Instructor: Dr. Li

Email: xhli@citytech.cuny.edu

Office Hours: See announcement on the BrightSpace

Note: With the waning of COVID-19, the office hours have been back to in-person. 

Welcome to CET4925 Internet of Things, a fascinating and rapidly booming technology field! This webpage can simply be reached by googling “City Tech IoT Dr. Li”.

Course Description

Introduction to architecture of Internet of Things (IoT) and basics of the key technologies for developing an IoT system, including physical computing, communication and connectivity, and IoT clouds. A variety of IoT implementations and applications are introduced. Students use some of the technologies with experimental hardware platforms to implement a prototype IoT system.

Grading PolicY

Items Percentage
Attendance
10%
Labs
25%
Midterm Project Proposal
15%
Final Project Report
15%
Final Project & Extra Credits
35%

A: 93~100     A-: 90~92.99      B+: 87~89.99      B: 83~86.99          B-: 80~82.99     C+: 77~79.99     C: 70~76.99       D: 60~69.99

Syllabus and Course Documents

  • Course Syllabus: Detailed information about the course and course policies, including requisites, grading policy, learning outcomes and other course policies.
  • Lab Reports Requirements: Detailed requirements on lab experiments and lab reports (including report’s content and format).
  • Guide on How to Write Technical Reports: A very good guide written by IET (Institute of Engineering & Technology, one of the largest international non-for-profit engineering professional organizations, dated back to 1871). Copyright@IET.

Weekly Schedule

Note: Due to discontinuation of IoT services on IBM Cloud and Google Cloud in 2023, the weekly schedule has been revised. See updated schedule here.

Week# Topics Notes on Course Project
1
Intro to the course, course project, project videos, and project ideas.

Ch 1: Intro and Architecture of IoT: history, applications, examples
Team-up; Research /brainstorm project ideas; Order Photon
2
Ch 1: Intro and Architecture of IoT (Contd): Architecture, ecosystems
Team-up finishes; Research/ brainstorm project ideas. Start to order parts/components
3
Ch 2: Physical computing platforms for IoT: MCU, MPU/SBC, PLC and FPGA; and comparison of all platforms

Lab 1: Get started with Particle
Get project approved by instructor; Search & order parts & supplies
4
Ch 3: Review/Primer of C++ OOP Programming

Ch 4:. I/O for IoT

Lab 2: Input with Photon (digital/analog): temperature or IR sensor

Lab 3: Output with Photon (digital/analog), Dimmer light, DC brushed motor, DC servo motor or text LCD display
Discuss project design; Divide the jobs; Continue ordering parts
5
Ch 5: Connectivity Technologies: From FieldBus and WSN, to WiFi/Celluar/ZigBee/BLE/Z-Wave/RuBee, and the latest Thread, LoRa, Sigfox and NB-IoT
Continue with project design; Continue ordering parts
6
Ch 6 & Lab 4: IoTing via IFTTT

Midterm project proposal due in two weeks
Continue with project design; Continue ordering parts; Start to develop project proposal
7
Ch 7: IoT Cloud: Introduction and ReST

Due to the discontinuation of IoT services of IBM Cloud and Google Cloud, the following labs 5~8 have been retired. Click the "Weekly Schedule" menu on the top for updates.

Lab 5: Intro to IBM Watson IoT Platform (Quickstart)

Handout: Get Started with IBM Watson IoT Platform

Handout: Dr. Li's example code of sending data to IBM Watson IoT Platform Quickstart
Continue with project design; Finish ordering parts; Start to build the project -- the physical platform.

Midterm Proposal due next week
8
Ch 7: IoT Cloud (contd.) -- MQTT

Lab 6: Using MQTT to send data to IBM Watson IoT Platform & Data visualization

Handout: Visualize real-time data by IBM Watson IoT Platform

Handout: Dr. Li's example code of sending data for visualization on IBM Watson IoT Platform

Link: MQTT library for Photon: https://github.com/hirotakaster/MQTT
Continue building the project hardware components/subsystems.

