Status

As of 9/14/22: IoT Lab is functioning for INST 346 - 0101, 0102, and ESG1 Office Hours 4:45-6:00 Tuesday and Thursday.

“Model of the Internet v1” is nearing completion.

Lab kits are ready for any customization for 346 or other course experiences.

Discussions with DIT regarding cabled and wireless services are ongoing: CASE.

Ongoing discussion with iSchool Facilities and IT about inventory control ideas; maybe eventually Elevate but looking at other Makerspaces on campus, library systems, student-ID SSO interface?

Next steps include hardening the resources for increased usage, finishing the model network, focusing on services and visualization, and relating to other courses.

Open

Open

Brief

We built an IoT Lab/networking studio within the iSchool in Spring 2022. The initial inspiration may be thought of as a Silicon Valley garage, an East Coast basement, a rural barn: that is, a safe place for tinkering and learning, within a community with layers of mentorship, as part of an effort to strengthen student experiences of the iSchool core course, INST 346, Technologies, Infrastructure, and Architecture.

Collaborator(s)

Dennis Frezzo, Dave Baugh, Chris Hawley, Kate Izsak, Donal Heidenblad, Graduate Assistants (Sindhu Sekhar, Keyur Rajyaguru), Undergraduate Students (TBD), DIT

Use Cases

We initially considered 6 use cases, the first 5 of which we have preliminary positive results on in April/May 2022:

·      Create a live, interactive, student-hands-on model of the Internet (see photo and diagram)

·      Build portable lab kits for tabletop networking hands-on brought to various classrooms (like the small dollhouses used for criminology labs); tabletop networking that can make most classrooms into a temporary networking lab (see photo)

·      a place for instructors or TAs or AMPs or students to record demos or podcasts “in situ” (“here I am at the rack which is a model for a cloud computing data center or content delivery network”) and to increase their skills

·      a lending library for kits to be used in the Hornbake commons (for example, 2 -3 hour loans) and for tinkerers to come in for support (like the bike co-op)

·      a basis for outreach workshops to local libraries (like a 2-hour workshop conducted by instructors on "how your home network works")

·      a multiplayer game node for things like red vs. blue networking and cyber competitions

Technologies

• Networking - Ethernet cables, WiFi, bluetooth, optical fiber; repeaters, switches, routers, controllers, servers; racks modeling home networking, ISPs, internet backbone

• Physical Computing - Raspberry Pi, Arduino

• Electronics - multimeters, electronics kits, test equipment station

• Tools - small fabrication tools

• IoT End devices

Fall 2022 Projects

• Media Project: device multiple continuous loops of Internet-related visualizations to run on the display.

• Network Model Project: build and document for easy reset the lab’s first end to end model of the Internet and have 346 students interact with it.

• Inventory Control Project: devise temporary and long-term tracking of key devices, checkout system for instructors and students, and eventually maintenance and ticketing system.

• IoT Models Project: working with Kits (like the Smart House) focus on the electronics level for IoT.

• AWS Project: working with AWS Academy accounts, experiment with connecting to it from the lab and Canvas.

• Home Router Lab Lesson Project: devise 1 hour in-class and 2-4 hour “Saturday morning workshop”

• Home Networking Cabinet display: design and implement mounting and populating project for the home networking cabinet.

• Optics demonstration Project:

Join Us

Collaborators, volunteers, and anyone curious always welcome. Hours to be announced in September.

Draft Schedule

DCF = Dennis

DH = Donal

S = Sindhu

K = Keyur

A = Abhijith (346 TA)

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