Teaching the Internet of Things (IoT) Using Universally Available Raspberry Pi and Arduino Platforms

摘要

Major technology corporations like IBM, Cisco, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and others have taken direct aim at the rapidly developing Internet ofThings (IoT) paradigm. These corporations believe that the next major technologic evolution (and hence their future markets and customers) will revolve around this newest application of the Internet. These companies and most involved in the technology fields believe that we are on the cusp of the next transformation of machinery and infrastructure: the process of adding intelligence and connectivity to small to large-scale technology and infrastructure systems and in this process creating the Internet of Things. Already, academic and industry experts in various technical fields have given catchy names to these proposed systems: autonomous cars, Smart Grid, Smart Buildings, Smart Homes, e-health care, are but a few terms that have made it into the popular press. These large-scale and not-so-large-scale applications are becoming possible due to the convergence of several key enabling technologies. Essentially, through the use of networked embedded controllers (known as ambient intelligence) and complex wired and wireless sensor and actuator networks one is able to create intelligent infrastructure systems (i.e. cyber-physical systems) that have the potential to change almost every aspect of mankind's interaction with the environment and most all other forms of human commerce and endeavors. Presently, formal education in these innovative Internet applications is lacking. Cisco, through its online Networking Academy offers a short overview course about the Internet of Everything (IoE) and has announced its intent to offer more online courses about the topic. However, access is restricted to colleges that belong to the Cisco networking academy program. IBM has recently launched its Internet of Things Foundation that offers business and industry partners, as well as, educational entities, development tools to implement and test out their IoT applications with the further ability to visually display acquired data in real time. However, as of yet, most colleges that offer engineering technology education at the two-year college level, do not offer courses or programs to introduce and teach this new technology. This paper will present our experience in our initial attempts to impart an introduction of this technology to our students and to also possibly induce students to become interested in STEM fields. A new four credit course ELE-111 (three hours of lecture and three hours of lab), entitled, Internet of Everything, has been offered to our students this past year. This paper will recount our experience with this specifically hardware centric hands-on course. Course and lab content will be covered and our experience with what worked and what did not will be discussed. This freshly renewed effort to graduate technicians with the skill sets needed to install, evaluate, maintain, and up-grade these IoT systems as they are envisioned is destined to be an ongoing process at our institution.