Teaching the Internet of Things (IoT)

Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) located in Springfield, Massachusetts, has started to offer a new certificate program - "Internet of Things" - in conjunction with its long running Computer Systems Engineering Technology (CSET) program. This new certificate consists of several pre-existing courses from the CSET program and four new courses that specially address the technology of the Internet of Things (IoT): ELE-111, Internet of Things; ELE-128, IoT Networking and Security; ELE-168, Developing the Things for the Internet of Things; and CSE-172, Cloud Computing for IoT. Each of these four new courses has an associated three-hour lab component that deals with the hardware and software of typical IoT implementations. This paper discusses the need for this new multi-disciplinary certificate, the necessary skill sets to deal with the IoT, the target audience for the certificate, and the contents of the various courses and their hands-on lab elements. Additionally, the paper details the required equipment and supplies to implement a comparable program.