#askiotworld #2:

Are there fully IOT implemented in any University around the globe? If there are then share the list and % of IOT implementation coverage. If it can be implemented in any University in Malaysia, should it be UTM the best candidate? is there any plan for it then?

Response:

A simple answer to this will be “no”. In fact, there is no single organization in the world that really implement a “full” IOT. Some parts of the organization might adopt IoT but not “fully” if that’s what the question is referring.

Most IoT research activities reside in the Universities. The research originates from Faculty of Electrical or Electronic or Computer Engineering to Faculty of Computer Science. Advanced IoT applications can be seen in many University Labs. Unfortunately, there are no statistics compiled worldwide although you can check out FP7 and Horizon 2020 list of projects to see which Universities in Europe are involved in IoT.

In Malaysia, FAVORIOT has started to engage with 15 Universities to groom the new Generation-IoT. Check the list here. Personally, I have seen many IoT projects in the Universities have difficulty to turn them into something commercial. Mainly due to the objectives of the projects are focused on developing new technologies, producing Masters and Ph.D. graduates, publications and presenting at conferences. The funds given are not able to go beyond prototypes. These are among the many challenges for Universities in Malaysia to “fully” implement IoT.

I have written an article regarding “Top Jobs in IOT Value Chain” in March 2017 and predicted the IoT developers will on demand within 2-3 years time frame. However, in order develop this new skills, we believed that it should start with proper training in the Universities. Thus, within less than 3 months we have made a partnership with 15 Universities (including 1 from Singapore) (Note: All the names will be disclosed later) whereby FAVORIOT will be providing the IoT platform for the following purpose:

1. Hands-on Lab for students
2. Final Year Projects
3. R&D projects for the students and lecturers
4. Beta trial – within and outside the University

We hoped this initiative will spur the interests in IoT and also groom the next Generation-IoT.

Are you ready to become Generation-IoT?

About the Author

Dr. Mazlan Abbas is currently the Co-Founder and CEO of FAVORIOT Sdn Bhd. He is an IOT Evangelist and a Thought Leader. He received an award as 50 Most Impactful Smart Cities Leaders by World CSR 2017. He is ranked No. 20th Thought Leader in IOT by 2014 Onalytics Report – “The Internet of Things – Top 100 Thought Leaders”, ranked Top 10 in IoT Top 100 Influencers by Postscapes 2016/2017, ranked Top 100 in Smart Cities Top Experts by Agilience Authority Index May 2016. He is also a Global Vision Board Member. You can reach him on LinkedIn or Twitter. Check all his presentation slides HERE.

Any digital transformation starts with the people. Technology adoption will face a stumbling block if we don’t have a generation of leaders, makers, thinkers, and doers. The same goes with IoT adoption – we need the right people, the right mindset and right competencies. FAVORIOT in the quest to develop a Generation-IoT,  recently partners with ten (10) Malaysian Universities to provide better hands-on skills and tools to the University students (and lecturers) in developing their IoT solutions using FAVORIOT middleware.

The list of the Universities who joined the program are listed below:

1. Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM)
2. Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)
3. Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL)
4. Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS)
5. Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA)
6. Universiti Tenaga Malaysia (UNITEN)
7. Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM)
8. Universiti Sains Malaysia (USIM)
9. Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP)
10. Asia Pacific University (APU)

It is expected about 300 graduates every year will be utilizing FAVORIOT platform for their Lab experiments, Final Year or Research projects. The program will allow more than 1500 devices to be connected to the platform.