IoT has hit the Malaysian scene in a big way 3 or 4 years ago (since 2014). All of a sudden there’s a huge surge of seminars, conferences, and exhibitions related to Smart Cities and IoT topics. Bear in mind that the word “Internet of Things (IoT)” has been coined by Kevin Ashton in 1999! The public and the industry are trying to grasp the concept, benefits and the impact of IoT. However, the early days’ topics are very general and people are getting restless and want to know more how it will impact their individual business or industry vertical.

Last 2 years, we received a lot of inquiries regarding how to start their IoT journey, how to start developing their business case, developing IoT solutions and selling IoT products. That’s when we realized that we have not been nurturing the “IoT talents“. Many of the local Universities are planning to revise their syllabus contents and some even wish to introduce “IoT” courses or programmes (Diploma, Degree or Masters).

Personally, I am fortunate enough to be either Industrial Advisory Panel, Board of Studies and also Adjunct Professor at several Universities in Malaysia. Many Universities have started to revise and refresh their syllabus content to accommodate the upcoming “Fourth Industrial Revolution” and “IoT“.

My recommendation for any University who wishes to join the band-wagon and nurture the next generation talents for Jobs of the Future should take a look at the following framework:

1. Introduce the Concept of IoT or 4th Industrial Revolution in the first year first semester. Give the students the big picture and the necessary technology components in the whole IoT value chain and infrastructure. Show the students all the subjects related to their Course throughout the following years and why these subjects are important in their studies. Many take for granted and did not realize the importance of their subjects until they reach the final year when trying to develop their Final Year Projects.
2. Introduce the Concept of 7-Layers of OSI. This will make the students understand the importance of PHY layer (fixed or wireless), MAC layer (Protocols such as Zigbee, WiFi, etc), Network Layer (IP), Transport (TCP), Session layer, Presentation Layer and finally the Application Layer. Depending on whether Faculty of Electrical/Electronic Engineering or Computer Science, the weightage on the depth will be different between them. Mainly Engineering students will have more focus on Layer 1-4 whereas Computer Science will focus on Layer 5-7. But when learning topics on IoT, all of the students must be aware of all the layers.
3. IoT Value Chain. In reality, no single company has the strength and talent to deliver end-to-end IoT solution on its own. Thus, the need for them to partner with various parties who specifically focused on different areas such as Chipset, Device, Networking, Middleware, Cloud, Applications, Big Data Analytics, System Integration and Solution Selling. Thus, Universities need to cover all aspects of contents to cover this value-chain.
4. Hands-on IoT. However, many are still missing the key component i.e. Hands-On experience with Practical experiments using an IOT middleware. Just by learning how to use Raspberry-Pi and Arduino (stand-alone) is still insufficient. Sensor data need to be sent to an IoT middleware that sits in the Cloud. Application developers can use the necessary API to connect the sensors and extract the data that has been stored for deriving further insights or create specific IoT solution on their Smartphones or Desktops. Thus, lab sessions using an IoT middleware must be introduced in their curriculum to make it more complete.

But how do the Universities start to introduce this hands-on training? Do they need to buy expensive IoT middleware?

Don’t worry, we have a more cost-effective solution for any Universities to embark on this journey by creating their IoT Classroom equipped with IoT Middleware (platform-as-a-Service).

Here’s your opportunity to create new IoT talents. Provide them with the best tools. Now, you can create your own IoT Ecosystem!

Contact us: info@favoriot.com for more details.

Raqib will be one of the first IoT solutions for Hajj and Umrah developed by FAVORIOT, an IoT Startup from Malaysia.

Every year, more than 2.3 Million people will congregate to Mecca and perform their Hajj – most likely for the first time in their life. It’s expected during the 4-5 days of the peak period, pilgrims will travel from Mina to Arafah to Mudzalifah and Mina again, the place will be packed with almost 6 people per square kilometer.

In 2015 stampede tragedy, at least 1,621 people killed, as hundreds still reportedly remain missing. Iran says it had 465 pilgrims killed, while Egypt lost 182, Nigeria 168 and Indonesia 126. Others include India with 114, Pakistan with 100, Bangladesh with 92, Mali with 70, Senegal with 54, Benin with 51, Cameroon with 42, Morocco with 33, Ethiopia with 31, Sudan with 30, Algeria with 25, Ghana with 12, Chad with 11, Kenya with eight and Turkey with seven. Without proper identification, it’s very difficult to identify the victims.

For the first newcomer, this is a foreign place which can look very confusing with white tents all over the place and people wearing white robes for men and covered women. The Hajj authorities and Travel Agencies really had a hard time monitoring their own Jemaah.

There are two groups of lost people. The first consists of pilgrims that are lost temporarily and soon they find their families or go back to their own tour group. The second type consists of pilgrims that unable to return to their families because no one has come forward to search for them and these are handled by the police who take the necessary action.

Most people generally get lost between Asar and Isha prayers. About 40% of the total numbers of people lost are children. 35% are women and 25% are elderly people. Women easily get lost when they end up splitting up from their husbands or male relatives when going to pray in the women sections of the Grand Mosque. There are other factors such as overcrowding inside the Holy Mosque. Women generally get lost because stewards move them away from male prayer areas on to places designated for women. These women get separated from their families and end up losing their way .

Not many people that come from abroad are familiar with the Grand Mosque. Most cases that occur in the Grand Mosque tend to happen on the ground floor level. Very few people get lost outside in the courtyards. [Quoted from Arab News]

Raqib is the latest service from FAVORIOT to solve the problems pilgrims going to Mecca to perform their Hajj and Umrah. Problems such as missing pilgrims due to loss of direction in foreign places, people from all around the world with the danger of disease outbreaks, the complexity of managing a huge number of pilgrims, and the situation whereby cause anxiety to family members back home. Thus, Raqib provides a wearable device for pilgrims that can be monitored through mobile apps by their family members or through Pilgrim Monitoring System for the Hajj authorities or travel agencies

The article was originally published by The Edge Markets and interviewed by Khairani Afifi Noordin.

You can also download the PDF format HERE.