I-Corps L: Novel Instructional Wireless Sensor Network Kit for STEM+C Training

通过美国国家科学基金会创新团队学习计划(i-Corps L)，该项目将开发出更广泛使用教学实验室的方法，帮助工科本科生学习设计和编程最先进的传感器和智能设备。该项目由休斯顿大学开发，名为mySmart工具包。基本的mySmart套件包括传感器节点，用于测量温度、光线、噪音、方向和加速度。该套件将集成的无线功能与监控传感器的基本移动应用程序结合在一起。该套件可用于监控环境和家庭安全等应用。可以设计和建造各种系统，这些系统利用无线传感器的输入来无线控制闪电或供暖和制冷系统等设备。MySmart套件为工程专业学生提供有关智能传感器网络的实践体验，以开发和提高他们对创建下一代智能设备所需的设计原则和实践的知识和理解。基本的MySmart套件是围绕创建智能家居的主题开发的。基本能力是通过22个实践项目来培养的。这些项目利用了学生在智能手机等常见设备上可用的功能类型。这些功能包括麦克风、加速计、摄像头和GPS等嵌入式传感器。这些项目还利用了蜂窝、Wi-Fi和蓝牙等连接。除了工程设计原则，智能家居项目还涵盖了各种STEM主题，包括机械设计、材料、电路、网络和计算。MySmart套件基于工业无线传感器网络标准。这些项目包括确保个性化学习所需的灵活性，并提供一个直观、易于使用的平台。三个关键能力使学生能够开发自己的原型设计：感知/驱动、连接/通信和计算。在i-Corps L项目中，项目团队将与这项技术的潜在用户进行互动，以更好地了解该工具包的各种用户的需求，并将制定想法，以增加采用这些项目的项目数量。鉴于智能设备在当前和未来技术中的重要作用，该项目有可能帮助美国工程学毕业生继续成为开发创新技术以满足社会需求的领导者。

Through the NSF Innovation Corps for Learning Program, (I-Corps L), this project will develop ways to achieve more widespread use of a teaching laboratory that helps undergraduate engineering students learn to design and program state-of-the-art sensors and smart devices. This project, developed at the University of Houston, is called the mySmart kit. The basic mySmart kit includes sensor nodes to measure temperature, light, noise, orientation, and acceleration. the kit combines integrated wireless capability with basic mobile apps that monitor the sensors. The kit can be used for applications such as monitoring the environment and home security. A variety of systems can be designed and built that utilize input from the wireless sensors to control devices such as lightning or heating and cooling systems wirelessly. The mySmart kit provides engineering students with hands-on experiences on smart sensor networks to develop and enhance their knowledge and understanding of the design principles and practices needed to create the next generation of smart devices.The basic mySmart kit is developed around the theme of creating a smart home. Basic competence is developed through twenty-two hands-on projects. The projects make use of the types of capabilities available to students in commonly-owned devices such as smartphones. These capabilities include embedded sensors such as microphones, accelerometers, cameras, and GPS. The projects also utilize connectivity such as cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. In addition to engineering design principles, the smart home project covers a variety of STEM topics including mechanical design, materials, electrical circuits, networking, and computation. The mySmart kit is based on industrial wireless sensor network standards. The projects include the flexibility needed to ensure individualized learning and provide an intuitive, easy to use platform. Three critical capabilities allow students to develop their own prototype designs: sensing/ actuation, connectivity/communications and computing. In the I-Corps L program, the project team will interact with potential users of this technology to better understand the needs of various users of the kit, and will develop ideas for increasing the number programs that adopt these projects. Given the important role of smart devices in current and future technology, the project has the potential to help US engineering graduates continue to be leaders in developing innovative technology to meet societal needs.