research-article

Teaching internet of things (IoT) literacy: a systems engineering approach

Author:

Natalia Silvis-CividjianAuthors Info & Claims

ICSE-SEET '19: Proceedings of the 41st International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training

Pages 50 - 61

https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSE-SEET.2019.00014

Published: 27 May 2019 Publication History

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) invades our world with billions of smart, interconnected devices, all programmed to make our lives easier. For educators, teaching such a vast and dynamic field is both a necessity and a challenge. IoT-relevant topics such as programming, hardware, networking and artificial intelligence are already covered in core computing curricula. Does this mean that fresh graduates are well prepared to tackle complex IoT problems? Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. The problem is that IoT devices are complex systems, where software, hardware, and humans interact with each other. From this interaction, unique behavior and hazardous situations can emerge that might easily stay undetected, unless systems are analyzed as a whole. This paper presents two differently flavored courses that teach IoT using a holistic, system-centric approach. The first is a broad introduction to Pervasive Computing, focused on the intelligence of "Things". The second is an advanced course that zooms on the process of testing a software-intensive system. The key characteristics of our approach are: (1) teaching only the bare essentials (topics needed for end-to-end engineering of a smart system), (2) a strong, hands-on project component, using microcontroller-based miniature systems, inspired by real-life, and (3) a rich partnership with industry and academic idea incubators. Positive student evaluations gathered during the last five years demonstrate that such an approach brings engagement, self-confidence and realism in IoT classrooms. We believe that this success can be replicated in other courses, by shifting the focus on different IoT-relevant aspects.

References

[1]

Weiser, M. 1991. The computer for the 21st century, Scientific American, 265, 66--75.

[2]

Leveson, N.G. 2012. Engineering a Safer World. A Systems Thinking Applied to Safety. MIT Press

[3]

Mindstorms NXT Hardware Developer Kit, Online: http://mindstorms.lego.com

[4]

Raspberry Pi, Online: https://www.raspberrypi.org/

[5]

Arduino, https://www.arduino.cc/

[6]

Jai W. Kang, Qi Yu, and Erik Golen. 2017. Teaching IoT (Internet of Things) Analytics. In Proceedings of the 18th Annual Conference on Information Technology Education (SIGITE '17). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 135--140.

Digital Library

[7]

Farha Ali. 2015. Teaching The Internet of Things Concepts. In Proceedings of the WESE'15: Workshop on Embedded and Cyber-Physical Systems Education (WESE'15), Martin Edin Grimheden (Ed.). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Article 10, 6 pages.

Digital Library

[8]

Silvis-Cividjian, N. 2015. Teaching Pervasive Computing to CS Freshmen: A Multidisciplinary Approach. In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE '15), 195--200.

Digital Library

[9]

Strobel, J., van Barneveld, A. 2009. When is PBL More Effective? A Meta-synthesis of Meta-analyses Comparing PBL to Conventional Classrooms. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning, 3(1), 4.

[10]

"Neurosky", Online: https://www.neurosky.com

[11]

Matlab, the language of technical computing, Online: http://www.mathworks.nl/products/matlab/

[12]

Pololu, Online: https://www.pololu.com

[13]

T. Astigarraga et al. 2010. The Emerging Role of Software Testing in Curricula. In Proceedings of the IEEE Conference Transforming Engineering Education.1-26.

[14]

R. Pham. et al. 2017. Onboarding inexperienced developers: struggles and perceptions regarding automated testing. Software Quality Journal, 25, 4, 1239--1268.

Digital Library

[15]

Silvis-Cividjian, N. 2018. A safety-aware, systems-based approach to teaching software testing. In Proceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE 2018). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 314--319.

Digital Library

[16]

P. A. McQuaid. 2012. Software disasters---understanding the past, to improve the future. Journal of Software: Evolution and Process, 24, 5, 459--470.

[17]

Online: https://www.mbed.org

[18]

Barry Burd, Lecia Barker, Monica Divitini, Felix Armando Fermin Perez, Ingrid Russell, Bill Siever, and Liviana Tudor. 2018. Courses, Content, and Tools for Internet of Things in Computer Science Education. In Proceedings of the 2017 ITiCSE Conference on Working Group Reports (ITiCSE-WGR '17). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 125--139.

