Design-Integrated IoT Capacity Building using Tangible Building Blocks

The emergence of customized services and products utilizing Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems requires specific design skills. Developers need to understand IoT systems as complex hardware/software systems of highly dynamic nature, coherently connected to design representations, such as digital twins. While the importance of designing a use or business case is acknowledged in IoT engineering, there is a lack of methods integrated with the early design phases of IoT systems. We propose an agile support method for design-integrated capacity building. The approach features tangible IoT components and their (meta-)models, which are complemented by digital learning support tools. The benefits stemming from tangible design and implementation are structured and aligned hands-on experiences including system prototyping.