The ubiquity of sensor-equipped smartphones, combined with the widespread availability of low-power wireless communication and sensing modules, has led to a renewed interest in sensor computing, aka the “Internet of Things” (IoT). 6.S062 is an advanced undergraduate course designed to study the fundamental sensing, computing, and communication software technologies at the core of the recent flurry of activity on IoT. In addition to exposure to fundamental technologies (power management, positioning, ranging, wireless radios, inertial sensors, etc), students will learn how to design and implement (1) libraries and applications on mobile devices that interact with internal and external sensors, (2) server-side modules for computation and storage, and (3) embedded software.
Grading
Grading in 6.S062 will consist of 4 labs, a midterm, a final project, and class participation, broken down as follows:
| Assignment | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Labs | 30% |
| Quiz | 25% |
| Final Project | 35% |
| Participation | 10% |
Key topics covered in the class include:
- Positioning technologies, including GPS, WiFi and cellular localization
- Wireless networking, including BLE, WiFi, Zigbee, as well as multi-hop and store-and-forward ("muling")
- Resource constraints, including power, bandwidth, and storage
- Inertial sensing, including accelerometers, gyroscopes, IMUs, dead-reckoning
- Other types of sensors, e.g., microphones and cameras
- Application studies
- Embedded hardware and software architecture
- Embedded system security
- iOS APIs for accessing various sensing and wireless networking technologies