Have you been curious about playing around with the technology of the Internet of Things (IoT) but don’t know where to begin? If so, there’s now a brand-new curriculum developed by teams at Microsoft that make use of devices including Raspberry Pi.

By combining a Pi with some sensors, code, and connection with the Cloud, you can transform otherwise ordinary objects into smart devices that can improve your daily life. How cool!

If you’re ready for easy-to-understand program that goes to back to basics and will show you everything you need to know from the ground up to get started with IoT, here’s an overview of the new IoT For Beginners course:

What Beginners Get to Learn About IoT

The new IoT for Beginners program is a 24-lesson, university-level program designed by IoT experts in collaboration with students and teachers. Best of all, it’s open source and 100% free. So, there’s no reason you can’t get started immediately.

All of the lessons are organized around projects that you can build with your Raspberry Pi device, and they all combine fun cartoon graphics with actionable steps so that you’re learning by doing and creating. Each lesson features quizzes before and after to test your knowledge and retention. There are also written lessons in conjunction with the different projects, so that you will use all your senses to facilitate skill development.

The projects in this program will take you on a journey that explores how food goes from farm to table in conjunction with ag tech, manufacturing, logistics, and retail operations. Thus, while learning principles of IoT, you will also be introduced to some very practical applications in the real world.

Here Are Some of the Fun Projects You’ll Get to Build

If you’d like a sneak peek into the projects you’ll build as part of the IoT for Beginners program, here’s what you have to look forward to: 

• Predict plant growth based on temperature and build an automatized watering system using a soil moisture sensor. You’ll learn how to incorporate cloud services so that you get features such as security to make sure characters like Farmer Giles won’t hack your new watering process.
• Design a vehicle tracker that uses GPS to plot real-time location on map. You’ll even learn to use cloud-based mapping and geofencing services so you’ll know exactly when a vehicle carrying food arrives at its destination.
• Check the quality of your produce from your device using AI technology. You’ll train AI models to detect whether your produce is ripe or not.
• Manage your inventory with smart stocking. You’ll learn how to use AI services to train a stock detector and check your stock from a remote device. Yes, a robot can make sure your shelves are stacked!
• When it’s time to start cooking, you’ll learn to work with a speech recognition program to help you with recipes when your hands are full. There’s even translation functionality to understand multiple different languages.

In addition to these fun projects, you’ll also get a crash course on the sensors and actuators needed to gather real-world data. You’ll also go through a deep dive on the microcontrollers and other components you’ll need to connect your systems together using cloud-based technology.

Just grab your favorite Pi device and some sensors, and you’re ready to start learning and creating! Once you check out the program, do let us know your experience and what you think of this introduction to IoT.

And if you want to discover more free educational initiatives from Raspberry Pi or Arduino, be sure to return here to our Vilros blog to learn more!