partners and nonprofit organizations, for engineering students seeking experiential learning.
• EPICS High School (K-12) Program

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Morgan State UniversityflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 October 2022Purdue's EPICS program partnered with Morgan State University, a Historically Black University in Baltimore, to bring the EPICS program to Morgan State. Students from both institutions collaborate on the 'Better Waverly' community design project, which focuses on environmental justice and access education in the Waverly neighborhood of Baltimore.

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Georgia Tech Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP): A large, mature, university-based program that places students on long-term, multidisciplinary engineering design teams with faculty and external partners — virtually identical structural model to EPICS, serving the same engineering-student audience.
• MIT Priscilla King Gray Public Service Center: MIT's hub for student-led public service and community-engaged experiential learning. It overlaps with EPICS in pairing engineering/STEM students with community partners on applied, design-oriented projects at a peer research university.
• University of Texas at Austin Service-Learning Programs: Major public research university with established service-learning infrastructure integrating coursework and community-based projects — a structurally analogous model to EPICS at scale, sharing the public-university, community-engaged engineering/STEM context.
• University of Pennsylvania Netter Center for Community Partnerships: Penn's academically based community service program that engages students in faculty-led, long-term community partnership projects. The structurally similar service-learning + community-impact framing makes it a close direct peer to EPICS.
• Purdue Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP): Purdue's sibling long-term, multidisciplinary, project-based engineering program. VIP and EPICS share the same university, comparable structure (multi-year team projects), and overlap in serving engineering students seeking experiential learning, making them the closest direct peer.

Others

• Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN): A network of U.S. engineering schools focused on instilling entrepreneurial mindset in undergraduate engineering education. KEEN is thematically adjacent to EPICS — both pursue experiential engineering education reform — though KEEN emphasizes entrepreneurial mindset rather than community service.
• National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges Scholars Program: NAE-affiliated program supporting undergraduate scholars tackling societal grand challenges through interdisciplinary research, service, and experiential learning. Overlaps with EPICS in framing engineering education around societal/community impact.

Broad incumbents

• FIRST Robotics: The most recognized K-12 hands-on engineering/robotics program in the U.S. FIRST competes for the same student attention and partner dollars as EPICS K-12 outreach, but at vastly larger national scale.
• Project Lead The Way (PLTW): A large, established K-12 STEM and pre-engineering curriculum provider. PLTW is the dominant scaled incumbent in the downstream pipeline that EPICS K-12 outreach feeds into; both target project-based engineering learning, but at very different scale and stages.
• Stanford d.school (Hasso Plattner Institute of Design): A larger, more design-thinking-focused experiential learning program at a peer institution. While broader in scope (design across disciplines, not just engineering) and more design-thinking oriented, it competes for the same experiential-learning mindshare among engineering and interdisciplinary students.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about EPICS