VEF EPICS Series - VEF Engineering Projects In Community Service
The Vietnam Education Foundation Engineering Projects in Community Service
CONTEXT PRESENTATION
In 2017, on the 1 100 000 graduated students of Vietnam, 200 000 did not find a job. This is a surprisingly high figure in many aspects : the economy of the country is developing (+7% growth), the education system is reputed and qualified in technology, the exchange in labor force in the ASEAN region is increasing, foreign companies invest in the country and many choose Vietnam for new offices and branch. Then, why still many of our students are not able to demonstrate their value on the job market, despite the quality of their hard-skills education ? Why don’t they fit in all the requirements of nowadays’ companies ?
Our youth is indeed full of hard-skills and reputable hard-workers. However, there is still a gap between their competencies and the companies’ needs in human ressources. This shift in the trends can be explained by the high value of human intelligence for responsibility jobs (robotization and automation of low-intellectual-intensity jobs) but also by the recent opening of the Vietnamese economy: companies need people that are able to work in an international environment with high knowledge of the local environment. More generally, the global evolution of work tends to focus on people’s ability to work together and to figure out brand new challenges, in respect with the companies’ values and objectives.
These changes demand an adaptation in the way we educate our youth. MIS wants to be an actor of this change and help the students to acquire all the tools they need. On this program, we focus on soft-skills development and self-confidence development. It is about learning how to adapt and perform thanks to collaboration - and being ready to behave professionally in difficult situation.
This soft-skills program will also give them the tools to perform better on different other programs, such as EPICS (Engineering Projects for Innovation in Community Services - lead by ASU in VN) and CAPSTONE (project-based-learning program for graduation thesis writing and defense) and other programs still under development (IProjects).
More than a course, this project represents the opportunity to get in the professional world and learn about project management. It helps students tp affirm an open-mind and working qualities that complete their academic knowledge. It will give them the network and the opportunity to meet with private actors and show them their competencies. The methods we pivot on are originated from ASU's EPICS-program, added with other human-centered-design methods such as the Design Thinking, and driven to meet the culture and context of central Vietnam.
Program ambition: build an open program where students will enroll in order to increase their soft-skills and get a method to generate creative solutions to issues they will met. Those projects main to improve:
- the collaborative skills of students in multi-disciplinary field: we want all teams to have different major represented. We also want students to be able to work peacefully together, even when mixing age (we recruit from 17)
- project management skills: develop a project whiten allotted time and ressources,
- ability to evolve in-between different culture and realities: work with professional, students, entrepreneurs, etc.
- making an idea clear and human-oriented: understand what is an user and why getting a human-oriented-solution is a powerful sink.
- oral and presentation skills: get used to public speaking to be more confident!
- public/private sector collaboration: networking events and possibility to meet big companies,
- design process: what is a process, what is it for and why is it useful?
- prototyping and fabrication: understand and experience the power of prototyping.
- collaboration with the actors of innovation in DaNang.
Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) was founded in 1995 by Edward Coyle and Leah Jamieson, Professors at Purdue University, as a solution to two different problems:
- Many engineering graduates lacked real world skills need for project management, such as budgeting, scheduling, communicating.
- Many non-profit organizations did not have funding for needed professional engineering services to design displays and exhibits or keep relevant databases.
The solution was to use the skills of undergraduate students through the curriculum to provide services to local non-profit organizations.
The program originally started as an educational program, and finds its roots in the concept of "service learning"
VPICS 2018
In 2018, for the first time, we received VEF funding for the project course. Combined with some other sponsors, we have officially launched the VEF - EPICS course or VPICS 2018.
To equip Vietnamese students with new skills through the U.S model of innovation project based learning, Vietnam Education Foundation Alumni consortium in partnership with Fablab Danang, University of Danang and Arizona State University host a six-week “VEF Vietnam Projects in Community Service (VPICS) through innovation and technology”.
