Students' serve society through community engineering projects

Hyderabad: KL Deemed to be University, launched its community service programme 'Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS)' the innovative programme was launched at its Hyderabad branch in partnership with Purdue University, following the signing of a MoU between the two education hubs.

EPICS, is a unique programme in which teams of undergraduates are designing, building, and deploying real systems to provide engineering-based solutions for local community service and educational organisations. Aimed at fostering a connection with the local community including villages, the university launched the programme to identify the problems faced by the local community and subsequently provide the solutions developed by KL Engineering students, through a detailed survey with the community partners Swetcha, Redcross, and Ekalavya foundation.

As part of the EPICS initiative, a total of 650 students from the B.Tech discipline were segregated into 85 teams to engage with the local community through in-person visits to nearby villages to identify the local communities' problems across different domains. From agriculture, child education, women empowerment, and transport to sanitation, the thorough survey conducted by students brought different problems being faced by locals to the forefront. At the behest of the information collected by the survey, projects like 'Smart Glasses' for blind people, 'Voice-controlled Home Automation' for old and disabled people, and a Density-based Traffic Control System among others are now in process.

"Apart from academic excellence, KL Hyderabad Campus is also a pioneer in community-based activities. Continuing the social service legacy of our founders, we have introduced EPICS. Aimed at bridging the information and technology gap between the urban and rural sectors, the university introduced EPICS as a full-fledged course that also connects the project assessment process phase to deliverables.

Through our latest initiative, students would also get an opportunity to not only hone their skills but also do well for society. By identifying the local engineering problems, students can put their knowledge of the course to use and come up with workable solutions in a bid to make the university and locals feel proud. This, in turn, will act as an experiential learning curve for our students to develop real-life solutions for future challenges." said Er Koneru Satyanarayana, Chancellor, KL Deemed-to-be University.