DUT – The champion of 03 consecutive years at EPICS competition

On January 5, 2020, the EPICS Final Showcase event took place at the Grand Hall of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education (HCMUTE) with the participation of nearly 30 teams from 06 big universities in the Nation: Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Industrial University, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education, Can Tho University, Lac Hong University and University of Science and Technology. The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering has 07 students participating in this year’s competition. 

EPICS (The Engineering Projects in Community Service) is an extremely interesting and practical course, aiming at implementing technical projects from students to support community services. The program lasts for 12 consecutive weeks, instructors and students will experience the EPICS Design Processing process, whose core is to determine the real needs (Needs) from stakeholders (Primary Stakeholders), then, come up with a technical solutions to meet the needs through user experience and continual improvement from feedback to have the final product. 

After 03 months of hard work, DUT teachers and students completed 06 products from 06 teams: 3I Team – The Massage Slippers, BOBAY Team – Multifunctional Table for Student, NEXT IN Team – Versatile Life Jacket, UF Team – Support Sandals for Pregnancy, DCFD Team – Smart Accessories, and The CREATORS Team – Raincoat-Umbrella. Characterized by the multi-disciplinary combination of students from different faculties in the University, the products not only show the urgency in practical needs, but also the smooth cooperation of members in a team. 

The Final Showcase had two rounds. Round 1: Exhibition booth, all teams tried to present their products to the jury. Round 2: Presentation, after visiting and scoring all booths, the judges scored and selected the 06 best teams to present on the big stage. 3I Team and NEXT IN Team excellently won 2 positions in the top 6 strongest teams this year. After going through presentations and rhetoric to convince the jury about the needs, features, user feedback, and feasibility to bring to market, NEXT IN Team excellently won the First Prize of the competition with two teams from Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology and Education and Can Tho University. 

This is the third time DUT has participated in the EPICS competition. With the championship record from the last two seasons, the teachers and students of the DUT team are very confident to participate in the race despite having a lot of pressure from the previous seasons. Winning at EPICS 2020 not only brings joy and excitement to students but also demonstrates the feasibility of the project-based study program with the multi-disciplinary combination of the students. Hopefully, after the competition, there will be many similar programs for the university students’ research to get closer to the community and market. 

News and photos: MSc. Nguyen Hong Nguyen – DUT Team leader @EPICS 2020
Edited by: LRCC-DUT