VPICS is a design-based, project-based learning and social entrepreneurship program that incorporate the engineering and human-centered design processes, providing innovative solution to real community problems. The EPICS brought to Vietnam by ASU is the core of this program. VPICS will provide STEM and soft skill coaching, maker innovation space including all modern machines and tools and partial material for student and K-12 teams. The student teams will be encouraged to have team members with background as a mix between engineering, business and social. They work closely with their mentors, schools , community or non-profit organizations to identify and implement prototyped solutions with a real impact to the real society. By doing so, students not only provide a needed philanthropic service, they also hone their skills as scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs. With guidance and support, teams are required to to build tangible products through innovation and technology to serve real community problems they identify.
VPICS is for more than 100 students including K-12, last in 6 weeks, at each Weekend, from 17.11.2018 to 29.12.2018, located at Maker Innovation Space, UD, 41 Le Duan, Danang city.
With nearly 200 students registered to participate, the organizers have selected 75 friends from the member universities of the University of Danang such as University of Technology, University of Education, University of Economics, VN-UK and Le Quy Don High School.
With the criterion of each team being a companion from different fields - technical, economic, social - to solve a real problem, 15 groups have been established with a common structure (3 technical - 1 social - 1 economic).
Groups will work with the community and non-profit organizations to identify real-life issues in the community to address. Next, the teams work together to design and build product prototypes through innovation and technology in the invention space to create products that are highly applicable to the surveyed community.
They start the course with 2 days of intensive EPICS training.
They will then continue to be instructed to begin the 2-week Field Trip
Returning from Field Trip with the ideas in mind, they will enter a series of training sessions to improve their skills.
In parallel, they are also allowed to use the Maker Innovation Space Danang to create and complete their prototype.
In addition, they also get support for basic materials and a small fee for the process of making a prototype.
SHOWCASE: The organizers will choose 7 out of 15 teams to continue to the final round.
"VEF Projects in Community Service VPICS 2018 has hosted 193 students from different backgrounds - engineering, social and business in Danang city, including two dozens of high school students. To the midround, 75 students including 5 high school folks had been selected toward a mid-round innovative prototyped showcase on 23.12.2019. Then the 7 teams of 35 students had been selected and their pitching happened on 29.12.2018. The TomXu (technology-based solution to farmers' shirmp pond) won 1st prize, followed by Lighten (smart cane for blinded) for the 2nd and Seasaw-bin (school and public promotion to gather trash in a smart and fun way) for the 3rd prize. Throughout 6 weeks of VPICS, 40 hours of coaching sessions for (1) Design Cycle - project identification, specification development, concept/detailed designs, delivery and maintenence, (2) Pitching skill, (3) Critical Thinking/Collaborative/Problem Solving, (4) Art Role and Sketching and Plastic Recycling, (5) Marketing for Community Projects together with Field Trips and Intensive Make Sessions has been organized with 11 speakers/mentors. In addition, the internal team of 7 people spent 80 hours in supporting for making idea to real ptototypes. The judging sessions had been involved by 6 experienced experts including VEF and Fulbright scholars for total of 6 hours. The program attracted nearly 400 registered participants. Top 3 products are highly potential to be applied next 3 months in Danang and Quang Nam areas."
Dr. Nguyen Ba Hoi
Alumni: USG-VEF/VN-MOE 2009 Catholic U. & USG-GES 2016 Silicon Valley
Director & Co-founder, MakerSpace-Fablab, 41 Le Duan & 23 Hai Ho, Danang
Dean(interim), The University of Danang - School of Int’l Education www.udn.vn
VEF PROJECTION 2019
With the success of cooperation in hosting “VPICS 2018”, now on behalf of the VEF alumni we are honoured to continue with VEF PROJECTION 2019 Series. PROJECTION is aimed to provide 50 undergraduate and graduate students from various background with an immersive training experience in an innovative environment based on the Engineering Projects In Community Services (EPICS) Core framework over the course of 1 year.
The program still allows students to develop engineering projects which aim to serve the community. These innovations must address health, environmental, educational and human needs.
In addition to the basic EPICS, Fablab develops the projects with soft skills training, connecting with workshops or community organizations to fully equip the skills, knowledge and opportunities for students to confidently join the future workforce.
This time, with a higher goal, we hope that students can bring at least one product that can be tested in reality (VPICS 2018 only stops at popularizing EPICS program).
With higher goals, the organizers have divided the project into 3 different stages in order to create the best conditions for members as well as bring certain effects.
