In EPICS, we do most of the work in teams.  To ensure that every team achieves its true potential here is some information we could gather on what makes a successful team.

There has been extensive research on team formation and team success. One study was done by Google, and they found their most functional teams had 5 common elements (Rozovsky, 2015):

1. Psychological safety: Can the team members take risks without feeling insecure or embarrassed?
2. Dependability: Can the team members count on each other to do high-quality work on time?
3. Structure & clarity: Are goals, roles, and execution plans clear?
4. Meaning of work: Are the team members working on something that is personally important for each of them?
5. Impact of work: Do the team members fundamentally believe that the work they are doing matters?

Psychological safety

Psychological safety is the most important element of successful teams.  People need to feel free to provide ideas, make mistakes, and ask questions.  The more people feel safe, the more productive they are as a team. 

Here is a TED talk about a psychological safety, and how to create it in teams.  Please watch the view and think through how you may be able to support an atmosphere where people feel free to make mistakes. 

Dependability

Throughout the course of the project, team members will be relying on each other to keep up with the project and have regular communication with the community partner.  Each student is expected to contribute and do high-quality work based on the level of course (i.e. taking it for an elective or senior capstone).  It is important that teams have communication in terms of timelines, expectations, and other course requirements throughout the semester.

Being a reliable and contributing team member is critical to having success in the team and your career in general.  It is good to be on time for class and meetings, take your role seriously, contribute fully to the project, and be realistic about your capacities (especially around midterm and final times).  If this is not a skill you currently have, spend some time learning about time management and seeking ways to build these capacities. 

If there are outside factors that are impacting your ability to contribute, such as family emergency and health, it is important to let your team members and instructors know. 

Structure & clarity 

Having a clear structure of the team is another critical element of a successful team. For the semester plan, your team will be expected to establish goals, a timeline, team member roles, create weekly meeting times, and set up communication.  We will be trying out a group chat on Slack and a project management tool, Asana (asana.com) for the first month.  Both these platforms are widely used in industry, and so we will be testing out how we can use them in EPICS.

Here are some roles and responsibilities that project teams use:

• Project Manager – Manages/organizes section, tracks project commitments
• Design leaders – lead design projects
• Liaison – primary contact for the community partner
• Financial officer – manages the team’s budget
• Project Archivist- manages documentation for the team
• Webmaster – manages the blog

 Meaning and Impact of Work

It is important for you to find meaning in the work you are doing and recognize how it benefits the wider society.  In the coming weeks, you will be learning about issues facing our society related to your project, and ways that the engineering project can make a positive impact on your community. EPICS is set up to bridge the gap between what you learn in school and how it impacts the real world.  

Additionally, you are encouraged to identify knowledge and skill sets you are committed to cultivating in yourself this semester.  This includes professional skills such as communication, leadership, time management; discipline-focused technical skills such as mechatronics or machine-learning; and hands-on skills such as soldering and 3D printing at the Makerspace.

 We will be reviewing team dynamics and doing team evaluation mid-semester and at the end of the semester.  Reach out and ask for him early if issues start to arise.  

Rozovsky, J. (2015). The five keys to a successful Google team. Re: Work. Retrieved from https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful-google-team/ (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

The Underwater ROV team has gotten a bit of publicity over the last few months.

Learn about the project from the video from the Spartan Daily and the article in IEEE Institute!

This week the EPICS class did an activity to introduce students to Design thinking.

The activity was developed by Standford’s d-school and is referred to at the Wallet Project.  In this activity, students paired off and design a wallet for their partners.  Students through the contents of each other’s wallets, and designed a wallet to meet the needs of their partner.   This enables a sense of empathy, learn how to interview, understand users needs, and the importance of prototyping.  The students had different needs – some liked to have everything on themselves, while others wanted a more simplistic system.

When we did this in class, many of the students were apprehensive about the activity at first.  This was not like most of their engineering courses but during the reflection period, the students were able to recognize how key lessons were important to their projects. When the instructor asked “how is this related to your EPICS project,” there was a clear “ah-ah” moment in the class.

Key lessons included: listening to users (their ideas will be different than yours), engaging stakeholders through the design process, and have iterative designs.

Overall, this activity was a success, and we will be doing it next year.

In Engineering Projects In Community Service (EPICS), students work on projects with local community organizations.  EPICS was started at Purdue University in 1994 and is recognized throughout the world.

Here at SJSU, we are seeking to address local social and environmental issues, while providing engineering students with a real-world and meaningful educational opportunity.  Additionally, we have opportunities for feedback, mentorship and engagement throughout the year from industry professionals.

The semester has just started and here are some things we have in store:

• Amazing projects – there are projects working with local community organizations
• Design Reviews – there is an opportunity for students to present their projects to industry professionals at design reviews
• Student presentations at Global Humanitarian conference – the IEEE president has invited the EPICS to present their projects!
• Crowdfunding campaign
• Makerspace – Waterjet, CNC, soldering, 3D printing and more

It is a pleasure for us to extend a word of welcome to you on behalf of everyone at EPICS. Please follow us to keep up to date with what we are doing!