{"id":159228,"date":"2025-01-29T12:10:12","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T17:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/?p=159228"},"modified":"2025-01-29T16:33:54","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T21:33:54","slug":"epic-at-ten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/2025\/01\/29\/epic-at-ten\/","title":{"rendered":"EPIC at Ten"},"content":{"rendered":"

New director, new equipment, same old commitment to training engineers who can make things with modern machines and self-confidence<\/strong><\/h3>\n

By Patrick L. Kennedy<\/strong><\/p>\n

The whine of a band saw. The sparks flying off a surface grinder. The long list of safety rules\u2014don\u2019t wear baggy clothing, wear goggles, tie back long hair. And then there are the dizzying, button-packed control panels that conduct the futuristic ballet going on inside the 3D printers and other big, mysterious machines. It can be intimidating to walk into Boston University\u2019s Engineering Product Innovation Center (EPIC<\/a>) for the first time.<\/p>\n

But spend a little time there, and the people manning those machines will put you at ease\u2014and teach you how to handle the high-tech equipment yourself. \u201cEverybody there is just so kind and helpful and encouraging, it makes you feel like you\u2019re not limited,\u201d says Anya Keller (ENG\u201924), a former EPIC lab assistant. \u201cEPIC tries to nurture an environment where people feel comfortable coming in and exploring their curiosities and not being afraid to learn the correct ways to use these tools. And when you use them correctly, they\u2019ll treat you well back, and you\u2019ll make something beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrating its tenth year in operation, EPIC is a 15,000-square-foot, multi-million-dollar engineering and manufacturing facility prominently sited on Commonwealth Avenue on BU\u2019s Charles River Campus. More than a machine shop, it\u2019s a space where engineering students\u2014and all members of the BU community\u2014are invited to gain hands-on experience in design, prototyping, and small-scale manufacturing. Whether for class assignments or extracurricular projects, students have been crafting creations there for a decade, with recent examples including a Braille typewriter, a dual-use utensil for camping, a data-collecting river rover, custom typeface stencils\u2014even a laser-cut chainmail dress.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Professor of the Practice Steve Chomyszak, director of BU’s Engineering Product Innovation Center (EPIC).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Under the new directorship of Professor of the Practice Steve Chomyszak<\/a> (who has for several years taught manufacturing courses out of EPIC), and with the support of industry partners\u2014including PTC, Arrow Electronics, P&G, GE Aerospace, Shark Ninja, and Amazon Robotics\u2014the center recently installed a spate of new equipment and programs. That\u2019s essential to keep the shop up to date, given the center\u2019s mission of training new engineers for the modern workforce.<\/p>\n

\u201cEPIC is not a stagnant facility,\u201d says Chomyszak. \u201cIt\u2019s constantly improving what it does, so that others can push boundaries further. If we didn\u2019t do that, we\u2019d be making parts out of stone with hammers and chisels.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the shop floor at EPIC, students train on the same kinds of 3D printers, laser cutters, waterjet cutters, manual mills, CNC mills, and other machines that they\u2019ll find in the workplace. \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t have been able to buy this equipment without those industry partners,\u201d says Chomyszak. \u201cThey support us for this purpose: to keep our lab current, keep the technology moving forward, and keep pace with the times, and we strive to do that. It\u2019s expensive to run a place like this, and we could not do it without them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Getting up to speed<\/h3>\n

Putting those modern tools in the hands of students, Chomyszak explains, \u201callows them to complete the cycle from theory to tactile experience.\u201d And the products they create become a portfolio they can point to.<\/p>\n

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Tasker Smith, EPIC lab manager<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a blend of giving them self-confidence and competence on these tools,\u201d says Tasker Smith<\/a>, EPIC lab manager. \u201cPart of that is developing a portfolio, and a huge part of our mission is giving students a pipeline into internships and job opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The invisible barrier that newbies might encounter tumbles quickly with the help of Smith, four full-time lab supervisors, and more than 20 lab assistants, who are typically juniors, seniors, and grad students.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe assume that students walking in are starting at ground zero,\u201d says Chomyszak. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to know how to use any <\/em>of this equipment to come in here. Our staff is trained to help you get up to speed.\u201d<\/p>\n

