Inside UW-Madison’s Internet of Things Lab, Robert Scott Carson (left) and Shawn Bartel work on projects, including a smart helmet to gauge trauma.
What is the Internet of Things? If you have a "smart" thermostat made byNest, you're already part of it. The Internet of Things (IoT) connects uniquely identifiable devices to the Internet. A networked smart appliance can text you if things are out of the ordinary, track usage and accept programming changes sent from a smartphone. Leveraging new tools that live on the Internet, objects that had seemed fixed in form are being reimagined all around us.
This wave is coming fast and hard, but the Internet of Things Lab at UW-Madison is on top of it. In 2014, three UW mechanical engineering students outlined their plans for a smart football helmet that measures brain waves and communicates with medical staff in case of a possible concussion. It's a lot better than "you see three fingers? Okay, get back in there, kid!"
Sandra Bradley, director of research at the lab, is excited about the possibilities. "Our idea was to open up a technology sandbox and see what happens," she says. "And it blew us away how much interest there was on campus and in the business community."
As Bradley explains, there are three legs to the IoT Lab's platform. The first is hands-on student experience with exploring the latest technologies. The lab runs 15 projects with 40 students each semester. "We're on the engineering campus, but we have psychology, communications and biomedical talent, which provides an interesting confluence of ideas." To Bradley that's the future of work, cross-functional teams that come together for a specific goal.
The second leg, academic research, extends the reach of the platform. Bringing faculty together around the student projects is "very powerful," Bradley says. "This is a longer path and a different audience, but a critical part of the process."
The third leg is local companies: the startup community, small business and big business. "What we do is part of the Wisconsin Idea -- that the university can have an impact beyond the school borders," says Bradley. "So the question here becomes, what can the university do to bring value to the business community? It turns out that businesses have been extremely interested, particularly in what's coming next in technology. They also see access to talent as very important."
The IoT lab is not funded by the university. Instead, it depends upon partnerships: Experiments and projects are funded by individual companies that are interested in the outcomes.
"We are neck deep, in a good way, in organizations who have an interest in the lab," Bradley says. "The bicycle theft prevention project came from the campus police approaching us." A bike recovery network -- consisting of bike racks that are able to identify stolen bikes and then notify you and the police -- sounds good for everyone in the public and private sectors.
"The students come in with a lot of ideas, and they don't have those blocks, like 'we've tried that and it doesn't work,'" says Bradley. "They tend to respond with 'what if we turn it upside down? What if we try this?' instead."
The IoT lab had more than 100 students and 500 attendees at its last open house, so clearly it is on to something big, and all eyes are on the kids.