PROJECTION is structured into 3 phases for various reasons:
· An estimated minimum of at least 5 months is needed to achieve the goal to develop a functional prototype, replicate and to pilot test on a target of 50 users.
· The program is an extra-curriculum activity for students and participation is voluntary. It is not expected to be easy to keep students continuously involved in the project for over 5 months, especially during the school year when students have to juggle between their classes and commitment to the program.
· Students needed to be trained with the necessary skills and experience of the EPICS core framework. Each phase focused on equipping students with the different real-world skills sets throughout the program.
VEF PROJECTION PHASE #1
VEF PROJECTION 2019 is focused on students from Universities or graduates.
Field trip is a critical period for community projects. Here, you will need to find empathy for social issues. To prepare for these 2 weeks, they are trained with special skills in exploring and delving into the issues with the mentor Mr. Nguyen Thanh Long - MBA Swinburn Uni.
The prototyping stage of VEF PROJECTION will be extremely difficult when you need to set a goal to produce a test product.
The organizer also raised the support level to the following groups:
- 2 months using Maker Innvovation Space
- Support for all raw material costs
- Strengthen mentoring sessions
In particular, the organizers also focus on your missing skills such as product sketching.
After 2 months
• Final Projects are assessed completely by the VEF PROJECTION Board of Judges. The Board of Judges will determine the best projects by:
- Originality
- Innovation
- Economic feasibility
- Social Impact
- Proof of Concept
• 1st, 2nd and 3rd Place prizes will be awarded to the top Three (3) Project Presentations.
The Hai Manh Team won the first prize with the idea about removing micro-plastic.
VEF PROJECTION PHASE #2
Summer Design Thinking Bootcamp
1-month intensive design thinking summer workshop
Program Overview : Phase 2 of PROJECTION was planned as a 4-week intensive design thinking workshop to be held over the summer holiday months between June and August 2019 at MIS in Danang. It was designed to accommodate to the timing of the end of Phase 1 which coincided with the end of the academic year in Vietnam. The summer holiday period allowed for more flexible scheduling of the program to be held during the week and students were able to participate freely without concerns of missing school classes.
Program Objectives: Designed as an extension to Phase 1, the idea of the bootcamp was to allow interested students who were unable to participate in Phase 1 the opportunity to learn about the design thinking process and understand its value in developing and delivering products and services for various needs. Other target learning outcomes of the bootcamp included helping students to develop necessary soft skillset, improve their English proficiency and exposure to cross-cultural collaboration and intellectual exchange. All bootcamp activities were conducted fully in English and were free for students to participate.
The bootcamp was open to all high school and college students, both current and recently graduated, who were based in Danang from any study discipline. The target was to recruit at least 20 students. Students from University of Can Tho were also invited to participate in the bootcamp.
The bootcamp was scheduled to take place over 4 weeks from 1 July to 31 July 2019. The schedule was broken down into weekly milestones beginning with students designing a mock-up (1 week), then iterating 2 cycles of prototyping (2 weeks) and finally working on finalizing a functional prototype (1 week). Every week, students were to meet together with the program mentors at MIS 3 days per week during the weekdays to work on the project, attend project meetings, mentoring and coaching sessions and planned field visits. On days with no scheduled meetings, students were free to work on their own time and initiative on the project.
On the final day of the bootcamp program, students were to give a final presentation of their functional prototype to a panel of judges and provided with a certificate for their participation in the program.
A total of 29 Vietnamese students registered for the bootcamp of which 15 students were selected to participate in the bootcamp. Of the 15 students, 12 students were based in Danang and 3 were in Can Tho who worked remotely through online communication with students in Danang.
The students were organized into 3 teams:
· Danang – 2 teams
o Hardware (Mechanical & Electrical) – 8 students
o Software (Application Coding) – 4 students
· Can Tho – 1 team (Mechanical & Electrical) – 3 students
The bootcamp was facilitated by a multidisciplinary team with different background. The program mentors consisted of the following members:
· Valentin Rolhino (France) – Phase 2 Program Lead, background in program management and social entrepreneurship
· Nguyen Hoang Long (Vietnam) – Technical Mentor, EPICS Series Lead and Guru Maker Space
· Do Hoang Nhon (Vietnam) – Technical Mentor, Guru Maker Space
· Lyn Phang (Malaysia) – Soft Skills Facilitator, background in project management
The final prototype
From Da Nang
From Can Tho
VEF PROJECTION PHASE #3
Smart Seat Cushion
1.5 months Final Prototyping and Testing
A workplan was mapped out at the beginning of Phase 3. The planed timeframe for Phase 3 was 5 weeks that included preparation and debriefing (1 week), then brainstorming, finalizing the prototype and replicating (2 weeks), and finally the testing the final products and evaluation of test findings (2 week).
