Some of the most exciting sessions I teach involve hardware you can hold: sensors, microcontrollers, and robots that respond to code students have written themselves. The Internet of Things is where software finally meets the physical world - and where everything else students have learned suddenly connects.
A single IoT project touches programming, networking, data, and security at once, which makes this area a natural capstone for the rest of the curriculum.
Topics I cover
Sensors and embedded systems
Reading the physical world - temperature, light, motion, distance - with microcontrollers such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi, and programming resource-constrained devices where every byte matters.
Connectivity and protocols
Getting device data onto a network: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and lightweight messaging with MQTT - the publish/subscribe protocol that most real IoT deployments run on.
Data pipelines and dashboards
Turning a stream of raw sensor readings into something useful: collection, storage, visualisation, and alerts - the full journey from measurement to decision.
Robotics integration
Closing the loop with actuators and robotics: systems that don’t just sense the world but act on it, from motor control to simple autonomous behaviour.
Explore: from sensor to dashboard
Every IoT system, from a smart thermostat to a factory floor, follows the same pipeline. Click or tap each stage to explore it.
How I teach it
Students prototype physical computing projects from the first week - wiring sensors, flashing code, and watching real data flow onto dashboards they’ve built. There is nothing quite like the moment a room full of students makes hardware respond to their own code.
Emerging technology moves fast, so the platforms evolve constantly. What stays constant is the skill I actually teach: how to pick up an unfamiliar device, read its documentation, and get it working - the ability that outlasts any single board or protocol.
Test yourself
Three quick questions - click an answer to check it instantly.
1. What is MQTT?
2. What is a microcontroller?
3. ‘Edge computing’ in IoT means what?
Where this leads
IoT and embedded skills lead into roles across smart manufacturing, building automation, robotics, and product development - sectors where hardware-literate developers are scarce. Just as importantly, physical computing gives students a systems view: they’ve seen programming, networking, data, and security work together in something they built and can hold.
