Hands-on approach to teaching wireless sensor networks at the undergraduate level

Authors:
Anna Förster;Mehdi Jazayeri
Affiliations:
University of Lugano, Lugano, Switzerland;University of Lugano, Lugano, Switzerland
Venue:
Proceedings of the fifteenth annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education
Year:
2010

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Abstract

Teaching wireless sensor networks (WSNs) at the undergraduate level is both challenging and rewarding. WSNs include low-level programming and debugging, power-aware operations, novel communication paradigms and interdisciplinary applications in real world environments. These characteristics enable the students to learn how to cope with complete systems, starting with hardware design and low-level programming throughout applications and data processing. They learn to recognize complex software-hardware cross-dependencies and to manage them successfully. In this paper we share our experience from a new course on "Introduction to Wireless Sensor Networks" at the undergraduate level. The most important characteristic of the course is its hands-on approach. We believe this is crucial for fully understanding the complex nature of WSNs and their interdependencies with the environment in which they operate. The students were able to build a solid set of skills and expertise in WSNs by designing and implementing their own small-size real-world WSN deployment.