Project proposal Due! See Blackboard for the exact due date.
9
Ch 7: IoT Cloud (contd) -- Node-RED

Lab 7: Node-RED app to tweet an alert message according to remote sensor readings

Handout: Dr. Li's Example Node-RED flow for generating Twitter alert messages
Continue building the project: system physical platform is in shape; program and test sensors
10
Continue building the project: program and test actuators
11
Ch 7: IoT Cloud (contd) -- AWS IoT

Lab 9A: IoTing via AWS -- AWS IoT Core

Handout: Dr. Li's example code -- Photon sends sensor data to and receives commands from AWS IoT Core over MQTT TLS

Handout: A Brief instruction on using Particle CLI to create a project, compile and flash the code to Photon

MQTT.fx: a MQTT client software (very handy! Highly recommended for testing MQTT connection!)

How to use MQTT.fx: an example connection profile (screenshot); and an simple guide (link here)

Lab 9B: IoTing via AWS -- Node-RED with AWS EC2
Finish setting up IoT Cloud and start the programming with the Cloud
12
Ch 7: IoT Cloud (contd) -- AWS IoT

Lab 9C: IoTing via AWS -- Lambda Functions for IoTing

Lab 9D: IoTing via AWS --  AWS Greengrass (optional)
Final testing of each component, and integrate everything together
13
Ch 7 IoT Cloud — Microsoft Azure IoT

Lab 10: Intro to Microsoft Azure IoT Hub and IoT Central
Integrate everything, preliminary system testing. Bring in everything and work on the project next week
14
Project hours
Test and refine the entire system
15
Final project demonstration

Tech Documentations

Course Project Requirements & Documents

  • Course Project General Requirements
  • Parts List for Course Project: A reference part list for course project. Complete part list is determined by the actual need of your project.
  • Websites to Order Parts: Some popular websites where you can order parts/supplies.
  • Requirements on Midterm Project Proposal: Detailed requirements on the project proposal regarding its content and format. Note — Additional requirements: A project management profile (a Gantt chart for your project timeline and task division) MUST be included in the proposal. You can use Microsoft Project or an open-source software named as “ProjectLibre” to creat such a chart. See “ProjectLibre” blow for details.
  • Requirements on Final Project Report: Detailed requirements on the final project report’s content and format.
  • ProjectLibre:   ProjectLibre is an open source project management software, as a leading alternative to Microsoft Project. Use it to create the project management profile (called “Gantt Chart“) for your Project Proposal. Download ProjectLibre via link here.
  • A Tutorial on ProjectLibre:   A simply tutorial of ProjectLibre which was developed and used by another class in Fall 2012. Follow the steps described here and get familiar with ProjectLibre.

Projects in the current semester

  • TBA

Projects in Previous semesters

Spring 2023

  • Smart Medicine Bottle
  • Smart Refrigerator
  • Intelligent Traffic Light Control System
  • Smart Sprinkler System
  • Internet Video Doorbell
  • GPS Tracker

Spring 2022

  • Smart Refrigerator
  • Smart Mirror
  • GPS Tracker
  • IoT Irrigation System
  • Smart Sprinkler
  • IoT Pet Food & Water Feeder
  • Internet Video Doorbell
  • IoT Door Lock

Spring 2021

  • Smart Drop-off Security Box
  • GPS Tracker
  • Smart Precision Irrigation System
  • Automated Valet
  • Internet Video Doorbell
  • Smart Door Lock

Spring 2020

  •  Long-range Mesh Network for Wildfire Monitoring & Detection
  • Fall Detection & Alert IoT System for Senior Citizens
  • GPS Tracker
  • Precision Irrigation System
  • Weather Forecast Awared Smart Sprinkler
  • Smart Mailbox
  • Flood Detection IoT System

Spring 2019

  • Smart Intersection: IoT Traffic Control for Smart City
  •  IoT Garbage Bins
  •  Automotive Telemetry
  • Internet Video Doorbell
  • IoT Intercom

Spring 2018

  • Weather Awared Smart Sprinkler
  • Smart Assistive Medicine Bottle
  • IoT Intercom
  • IoT Home Security System

Spring 2017

  • IoT Central Cooling & Heating System
  • IoT Indoor Plant Watering System
  • IoT Safe
  • Smart Curtain

Info on Entrepreneurship

  • IoT Startups and Companies in NYC:  Do you know that 138 IoT startups in NYC have raised total $1566M by January, 2023?! Check NY’s hottest IoT startups and successful companies featured by builtinnyc.com via the link here.
  •  IoT Angel List:  Get to know what is happening now out there in IoT stratup community. In addition, you may find a job in one of the startups via this website. 
  • CUNY Startups Bootcamp & Accelerator:  Teamed up with industry partners, entrepreneur mentors and CUNY faculty, any student/faculty startups at any CUNY campus can join this  6-weeks-long course to get the best of best ready to pitch at CUNY Startup’s NYC Roadshow. As part of the roadshow, outstanding startups will have the opportunity to pitch their new ventures to potential investors, as well as pitch to accelerators. See details at: https://www.cunystartups.com/accelerator

