Smart Buildings and the Internet of Things

909 Download(s)

Downloads:

Full Lesson Plan as PDF (126.13 KB)

Lesson synopsis

IOT‘Smart buildings’ meld environmentally responsible design with cutting-edge computing technology. This lesson explores the practical, scientific, ethical, and environmental issues that emerge in building ‘smart buildings’ that rely on ‘the internet of things’. Students work in teams using resourced technology to design and perhaps later implement, smart building solutions to make their school a better place in which to live.

Age Levels

11 - 17 years

Objectives

Introduce students to
the concepts ‘smart building’ and ‘the internet of things’
design principles and technologies that are used to create smart buildings
how computing solutions can support solutions for the common good
how sensors, message passing, and event handling implement ‘smart building’ technology

Anticipated learner outcomes

Students will be able to
explain what makes a building ‘smart’
explain how sensors, event handling, and message passing are used to support ‘the Internet of things’
design experiments to collect data on the environmental and social needs of a physical environment
develop a proposal for a solution to an identified need in a physical environment

Internet Connections

Designing Smart Building Environments: Exploring Careers in Engineering and Technology
http://ieeetv.ieee.org/careers/designing-smart-building-environments-exploring-careers-in-engineering-and-technology
Video on Smart Buildings
https://www.youtube.com/watch
Video on Internet of Things
https://www.youtube.com/watch
Electronic sensor kits such as SparckFun
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12862
First Robotics League sensors
http://www.robotshop.com/en/sensors.html
The Finch Robot from BirdBrain Technologies
http://www.finchrobot.com/
Arduino sensors
http://www.instructables.com/id/ARDUINO-TEMPERATURE-SENSOR-LM35/

Recommended Reading

http://www.buildingefficiencyinitiative.org/articles/what-smart-building
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things
https://www.intorobotics.com/pick-best-temperature-sensor-arduino-project/comment-page-1/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Message_passing

Optional Writing Activity

As a team you identified an environmental or social need in your school that could benefit from ‘smart building’ technology that works through concepts from ‘the internet of things’. Summarize your identified problem and proposed solution and discuss how you would ‘sell’ the project to your school administration.

See all lesson plans

King's Quest
Roberta Williams

Video games immerse users in a world of high tech thrills, stunning visuals, unique challenges, and interactivity. They enable users to become a warrior princess or a gruesome ghoul, create a virtual persona, or even develop worlds that other gamers can play on. But before the games of today became reality, they were the dreams of a few innovative individuals.

Roberta Williams is considered one of the pioneers of gaming as we know it today. During the 80’s and 90’s along with husband Ken Williams through their company On-Line Systems, she developed some of the first graphical adventure games. These included such titles as Mystery House, Wizard and the Princess and the popular King’s Quest series. Williams also helped introduce more girls and women to the world of gaming by bringing games developed from a woman’s perspective to mainstream market.

(x) Close
Turing machine
Alan Mathison Turing
Alan Mathison Turing

Did you know that computing has been used in military espionage and has even influenced the outcome of major wars? Alan Mathison Turing designed the code breaking machine that enabled the deciphering of German communications during WWII. As per the words of Winston Churchill, this would remain the single largest contribution to victory. In addition, he laid the groundwork for visionary fields such as automatic computing engines, artificial intelligence and morphogenesis. Despite his influential work in the field of computing, Turing experienced extreme prejudice during his lifetime regarding his sexual orientation. There is no doubt that computers are ubiquitously part of our lives due to the infusion of Turing’s contributions.

(x) Close
First computer mouse
Douglas Engelbart
Douglas Engelbart

In 1967, Douglas Engelbart applied for a patent for an "X-Y position indicator for a display system," which he and his team developed at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) in Menlo Park, California. The device, a small, wooden box with two metal wheels, was nicknamed a "mouse" because a cable trailing out of the one end resembled a tail.

In addition to the first computer mouse, Engelbart’s team developed computer interface concepts that led to the GUI interface, and were integral to the development of ARPANET--the precursor to today’s Internet. Engelbart received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Oregon State University in 1948, followed by an MS in 1953 and a Ph.D. in 1955 both from the University of California, Berkeley.

(x) Close
MATLAB graph
Cleve Moler

Cleve Moler improved the quality and accessibility of mathematical software and created a highly respected software system called MATLAB. He was a professor of mathematics and computer science for almost 20 years at the University of Michigan, Stanford University, and the University of New Mexico. In the late 1970’s to early 1980’s he developed several mathematical software packages to support computational science and engineering. These packages eventually formed the basis of MATLAB, a programming environment for algorithm development, data analysis, visualization, and numerical computation. MATLAB can be used to solve technical computing problems faster than with traditional programming languages, such as C, C++, and Fortran. Today, Professor Moler spends his time writing books, articles, and MATLAB programs.

Listen to what Professor Moler has to say about his life’s work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT5umwNSAxE

(x) Close
Gordon and SenseCam QUT
Gordon Bell
Gordon and SenseCam QUT

Gordon Bell is a pioneering computer designer with an influential career in industry, academia and government. He graduated from MIT with a degree in electrical engineering. From 1960, at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), he designed the first mini- and time-sharing computers and was responsible for DEC's VAX as Vice President of R&D, with a 6 year sabbatical at Carnegie Mellon University. In 1987, as NSF’s first, Ass't Director for Computing (CISE), he led the National Research Network panel that became the Internet. Bell maintains three interests: computing, lifelogging, and startup companies—advising over 100 companies. He is a Fellow of the, Association of Computing Machinery, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and four academies. He received The 1991 National Medal of Technology. He is a founding trustee of the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA. and is an Researcher Emeritus at Microsoft. His 3 word descriptor: Computing my life; computing, my life.

(x) Close
Image credits