Smart Buildings and the Internet of Things

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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.

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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

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Liz Gerber - Image credit Lisa Beth Anderson
Liz Gerber
Liz Gerber - Image credit Lisa Beth Anderson

Liz Gerber earned her MS and PhD in Product Design and Management Science and Engineering at Stanford. She specializes in design and human-computer interaction, particularly how social computing supports the innovation process. Her current research investigates crowd-funding as a mechanism for reducing disparities in entrepreneurship.
Gerber's work funded by the US National Science Foundation and the National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance has appeared in peer-reviewed journals, including Transactions on Computer Human Interactions, Design Studies, and Organization Science.
As an award-winning teacher and researcher, Liz has touched the lives of more than 6,000 students through her teaching at Northwestern's Segal Design Institute and Stanford University's Hasso Plattner's Institute of Design and through her paradigm-shifting creation, Design for America, a national network of students using design to tackle social challenges.

Image credit - Lisa Beth Anderson

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Gordon Bell
Gordon and SenseCam QUT

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Dr. Sue Black
Dr. Sue Black

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