Digital Library

[19]

Anna Förster, Jens Dede, Andreas Könsgen, Asanga Udugama, and Idrees Zaman. 2017. TEACHING THE INTERNET OF THINGS. GetMobile: Mobile Comp. and Comm. 20, 3 (January 2017), 24--28.

Digital Library

[20]

Farha Ali. 2015. Teaching The Internet of Things Concepts. In Proceedings of the WESE'15: Workshop on Embedded and Cyber-Physical Systems Education (WESE'15), Martin Edin Grimheden (Ed.). ACM, New York, NY, USA, Article 10, 6 pages.

Digital Library

[21]

S. Kurkovsky and C. Williams. 2017. Raspberry Pi as a Platform for the Internet of Things Projects: Experiences and Lessons. In Proceedings of ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education ITiCSE, 64--69.

Digital Library

[22]

G.J. Mullett, Teaching the Internet of Things (IoT) using Universally Available Raspbery Pi and Arduino Platforms, ASEEs 123 Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, 2016.

[23]

Aufderheide, D., Krybus, W., Witkowski, U. 2012. Experiences with LEGO MINDSTORMS as an embedded and Robotics Platform within the Undergraduate Curriculum. In Advances in Autonomous Robotics, Springer Lecture notes in Computer Science, 7429, (2012), 185--196.

[24]

J. O. Hamblen, and G. M. E. v. Bekkum. 2013. An Embedded Systems Laboratory to Support Rapid Prototyping of Robotics and the Internet of Things. IEEE Transactions on Education. 56, 1, 121--128.

Digital Library

[25]

Cuéllar, M. P. and Pegalajar, M. C. 2014. Design and implementation of intelligent systems with LEGO Mindstorms for undergraduate computer engineers. Computer Applications in Engineering and Education, 22, (2014), 153--166.

[26]

Shannon Duvall and Joel Hollingsworth. 2016. Creating a course on the internet of things for undergraduate computer science majors. J. Comput. Sci. Coll. 32, 2 (December 2016), 97--103.

Digital Library

[27]

Štuikys V., Burbaitė R. (2018) Internet-of-Things: A New Vision for STEM and CS Education. In: Smart STEM-Driven Computer Science Education. Springer, Cham.

[28]

Behrens, A., et al. 2010. MATLAB Meets LEGO Mindstorms - A Freshman Introduction Course Into Practical Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Education, 53(2), 306--317.

Digital Library

[29]

Chalmers, D. 2011. Sensing and systems in pervasive computing, Springer.

Digital Library

[30]

Vourvopoulos, A., Liarokapis, F. 2011. Brain-Controlled NXT Robot: Tele-operating a Robot Through Brain Electrical Activity. In Proceedings of the 2011 Third International Conference on Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications, IEEE Computer Society, 140--143.

Digital Library

[31]

Bohn, J., Coroama, V., Langheinrich, M., Mattern, Friedemann, Rohs, M. 2005. Social, economic, and ethical implications of ambient intelligence and ubiquitous computing. In Ambient intelligence. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg.

[32]

N. Harrison. 2010. Teaching Software Testing from Two Viewpoints. The Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges. 26, 2, 55--62.

Digital Library

[33]

J. Cleland-Huang and M. Rahimi. 2017. A case study: Injecting safety-critical thinking into graduate software engineering projects. In Proceedings of ICSE. 67--76.

Digital Library

[34]

J. Hamblen. 2017. Controlling a Model Railroad using mbed. Retrieved from https://os.mbed.com/users/4180_1/notebook/controlling-a-model-railroad-using-mbed/.

[35]

L. Toms and D. West. 2017. Adding Fun to First-Year Computer Programming Classes with MATLAB, Arduino Microcontrollers, and Model Trains. Retrieved from https://nl.mathworks.com/company/newsletters/articles/adding-fun-to-first-year-computer-programming-classes-with-matlab-arduino-microcontrollers-and-model-trains.html.

[36]

K. Crittenden, D. Hall and P. Brackin. 2010. Living With The Lab: Sustainable Lab Experiences For Freshman Engineering Students. In Proceedings of ASEE.

