Enchanting education from student input preparing students to envision and develop in an internet of things world

Searching for “The Internet of Things” may render thousands of hits in academic databases but a challenge still remains: to let students envision as well as work with the concept in a practical way. Designing “Things for the Internet” will not only require skills in engineering and electronics but also some understanding of digital service design and business models. This paper reports on work in progress between Belgium, Sweden and China. Students with different education backgrounds and levels hand over work (ideas) to others, to develop further. Currently, there are nine open-platform exercises to use as starting points for student work and discussions. Exercises are in English and free to download and use, as are some of the lectures related to them. So far, they are used in a digital service design class and in an introductory course in embedded systems.