National Science Foundation funds research and development of an IoT platform for smart schools

Fig. 1: A schematic illustration of IoT as a STEM learning integrator

Future sustainable and resilient infrastructure is expected to be powered by renewable energy, be able to respond intelligently to changes in the environment, and support smart and connected communities. We are pleased to announce that the National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded our team a $2.9 million, four-year grant to explore the STEM education and workforce development challenges and opportunities in the coming transformation of our nation's infrastructure.

One of the core innovations will be a cyber-physical engineering platform for designing Internet of Things (IoT) systems that manage the resources, space, and processes of a community based on real-time analysis of data collected by various sensors. This innovation is potentially transformative as it can turn the entire building of a home, the entire campus of a school, or the entire area of a town into an engineering laboratory with virtually unlimited opportunities for learning, research, and exploration.

Fig. 2: A possible IoT system for managing a parking lot

Designing an IoT system provides plenty of opportunities to learn math, science, engineering, and computation practices in an integrated fashion, rather than in isolation. Working with sensors allows students to learn the science behind them through inquiry. For example, to calibrate an IoT system, students must understand what specific variables the sensor data represent scientifically. They must analyze the data to explore in what ranges the variables are supposed to vary in different scenarios in order to determine which type of response should be triggered, to what, and when. The acquired knowledge is then applied to the design of an IoT system, which requires engineering design thinking to make trade-off decisions, optimize system performance, and achieve cost effectiveness. Finally, the control, response, and integration of the entire system are realized through computer programming that deals with all foreseeable complexities. The overlaps among three basic skills—scientific reasoning, design thinking, and computational thinking—supported by the IoT platform provide researchers an opportunity to study their integration, as illustrated in Figure 1. (In fact, mathematical thinking is also involved, but let's just leave that out for now.)

This project is unique to engineering and computer science education because IoT is not only a crucial part of electrical engineering and information technology, but it is also one of the few ways through which computer programming can be directly linked to scientific inquiry and engineering design in the material world. Figure 2 provides an example.

This work is supported by the NSF under grant number 1721054. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper, however, are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.