Events & Announcements

  • Frontier Tech: Robotics, Drones, IoT & More Meetup features SwipeSense (location-aware sensors for hospitals), Muse  (brain-sensing headband for meditation), Numina (camera sensing solution to measure street activity), and Apprentice.io (Industrial augmented reality for pharmaceuticals). A great opportunity to get to know what is happening out there in industry world and create some social networks. See event details on https://www.meetup.com/Hardwired-NYC/events/
  •  Job Opening — Hardware Engineer:  Smallhold, a Brooklyn-based IoT agriculture technology company that builds climate-controlled minifarms for restaurants and retailers, is hiring a hardware engineer. See the official website for detailed description and how to apply:  https://www.smallhold.com/hardware-engineer
  •  Summer Intern Opportunities: Brooklyn Navy Yard had direct collaboration with our College and hired many of our City Tech students in the past as summer interns. The internship program in Brooklyn Navy Yard is open to accept applications. A variety of intern positions are offered by the companies inside Brooklyn Navy Yard. Check details at the link: https://brooklynnavyyard.org/employment/summer-internship/
  • Open Lab is Available! Please be advised that effective from the 5th Thursday of this semester, open lab will be available in room V606, V608 and V613. You are welcome to use these lab rooms and equipment there to work on your projects or lab experiments. Open Lab hours are: Thursdays 11:20AM-2:00PM. See department secretary for details.

Archived Events & Announcements

  • “Signal Processing and Predictive Analytics in IoT”:: A talk featuring Stuart Feffer (founder of Realityai) in Build Grand Central (335 Madison Ave, Manhattan) on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 6~8PM. See the talk abstract and event agenda at: https://www.meetup.com/IoT-NY/events/248205840/
  • Aging Innovation Challenge from the New York State Department of Health: The NY State Department of Health calls on students to propose innovations that can support the elderly with an activity of daily living, such as eating or bathing. $50,000 in prizes up for grabbing.Deadline to submit proposals is April 30th, 2018. See https://www.herox.com/aginginnovationNY for more details.
  • Seminar of “Big Data Analytics and its Applicaitons in Business “:  The Computer Engineering & Robotics Technology Seminar Series features “Big Data Analytics and its Applications in Business” by Dr. Shim from College of Staten Island/CUNY on May 4, 2017 (Thur), during 12:45~1:45PM, in room V614. A great opportunity to learn the latest technologies and developments on big data and data analytics.
  • NJ Tech Council IoT Conference 2017 on April 26, 2017: The annual NJ Tech Council IoT Conference 2017 will feature AWS IoT cloud and AT&T foundry, Smart City, smart transportation, many IoT projects demo and networking reception. It will be hold at Steven Insititution of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, on April 26, 2017. If interested, please contact Dr. Li for free-registration promotion code by April 12. See the link here for detailed conference agenda.
  • Brooklyn Tech Triangle Technology Company Tour  is scheduled on Friday, April 8, 2016. See the Blackboard for details.
  • Good news: Schneider Electric is Hiring! Schneider Electric is one of the leading companies in the fields of energy managment and infrastruture equipments all over the global. It has several different openning, both full-time and part-time. They come to our campus to recruit. You are highly suggested to attend their info session on March 3, 2015, 1-2PM, at room N402. They will come back on March 19 for interviewing. Please see CET Dept. Secretary for more details!
  • Brooklyn Tech Triangle U: A series of events to connect the Tech+Arts+Academic communities in Brooklyn MetroTech, DUMBO and Brooklyn Navy Yard. Career events on March 5 and 6, 2015: http://brooklyntechtriangle.com/tech-u/#career-events
  • MobileWeek NY 2015 Hiring Mixer: Join the official MobileWeek Hiring Mixer hosted at Yelp! Which is free for all developers and designers! Date: April 21, 2015, 5:30 PM – 8:30 PM, Venue: YELP! Office NYC | 11 Madison Ave, 16th Floor, New York, NY 10010   See MobileWeek official website for details:   http://mobileweek.co/hiring/

  

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Last updated in January, 2024.