How-To Setup Centre of Excellence for Internet of Things

Introduction

The lack of talent in IoT (Internet of Things) to develop IoT products and solutions is becoming a big problem. We are talking about developers and engineers who work on IoT products and solutions that should work and bring value to customers.

This lack of talent has driven many companies to hire new IoT talents, such as IoT product managers. IoT product managers are responsible for building IoT products and solutions. They oversee the development process and help create the best user experience for their customers. They are the bridge between developers, designers, and other stakeholders. They are the people who make sure that IoT products and solutions deliver the expected value.

Technical skills for IoT product development are also lacking. Unfortunately, not many don’t have a complete understanding of the technology stacks.

But why is this happening when talents in IR 4.0 technologies such as AI, IoT, Blockchain, and others are becoming more critical than ever?

Slow in Adopting New Tech Syllabus in Higher Education

The Nation should already start churning new graduates with hi-tech five years ago. Unfortunately, many higher institutions are stuck with old syllabi and courses that are not updating the current content fast enough to cater to the needs of the industries.

Although the fundamentals of knowledge remain the same, new technologies, methodologies, or tools are required to replace the old ones.

Universities and their industry partners have coordinated many sessions and workshops to revise and refresh their content. However, the process has been slow due to several reasons:

Bureaucracy – Slow approval process, especially when introducing new content or courses. It starts with agreeing on new subjects, developing new and agreeable content, finding the right tools, meeting specific academic criteria, and getting approval from the Senate. It can be a couple of years before introducing this new content or course to the students.
Upskill or Reskill of the Instructors – How many current lecturers are ready to teach new subjects they are unfamiliar with? Thus, they need to be sent for training to upskill or reskill themselves with the latest theory or hands-on.
IoT affects other subjects – To learn in-depth, IoT can involve several topics and probably covers several subjects. It’s recommended to cover all aspects of IoT by referring to the seven layers of OSI. Different Faculties (Electrical & Electronic Engineering versus Computer Science) can focus on different layers (upper or lower layers of OSI). But essential topics include Electronics, Embedded Programming, Software Programming, Data Communications (TCP/IP), Wireless Protocols, Middleware and API, Security, and Analytics (or AI), among others.
Fully Equip IoT Lab – hands-on experiments must be revamped to include end-to-end experiments from setting up and configuring IoT devices to sending data to an IoT platform and finally extracting data for visualization.

Setting Up CoE for Internet of Things (IoT)

The reasons for setting up the Centre of Excellence (CoE) for IoT are as follows:

IoT Talent Development – It’s not only essential to have technical skills; it will be best if it can couple with business acumen and an accurate understanding of industry needs. It would be better if the CoE could offer Certified IoT courses. It will give better value to the graduates that are more hands-on oriented.
Closer to the Industry’s Demands – The CoE can focus on projects that solve the industry’s problems. The R&D output can be transferred to local companies to commercialize them.
Continuous IoT Talent Pool for the Industry – Most enterprises are embracing IR 4.0, and thus many are “hungry” for this talent. Companies can only survive these days by adopting new technologies that can bring better revenue, increase productivity, and save costs.

How FAVORIOT Can Help the CoE

FAVORIOT understands the need for companies to transform their business operations quickly, and the only way to survive today is by adopting intelligent IoT technologies.

FAVORIOT helps companies in their IoT journey with an IoT platform that can easily connect any IoT devices and visualize the insights on an IoT dashboard.

Also, FAVORIOT offers Certified IoT courses to upskill and reskill new talent, including a hands-on approach for the CoE.