Departamento de Sistemas Informáticos, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28031 Madrid, Spain.
Departamento de Ingeniería Agroforestal, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
Sensors (Basel). 2020 Apr 15;20(8):2227. doi: 10.3390/s20082227.
The decrease in the cost of sensors during the last years, and the arrival of the 5th generation of mobile technology will greatly benefit Internet of Things (IoT) innovation. Accordingly, the use of IoT in new agronomic practices might be a vital part for improving soil quality, optimising water usage, or improving the environment. Nonetheless, the implementation of IoT systems to foster environmental awareness in educational settings is still unexplored. This work addresses the educational need to train students on how to design complex sensor-based IoT ecosystems. Hence, a Project-Based-Learning approach is followed to explore multidisciplinary learning processes implementing IoT systems that varied in the sensors, actuators, microcontrollers, plants, soils and irrigation system they used. Three different types of planters were implemented, namely, hydroponic system, vertical garden, and rectangular planters. This work presents three key contributions that might help to improve teaching and learning processes. First, a holistic architecture describing how IoT ecosystems can be implemented in higher education settings is presented. Second, the results of an evaluation exploring teamwork performance in multidisciplinary groups is reported. Third, alternative initiatives to promote environmental awareness in educational contexts (based on the lessons learned) are suggested. The results of the evaluation show that multidisciplinary work including students from different expertise areas is highly beneficial for learning as well as on the perception of quality of the work obtained by the whole group. These conclusions rekindle the need to encourage work in multidisciplinary teams to train engineers for Industry 4.0 in Higher Education.
近年来，传感器成本的降低和第五代移动技术的到来将极大地促进物联网（IoT）创新。因此，物联网在新的农业实践中的应用可能是改善土壤质量、优化用水或改善环境的重要组成部分。尽管如此，物联网系统在教育环境中提高环境意识的应用仍有待探索。本工作针对在教育环境中培训学生如何设计基于复杂传感器的物联网生态系统的教育需求。因此，采用基于项目的学习方法来探索多学科学习过程，实施物联网系统，这些系统在使用的传感器、执行器、微控制器、植物、土壤和灌溉系统方面有所不同。实施了三种不同类型的种植器，即水培系统、垂直花园和矩形种植器。本工作提出了三个可能有助于改进教学和学习过程的关键贡献。首先，提出了一个整体架构，描述了如何在高等教育环境中实施物联网生态系统。其次，报告了探索多学科小组中团队合作绩效的评估结果。第三，根据经验教训，提出了在教育背景下促进环境意识的替代举措。评估结果表明，包括来自不同专业领域的学生在内的多学科工作对于学习以及整个小组对工作质量的感知都非常有益。这些结论重新点燃了在高等教育中鼓励多学科团队工作以培养面向工业 4.0 的工程师的必要性。
