Joins AT&T, UCSD Units to Support Undergrad Team Projects Benefiting Society

Update: The TIES Web site is now available for students to apply. Students can choose among a number of project areas, including wireless/sensors (the area that Calit² is most likely to support).

5.3.04 – The UCSD Division of Calit², the AT&T Foundation, the Jacobs School of Engineering, and the Sa

n Diego Supercomputer Center have teamed to support the “Teams In Engineering Service” (TIES) program. This program will put UCSD undergraduates to work for San Diego non-profit organizations. In conjunction with rigorous academic coursework and training, multidisciplinary teams of UCSD students will design, build, and deploy projects that solve technology-based problems for community partners.

These projects will enable students to put their technical skills to work to address societal needs; gain tangible experience in design, engineering, and communication; and work in interdisciplinary teams of 8-15 students. TIES projects start the fall of 2004.

UCSD TIES is part of the national EPICS program, led by Purdue University, which is operating at 10 universities nationwide. The projects students have worked on include

• developing a customized, distributed database to track clients of the Homelessness Prevention Network, which is still in use five years after the project was completed
• developing custom play environments to enhance the skills of disabled and developmentally delayed children
• engineering exhibits for an interactive children’s science and space museum
• developing a system to treat agricultural runoff that was causing water pollution