Program Overview: Phase 3 of PROJECTION was carried out from 3 September to 20 October 2019 as a continuation from Phase 1 and 2. In this phase, the focus was on training students in the later stages of the design thinking process to develop a final prototype for production and to test and evaluate their product. Students worked on enhancing one of the project ideas from Phase 1, duplicating the product and then to test the product on the targeted beneficiaries. Of the 5 project ideas from Phase 1 and 2, the Smart Seat Cushion was chosen for Phase 3 for its relative feasibility to be further developed, replicated and tested in a short timeframe.
8 Students from Phase 1 were invited back to continue work in Phase 3. As the new academic had just began again, students were to work during weekday evenings with project mentors and in their own free time independently when possible.
Smart Seat Cushion
The Smart Seat Cushion a cushion connected to an application which alerts users of their sitting position. The cushion was designed with the aim to help users to cultivate a habit of good sitting posture. In Phase 1, the targeted users were for young people who were under 50kg. The cushion had 2 integrated sensors to detect user’s sitting position and a buzzer that sounds when the user is not sitting properly. A software application connected to the Smart Seat Cushion also received data from the sensors, enabling users to track their sitting habit and history.
For Phase 3, students worked on enhancing the feature of the cushion and software application. This included adding more sensors to enable detection of more sitting positions, improving on the software application interface and the aesthetic look of the cushion. It was also determined that the targeted users of the cushion to be young children between 6 and 12 years weighing less than 50kg and parents of the children who would be able to monitor their children’s sitting habit through the application. Bad habits developed during childhood can have irreversible consequences, especially when it comes to health. The idea of the Smart Seat Cushion is to help both children and parents in training their children to adopt the right sitting position and good back posture.
The students were organized into two task forces, each with its own functions for the project:
· Ideas team – 4 students. Worked to enhance the design of cushion, application interface and the aesthetics
· Technical team – 4 students. Worked on the creating the cushion and coding of the application
Project Mentors
The students were assisted in the development of their project by 4 mentors from different backgrounds and origins:
· Anne Guisset (France) – Phase 3 Project Lead, graduate student of French business school, background in marketing
· Alizée Le Gac (France) – Phase 3 Project Lead, graduate student of French business school, background in sales
· Nguyen Hoang Long (Vietnam) – Technical Mentor, EPICS Series Lead and Guru Maker Space
· Lyn Phang (Malaysia) – Soft Skills Facilitator, background in project management
Final Prototype Design
The final design of the cushion has 4 sensors integrated; 2 are positioned at the front end of the cushion and 2 more positioned along the right side of the cushion. The 4 sensors are able to detect 9 different positions - lean forward and back, lean right and left, lean forward right and left, lean back right and left, center (base position). The sensors detect these positions and send a signal to the software application that keeps track of all the positions detected during time of use. A buzzer is also installed to alert the user to his or her sitting position when the user is sitting in any position other than the base position for more than 20 seconds. The shape of the cushion was improved for better sitting comfort.
The software application interface has a simple and user-friendly design. It has options to view a history of data collected from the cushions, data charts and analysis. The application was coded for Android devices and can be easily downloaded an Android mobile device. The application currently receives data from all 3 cushions made in the same interface.
Testing phase
The target was to recruit and test the final prototype of the Smart Seat Cushion on at least 50 intended users. The initial test design was to test the cushion in real conditions with children during a class session. Each child would sit on the cushion for at least 1 hour during class and the project team would be on-site to observe and monitor the data received on the software application. The decision to conduct the testing ‘in-lab’ was for better control of testing environment and the availability of project team to help troubleshoot if needed. At the end of the test, each test participant will provide their feedback on a questionnaire.