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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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.

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Ray Tomlinson
Ray Tomlinson

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After completing his Master’s degree at MIT in 1965, Ray joined the Information Sciences Division of Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc. of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since then he has made many notable contributions to the world of network computing. He was a co-developer of the TENEX computer system that was popular in the earliest days of the Internet; he developed the packet radio protocols used in the earliest internetworking experiments; he created the first implementation of TCP; and he was the principle designer of the first workstation attached to the Internet.

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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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Mark Dean

If you have ever used a PC with a color display you have been acquainted with the work of Mark Dean. After achieving a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee, Dean began his career at IBM. Dean served as the chief engineer on the team that developed the first IBM PC, for which he currently holds one third of the patents. With colleague Dennis Moeller, he developed the Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) systems bus, which enabled peripheral devices such as printers, keyboards, and modems to be directly connected to computers, making them both affordable and practical. He also developed the Color Graphics Adapter which allowed for color display on the PC. Most recently, Dean spearheaded the team that developed the one-gigahertz processor chip. Dean went on to obtain a MSEE from Florida Atlantic University and a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, has been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and is the first African-American IBM Fellow.

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