La Trobe University will be the first Australian university to offer a course specialising in the tech industry’s fastest growing sector – the Internet of Things (IoT).
According to a recent press release, the two-year Master of Internet of Things will be offered at the University’s Bendigo campus from 2020.
This will enhance the campus’ growing reputation for innovation and technology.
Significance of the course
The Head of the Technology Innovation Lab shared that the course was developed to meet a skills gap that is fast becoming a global issue.
He explained that the Internet of Things is in demand by all types of industry at the moment. It is undergoing exponential growth on a global scale.
The capacity of the Internet of Things to provide information, which organisations need most, had made them realise its enormous potential to make them more productive and efficient.
However, organisations expressed the major shortage of experts who are skilled in this space. This, therefore, led to the development of the course.
There is high demand for experts in IOT across a wide range of industries. These are:
- Mining
- Healthcare
- Logistics
- Manufacturing
- Agriculture
- Transport
- Utilities
- Local government
About the course
The syllabus for the course has been co-created with future employers in order to guarantee that it produces flexible, career-ready graduates.
The course will be highly workplace-focused, and will teach students to be creative, clever and adaptable to industry need.
The Internet of Things is at the foothills of where the internet was back in the 1990s. Some of the opportunities awaiting graduates of this course have not even been realised yet.
La Trobe is also in discussions with several multinational companies to provide mentors, travel scholarships, field trips and work placement opportunities.
Based in the new Internet of Thing teaching lab in Bendigo, students will use the regional city as a “living lab”, partnering with organisations such as the City of Greater Bendigo, among others, to implement projects.
The lab will host a range of cutting-edge IOT platforms, social robotics, as well as prototyping and open source technology.
Internet of Things explained
The Internet of Things is often called the ‘third wave of the internet’, with the first two being tethered devices in the 1990s, and later, mobile devices.
It is a giant network of connected “things” including mobile phones, weather stations, machines and electronic devices, which are, basically, any physical object that features an IP address for internet connectivity.
Additionally, it enables users to connect in and gather data on anything. Data can be weather patterns, consumer habits, wildlife movements, traffic congestion and water distribution.
In 2018, La Trobe’s Technology Innovation Lab in Bendigo, in partnership with the City of Greater Bendigo, established one of regional Victoria’s first open source Internet of Things networks.