[37]

G. A. Mabbott. 2014. Teaching Electronics and Laboratory Automation Using Microcontroller Boards. Journal of Chemical Education. 91, 9, 1458--1463.

Cited By

Zhu ZLiu ZZhang YZhu LHuang JVillanueva AQian XPeppler KRamani K(2023)LearnIoTVR: An End-to-End Virtual Reality Environment Providing Authentic Learning Experiences for Internet of ThingsProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581396(1-17)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544548.3581396
Schmiedmayer PChatley RBernius JKrusche SChaika KKrinkin KBruegge BPéraire CSerebrenik A(2022)Global software engineering in a global classroomProceedings of the ACM/IEEE 44th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training10.1145/3510456.3514163(113-121)Online publication date: 21-May-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3510456.3514163
Netinant PNarad PRukhiran M(2021)A Case Study of Project-based Learning on Internet of Things CourseProceedings of the 7th International Conference on Frontiers of Educational Technologies10.1145/3473141.3473237(126-131)Online publication date: 4-Jun-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3473141.3473237

Recommendations

Courses, Content, and Tools for Internet of Things in Computer Science Education
ITiCSE-WGR '17: Proceedings of the 2017 ITiCSE Conference on Working Group Reports

Smart devices are everywhere, yet the Internet of Things revolution is still in its infancy. In the Internet of Things (IoT) everyday objects share data over networks, with or without human intervention. Teaching IoT entails selecting among many ...
The internet of things in undergraduate computer and information science education: exploring curricula and pedagogy
ITiCSE 2018 Companion: Proceedings Companion of the 23rd Annual ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education

As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues its expansion into homes, businesses, government, and industries, the impact for computer science educators is amplified. In 2017, the ITiCSE IoT working group identified relevant content, tools for teaching, ...
Teaching The Internet of Things Concepts
WESE'15: Proceedings of the WESE'15: Workshop on Embedded and Cyber-Physical Systems Education

Named one of the disruptive technologies of the current world, Internet of Things (IoT) is being adopted in many areas of every day life. With an expected growth of exponential measures, IoT brings the promise of generating huge revenues. Companies are ...

Comments

Please enable JavaScript to view thecomments powered by Disqus.

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

ICSE-SEET '19: Proceedings of the 41st International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training

May 2019

234 pages

Conference Chairs:
Sarah Beecham
Lero - the Irish Software Research Centre, Univ of Limerick
,
Daniela Damian
University of Victoria

Sponsors

SIGSOFT: ACM Special Interest Group on Software Engineering
IEEE-CS: Computer Society

Publisher

IEEE Press

Publication History

Published: 27 May 2019

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Conference

ICSE '19

Sponsor:

SIGSOFT
IEEE-CS

ICSE '19: 41st International Conference on Software Engineering

May 27, 2019

Quebec, Montreal, Canada

Upcoming Conference

ICSE 2025

2025 IEEE/ACM 46th International Conference on Software Engineering

April 26 - May 3, 2025

Ottawa , ON , Canada

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

3
Total Citations
View Citations
172
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)19
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)1

Reflects downloads up to 29 Nov 2024

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Zhu ZLiu ZZhang YZhu LHuang JVillanueva AQian XPeppler KRamani K(2023)LearnIoTVR: An End-to-End Virtual Reality Environment Providing Authentic Learning Experiences for Internet of ThingsProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581396(1-17)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544548.3581396
Schmiedmayer PChatley RBernius JKrusche SChaika KKrinkin KBruegge BPéraire CSerebrenik A(2022)Global software engineering in a global classroomProceedings of the ACM/IEEE 44th International Conference on Software Engineering: Software Engineering Education and Training10.1145/3510456.3514163(113-121)Online publication date: 21-May-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3510456.3514163
Netinant PNarad PRukhiran M(2021)A Case Study of Project-based Learning on Internet of Things CourseProceedings of the 7th International Conference on Frontiers of Educational Technologies10.1145/3473141.3473237(126-131)Online publication date: 4-Jun-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3473141.3473237

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Table of Contents