tl;dr; Students will develop a working IoT prototypes based on ideas introduced in the course. The prototype should be accompanied by clear documentation; to include technical implementation (code, design files, circuit diagrams), need, strategy and use case (explanation, rationale for solution).

Creative Projects

As part of this course, you’re asked to self-select an idea for a IoT prototype that you’re excited to make real. Once we’ve covered the basics, this course will give you the opportuntity to make your own Internet-enabled prototypes. You’ll have a four weekly creative projects (one independent, three collaborative) and one collaborative final project.

For these projects, you get to make whatever you want (so long as it fits the brief!). This gives you a lot of opportunity to build a great project for your portfolio, and to help develop your hardware and software skills!

Learning Objective

As part of the exercise, students will:

• Rapidly prepare a prototype for an Internet of Things scenario;
• Become familiar with the concepts surrounding IoT applications by building them;
• Learn to design and develop simple lightweight IoT prototypes;
• Learn to work independently and collaboratively to prepare a interactive prototype of an IoT product.

Deliverables:

Specific deliverables will be covered in the assignment descriptions, but these projects will require the following to be delivered:

• A working prototype that includes software (code), hardware and electronics elements.
• Code for the application
• Documentation of the project (contributed to the Gallery).
• An in class demo. of the completed project.

Submitting your work:

You’ll submit your work as follows:

Documentation should be posted to the Gallery as a new proejct in the relevant pool. Guidelines on working with this platform can be found here.

1. You should document your project thoroughly including:
   • A description of the concept and goals (include video and/or diagrams as needed.)
   • A description of relevant prior projects, approaches or methods you researched and that inspired the project. Be thorough and show what informed the project.
   • The process you underwent to reach the outcome (experiments, hacks, tests, refinments, iterations, failures)
   • The outcome itself and how it works. Include supporting images, a video of the working prototype, circuit diagrams, etc.)
   • Outline next steps and future directions.
   • Add/upload code and any supporting documentation and files.

Choosing a project

Detailed briefs will be provided for each project. Follow this as a starting point and pay attention to the examples provided.

Aside from this, the possibilities are far and wide. The main thing is to choose something you care about. Having a project that’s genuinely interesting to you is going to be best. Keep in mind that it should be reasonably well scoped i.e. something small, discrete and easy to implement well in a tight turnaround. Don’t try to boil oceans, identify a small solvable problem that illustrate your key idea. Keep it constrained but conceptually interesting. From there there’s lots of options.

Grading

These projects are a way for you to showcase:

• Your engagement and understanding of the material of the module
• Your creative capacity
• Your own interests

Take note: The most important thing for this project is to come up with a compelling concept - something interesting, informed, aware or critical. The breakdown of the grades favors your ability to come up with an idea like this. Focus on the idea before implementation!

A strong grade will result by create interesting, well-crafted and well documented projects. As such, each creative project will be graded as follows:

• 30% - Technical Implementation - Quality of code and execution of the outcome
• 20% - Creativity of Approach and Topic - Merit, creativity, and context for the outcome/proposal
• 20% - Outcome Documentation - Well illustrated with appropriate use of code, video, diagrams, repeatability, etc.
• 20% - Presentation and Demonstration - high quality presentation and well narrated demonstration of the solution
• 10% - Process - Description of process (ideation, iteration, etc.) and personal reflection on learning outcomes

A note on documentation templates: Each creative project will be accompanied with a written description. This is a starting point for your exploration. They aren’t designed to, nor will they, provide a template for things you need to do to get 100%. Please don’t treat them like this. Instead, they are prompts meant to get you thinking. You should interpret them and approach them creatively. You are strongly encouraged to think beyond what’s written.