Precision Buildings & Cities introduces a vendor-neutral, acronym-free IoT framework and then discusses the fundamental principles and these principles in practice for each layer in the framework. It follows with case stories specific to the buildings and cities industries.
The intended audience includes both technical and business people who are either manufacturers of Things used by business, or companies who use these Things in the operations of their businesses.
Upon completion of all exams included in the course, you will receive a certification that you can post on your Linkedin profile, as well as badges you can share with your Facebook and Twitter followers.
You may not be sure why your coffee pot should talk to your toaster, but precision technology powering an Internet of Things has the potential to reshape our planet. To help clarify, Dr. Timothy Chou (Lecturer at Stanford University) created Precision to introduce us to the basics of the Internet of Things, with a focus on business solutions.
Precision Buildings & Cities first introduces a vendor-neutral, acronym-free, five layer framework to help us better understand the Internet of Things. The module then dives into each layer of the framework in more detail: You learn about Things (after all we are talking about the "Internet of Things"), how they Connect to the network, how to Collect data coming from these networked machines, what can be done to Learn from this data, and, finally, what you can Do differently given learned insights from deployed IoT solutions. The course highlights both fundamental Principles, as well as many real-world examples put into Practice.
In addition, Precision Buildings & Cities includes case stories specific to the building and cities industries. These case stories are written using the five layer framework described earlier in the course.
Both business- and technology-oriented individuals can leverage the course across all departments (including engineering, operations, IT, senior. management, marketing, sales and customer service) to provide a common language and understanding to help align a company’s IoT strategy, plans and processes.
The course leverages the textbook Precision: Principles, Practices and Solutions by Dr. Timothy Chou.
Precision Buildings & Cities
All quizzes in this module must be passed to receive the Certificate of Completion.
Section | Description |
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Introduction | There is a lot of hype around IOT. In this chapter we introduce a vendor-neutral, acronym-free framework consisting of five major components: Things, Connect, Collect, Learn, and Do. We’ll use the word Things, enterprise things and machines interchangeably. |
Framework | Whether you’re building, buying, selling or investing in technology to enable enterprise IoT applications, this chapter describes an IOT framework you can use to understand the various components or parts of the industry |
Thing Principals | As a manufacturer of any modern machine, it’s now possible to put a lot of sensors to work. Even the cell phone in your hand can have 14 different sensors. Precision machines will also be software enabled, which requires you to make decisions about the computer architecture and the software environment, all of this will need to fit into packages which have cost and environmental constraints. And finally in the modern world you’ll need to think about security. |
Things in Practice | This chapter shows cases of next generation Things in a variety of industries: consumer, construction, telecommunications, power, oil and gas, healthcare, biotech, transportation, agriculture, and manufacturing. |
Connect Principles | Connecting things requires a diverse set of technologies based on the amount of data that needs to be transmitted, how far it needs to go, and how much power you have. Furthermore you have many choices at a higher level on how to manage the connection, as well as how the connection is protection and secured. In this chapter we’ll give you a brief tutorial on networking and some of the fundamental principles. |
Connect in Practice | This chapter shows cases of the multiple ways Things can be connected across a variety of industries: consumer, construction, telecommunications, power, oil and gas, healthcare, biotech, transportation, agriculture, and manufacturing. |
Collect Principles | Things aren’t people. One of the ways that’s true is the volume of data that can be generated by things will be orders of magnitude larger that applications of the Internet of People. In this chapter we’ll cover some fundamental ways Thing data might be collected and stored. This includes in-memory databases, noSQL, and time-series collection architectures. |
Collect in Practice | This chapter shows cases of the multiple ways in which data can be collected across a variety of industries: consumer, construction, telecommunications, power, oil and gas, healthcare, biotech, transportation, agriculture, and manufacturing. |
Learn Principles | In the last generation of enterprise software we first focused on transaction processing and workflow applications and then used BI and OLAP applications to learn from the data. This time let’s use technology to learn from data; we’ll cover visualization, statistics, regression, and machine learning. |
Learn in Practice | In the last generation of enterprise software we first focused on transaction processing and workflow applications and then used BI and OLAP applications to learn from the data. This time let’s use technology to learn from data; we’ll cover visualization, statistics, regression, and machine learning. |
Do Principles | Outcomes. What are the outcomes? What does all of this technology to connect, collect and learn do? In this chapter we’ll discuss three major business benefits to the producers of modern machines, and three major benefits to the consumers. |
Do in Practice | We’ll cover cases across a variety of industries: consumer, construction, telecommunications, power, oil and gas, healthcare, biotech, transportation, agriculture, and manufacturing.. |
Precision Cooling Tower | This case story describes how standard cooling towers, which typically use toxic chemicals to treat the water used to facilitate cooling, present two fundamental challenges. First, a lot of water is wasted, as the resulting contaminated water must be expensively discharged to the sewer versus being reused for instance as landscape irrigation. And, second, if there is a malfunction in the cooling tower's system, there is significant risk of a resulting bacterial outbreak that can threaten human safety. In response, this story describes how Griswold Water Systems and Autodesk worked together to deploy IoT technology to make cooling towers both more efficient in water usage, as well as safer for the public. |
Precision Buildings | This case story introduces Leroy Walden, Vice President of McKenney’s Inc. a mechanical contractor in the Southeast that offers a full range of services, including heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC), process piping, plumbing, service and maintenance, and building automation and control systems, and how McKenney’s joined Gulf Power and Chevron Energy Solutions to implement a new energy management system at Eglin Air Force Base (Eglin). |
Summary | This chapter will wrap up the introduction and discuss how these technologies can transform businesses.. |
This course is based on the book Precision: Principles, Practices and Solutions for the Internet of Things by Dr Timothy Chou, which is widely available at major retailers in both paperback and eBook formats. |
As a printed book
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As an eBook
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Participant Ratings
- Excellent: 41%
- Very Good: 45%
- Good: 14%
Example Reviews
Precision Buildings and Cities includes 14 quizzes. Each quiz has 10 multiple-choice questions. Each quiz requires a 7 out of 10 correct to pass. A quiz can be taken multiple times; however, the order of the questions changes randomly each time a quiz is taken. Upon successful completion of all quizzes, the individual will receive the following:
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