To celebrate the ever-growing presence of IoT (Internet of Things) in the scene of technology, NMiTE Ingenuity Studio is offering a programme of one-day workshops, all to do with the Internet of Things over the Easter holidays at The Courtyard Centre for the Arts in Hereford.
Because of this, the team at Ingenuity Studio and its ambassadors have been busy researching and developing IoT-based projects that learners can tackle hands-on to learn new skills used in real-world engineering. And in the process, we have learned much ourselves!
Studio Facilitator Daisy Hung and Ingenuity Ambassador’s Simon Wihl & Peter Karney have been working on the development of an alerting device consisting of a BBC micro:bit controlled water sensor which sends data across the internet using a WiFi chip and ThingSpeak, a cloud storage and cloud computing platform that is free to use.
During the first tester session learners built their own water detector IoT device with the BBC micro:bit. The session proved to be eye-opening for both the learners and the facilitators as this was our first ever IoT Toolkit, and for many of the participants it was their first experience with programming and electronics. Other IoT Toolkits are still in the development stages.
Other Toolkits focus on PCBs (Printed Circuit Boards), where participants can learn to wire up circuits through soldering and design and make housings for the electronics. This Toolkit is led by our Ingenuity Ambassador, Nick Prince.
IoT is a steadily growing market and we can expect an explosion of IoT products and applications in industry over the next few years. We are ecstatic to be joining in on this amazing journey!