Encouraged as a Student, Encouraging as a Professor
September 6, 2024
Dr. Jeanie Aird BS’19 was motivated to challenge herself in college by her grandmother, who regretted not pursuing her own studies more rigorously as a young person and who pushed her granddaughter to do more with her talents. Today, Aird encourages another generation to excel in her role as director of instruction for the UTDesign Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program.
“I always liked challenging myself academically and that came from my grandmother who was so close to me,” Aird said. “She always encouraged me and pushed me forward and did a lot for me in my life, so I pursued my studies to honor her.”
Aird studied engineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science and credits the school’s faculty and the University’s academic culture for her success as a student.
“I liked that UTD offered a unique culture,” she said. “It’s not a party school, and there weren’t Saturday football games. I wanted to focus on school and meet other people who were focused on school, too.”
Aird said she also loved UT Dallas because faculty were so interested in helping their students succeed. She said her research advisors in the Department of Mechanical Engineering had a huge influence on her as an undergraduate student.
“My advisors believed in me so much,” she said. “I had a lot of professors at UTD who saw the good in me and fostered that. And now it feels really good to give back to my own students in the same way.”
Aird received a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Scholarship in her senior year at UTD and went on to earn a PhD in mechanical engineering at Cornell University. After completing her doctorate, she returned to UT Dallas in 2023 to join the faculty in UTDesign EPICS. The program connects undergraduate students with community organizations needing help with engineering and computer science projects.
“Students enroll in EPICS and work on teams that design technical solutions for local nonprofits,” Aird said. “We deliver these solutions to organizations to enhance their operations and improve the lives of the people they serve.”
One EPICS team is currently working with local nonprofit the Kellermann Foundation on a project to install pumps to provide drinking water for a village in Uganda, Africa. A fellow team is collaborating with the Richardson Makerspace to design and build a fingerprint door access system. And yet another EPICS team is working with the nonprofit Carsons Village to develop an automated webpage generator.
“A lot of times nonprofits are using Excel spreadsheets or even just pen and paper and filing cabinets to keep track of their data,” Aird said. “That’s an area where we can really help streamline their operations — creating applications to display, access and actually use their data.”
Aird said EPICS is popular with students because they’re able to work on real-world projects that are needed in the community, working outside of the classroom with actual organizations, industry partners and mentors. Aird and her EPICS co-director, Andrea Turcatti, use the concept of human-centered design when planning projects. The idea means creating solutions with people in mind, Aird said.
“With human-centered design, you have to develop empathy for the people you’re designing for,” she said. “You have to understand how people work and what they need. It’s an incredible soft skill for engineering majors, and a skill that they will carry with them the rest of their careers.”
Along with a wide variety of hands-on technical and project management skills, EPICS students benefit from mentoring from industry representatives, veteran students who have been through the program and return as team leaders and even from graduates who are former EPICS participants. Aird said she works hard to retain program alums to continue working with her students.
Industry mentors come from several companies in the UT Dallas area including State Farm, Texas Instruments and Nvidia. Mentors not only provide real-world, hands-on instruction to EPICS students, they also make great connections for graduating students looking for job opportunities. Industry sponsors also provide funding for projects.
This semester, the EPICS program has a record enrollment of more than 150 students, the majority engineering and computer science majors. And though the program is nearly at its enrollment capacity, Aird said she and Turcatti plan to offer expanded programming, including an international program they’re calling EPICS Abroad.
Aird said the opportunity she’s had at UT Dallas to work with students in the EPICS program has been rewarding as she works to encourage and nurture her students to learn and to use their skills to help others.
“Undergraduates are in a special place in their lives where the smallest influence can make a huge difference,” Aird said. “I love seeing them grow and seeing how much they value the program.”