EPICS in IEEE’s Awards Honor Outstanding Students and Faculty

The EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) in IEEE program, administered by IEEE Educational Activities, has launched the Excellent EPICS in IEEE Contributor Awards. The recognitions honor the program’s outstanding students and faculty volunteers in Excellent Team Leader and Excellent Faculty Advisor categories. The awards recognize individuals whose leadership, mentorship, and commitment have meaningfully advanced the impact of EPICS projects. Candidates must demonstrate clear, measurable contributions that elevate both the student experience and the outcomes delivered to community partners. Reviewers also consider other awards, publications, presentations, and professional achievements that reinforce the nominee’s credibility and leadership. Recipients must demonstrate outstanding project management and documentation, strong mentoring and collaboration, and high-quality outcomes. Here are this year’s recipients. Team Leader Award Surattana Kakay is a computer engineering student at Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT), located in IEEE Region 10 (Asia Pacific). Kakay, an IEEE student member, was honored for guiding her team in the design, development, and implementation of the Automatic Water Level Control System project, which aids rice farmers in Thailand. As the team leader, Kakay played a pivotal role in transforming the student initiative into an operational, community‑centered solution. Her inspiration was purpose-driven, she says. “My motivation was to apply engineering to real agricultural challenges, like water scarcity and climate change,” she says. “I wanted to bridge advanced technology with the tangible needs of local farmers.” She managed the project end to end—coordinating workflow, assigning tasks based on team members’ strengths, and ensuring each phase of development aligned with the technical road map she created. She served as the primary liaison between the student team, the Pathum Thani Rice Research Center, and farmers to make sure the system was practical and user‑friendly, and that it addressed community needs. “Watching students grow as they design solutions that improve lives has been both inspiring and deeply humbling.” —Elizabeth Vidal-Duarte Under her leadership, the team developed a low‑cost IoT‑based alternate wetting and drying (AWD) system that lets farmers remotely monitor and control water levels in rice paddies using smartphones. Kakay oversaw the integration of noncontact laser time‑of‑flight sensors to withstand harsh field conditions, and she championed the use of long-range technology connected to a free community Wi‑Fi network to eliminate Internet service fees. The results were transformative, Kakay says. “Our AWD system reduces water consumption by 63 percent and methane emissions by 7 percent annually,” she says. “Turning an academic assignment into a real‑world solution that delivers measurable, sustainable results has been incredibly meaningful.” Her achievements advanced sustainability for Thailand’s most water‑intensive crop while demonstrating the potential of accessible engineering solutions. Beyond technical innovation, Kakay cultivated a culture of learning, continuity, and empowerment within her team. She introduced a mentorship framework to support future student cohorts. She and her team produced academic papers, visual media, and presentations to communicate the project’s value to scientific audiences as well as the general public. “Surattana Kakay is a pivotal figure in turning innovation into reality and delivering tangible benefits to the community,” says IEEE Member Thanasin Bunnam, her faculty advisor and an assistant professor at RMUTT. Kakay’s leadership journey became a personal milestone, she says: “Leading this project transformed me from a student into a team leader. As a female engineer, it empowered me to advocate for women in engineering and show that gender is no barrier to technical excellence.” Through her guidance, the AWD project evolved from a classroom assignment into a solution that illustrates IEEE’s mission of advancing technology for humanity. Faculty Advisor Awards Navid Shaghaghi, a lecturer and researcher at Santa Clara University, in California, was recognized for his dedication to integrating service learning into engineering education and fostering student innovation that benefits underserved communities in IEEE Region 6 (Western USA). During his more than six years of engagement with EPICS in IEEE, Shaghaghi, an IEEE senior member, has demonstrated exceptional leadership in advancing sustainable, human‑centered engineering through the long‑running Hydration Automation (HA) project and the HiveSpy initiative. They are part of Santa Clara University’s Frugal Innovation Hub and EPIC Research Laboratory. The HA project is funded by EPICS in IEEE Fischer Mertel Community of Projects. Since 2019, Shaghaghi has served as principal investigator for the HA project, guiding its evolution from protot

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