This peer mentoring system turns out to be educational for the assistants as well. \u201cWe\u2019re training them to be able to field questions,\u201d says Smith, \u201cbut we also tell them, \u2018If you get to the limit of your knowledge and you still haven\u2019t answered someone\u2019s question, then grab a lab supervisor, and we\u2019ll all learn together.\u2019 Because they\u2019re also all in their own arcs in learning and developing self-confidence and competence on these tools.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even Keller, who already had machining experience from her high school robotics club, learned plenty of new skills during her time at EPIC (as both a lab assistant and a client), including 3D printing, injection molding, sand casting, and more. \u201cI would ask my colleagues for help, because everyone had a different knowledge base and different tools they were more specialized in or familiar with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Staff and lab assistants also guide students as they acquire and burnish their skills in computer-aided design (CAD). This is critical, because creating clear engineering drawings is a key first step toward creating a successful product in real life. \u201cThe designing and manufacturing processes are interlinked,\u201d says Chomyszak. \u201cYou have to understand the manufacturing processes so you can design for them; then you get to push the limits, expand the boundaries, after you have a fundamental understanding of the processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hit the ground running<\/h3>\n

Keller says that the entire EPIC experience, along with Chomyszak\u2019s Manufacturing Processes for Design and Production\u2014\u201cthat was the most valuable course I took at Boston University\u201d\u2014combined to make her transition to the workforce an easy one. \u201cIt allowed me to hit the ground running,\u201d says Keller, who is now a mechanical design engineer at ASML.<\/p>\n

The virtuous cycle whereby lab assistants learn even as they teach extends to the non-engineering students they work with. Smith estimates that up to a quarter of EPIC patrons come from other BU schools, including CFA students building elements of a stage set, CAS students building an architectural model, and Questrom students interested in tech entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou improve your own knowledge of these tools when you\u2019re teaching them,\u201d says Keller. \u201cTeaching was one of my greatest joys at EPIC. When someone came in not knowing anything about a certain machine, but they were interested and wanted to learn as much as possible; then they came out being able to create, and you\u2019d helped to make that happen\u2014that was magic.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Anya Keller (ENG’24)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another valuable skill Keller learned at EPIC: \u201cFinding something to do,\u201d she says. On the rare occasions when no students are walking in\u2014and with as many as 1,300 people making 5,500 visits in a semester, down time is rare indeed\u2014Keller says lab assistants are encouraged to do something. <\/em>\u201cSweeping and organizing, putting stuff away\u2014that\u2019s not a remedial task, that\u2019s not beneath you. Building that community of people who care about the shop and want to see it flourish made it a more enjoyable place to work at, and I like to bring that mindset wherever I go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the new initiatives in this, EPIC\u2019s tenth year, Chomsyzak and Smith have been excited to implement a reconfigured floor plan to make teaching and demonstrations easier; extended evening hours to match typical student schedules; and a credentialing program for safety and accountability as well as resume and portfolio purposes.<\/p>\n

Furnishing young engineers with the technical savvy to turn their ideas into reality is not tangential to ENG\u2019s mission, says Smith. \u201cThere\u2019s a spirit of encouraging people to use their talents to improve the world and make it a better place. We need skilled engineers to go out and solve problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

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ENG doctoral student Leo Zamora at EPIC, working on a tiny segment of a medical device for heart surgeries. <\/em>Photo by Cydney Scott<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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“EPIC is not a stagnant facility.” With new equipment and a new director, this is the place to come to gain hands-on experience in design, prototyping, and small-scale manufacturing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2662,"featured_media":159243,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[236,982,908,1298],"tags":[251,926],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159228"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159542,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159228\/revisions\/159542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}