Major breakthroughs in fields at the core of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) have paved the way for the development of the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT defines a truly cyber-physical system in which all sorts of physical devices, ranging from standalone sensors and actuators to wearable devices and vehicles, are interconnected and able to autonomously interact with each other, their surroundings and people. This new form of seamless connectivity is the enabler of many diverse applications in the fields of smart healthcare, home monitoring and automation, environmental monitoring and pollution control, smart grid and infrastructure management, real time monitoring of industrial processes, and intelligent transportation of people and goods, among many others. Today, the IoT is the focus of many research initiatives worldwide with multi-billion investments by both governmental agencies and industry.
In this course, the fundamental building blocks and future research directions of the IoT will be introduced. This involves an introduction to a selected set of relevant ECE topics. A top-down approach will be followed to cohesively describe the scientific and engineering bases of the IoT, including networking and security, communications and signal processing, positioning, electromagnetics, antennas and propagation, and micro- and nano-electronics. In addition to live online lectures, software-based experimental exercises will be given to solidify the concepts learnt in class.