Introducing the Internet of Things to Computer Science Students

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show the importance of integrating the Internet of Things (IoT) into the curriculum, especially for computer science students. The Internet of Things is a new trend in the development of the Internet, where focus is on interaction between objects, i.e. “things”. The IoT has become very widespread and the number of smart devices is increasing on a daily basis, thus we are talking about smart wearables, smart home, smart city, smart cars, smart healthcare, smart agriculture, etc. Therefore, it is important to familiarize computer science students with the IoT concept by examining literature and participating in practical projects which prepare them for future jobs. This paper describes the learning model with IoT projects as a part of course curriculum, for a 1st year Computer science students of the Polytechnic of Rijeka. The working hypothesis is that students show better results on the course with IoT projects in curriculum than in previous years with traditional teaching methods. The most significant goal of such a project is to reduce the educational gap between the skills demanded by the labor market and the practical knowledge of the future workforce in the IT field.