Sensor node with cloud dashboard
Deliverable: An ESP32 reading a calibrated sensor, publishing over MQTT, with data stored and charted on a dashboard and an alert firing when a threshold is crossed.
Course
IoT (Internet of Things)
Connected hardware from sensor to dashboard — microcontrollers, wireless protocols, cloud ingestion and the power and reliability problems that decide whether a device survives deployment.
- Duration: 4 months
- Classroom
- Level: intermediate
What you will be able to do
- Read sensors accurately and understand what the raw values mean
- Program an ESP32 and a Raspberry Pi for a defined task
- Choose a wireless protocol appropriate to range, power and data rate
- Publish and subscribe over MQTT and handle a dropped connection
- Ingest device data into a cloud service and chart it
- Budget power so a battery device lasts as long as it must
Who this course is for
- Engineering students and graduates, electronics and computer science especially
- Developers who want to work with physical hardware
- Technicians moving into automation and connected systems
- Basic programming in C or Python is expected
Syllabus
6 modules · 4 months
Module 1. Electronics you cannot skip
- Voltage, current and resistance in practice
- Digital and analogue signals, and ADC resolution
- Pull-ups, level shifting and not destroying a board
- Reading a datasheet and a pinout
Module 2. Microcontrollers
- ESP32 architecture, GPIO and peripherals
- Programming with the Arduino framework
- Interrupts, timers and non-blocking code
- I2C, SPI and UART, and choosing between them
Module 3. Sensors and actuators
- Temperature, humidity, motion, distance and current sensing
- Calibration, noise and filtering a signal
- Relays, motors and driving a load safely
- Debouncing and dealing with the physical world
Module 4. Connectivity
- Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy and LoRa compared honestly
- Range, power draw and data rate trade-offs
- MQTT topics, QoS and last will
- Reconnection, buffering and surviving a network outage
Module 5. Cloud and data
- Ingesting device data over MQTT and HTTP
- Time series storage and retention
- Dashboards with Node-RED and alerting on a threshold
- Device provisioning, identity and basic security
Module 6. Power and reliability
- Sleep modes and measuring actual current draw
- Battery sizing and calculating expected life
- Watchdogs and recovering from a hang
- Enclosures, connectors and why field deployments fail
Tools and technologies you will use
- ESP32 and Arduino
- Raspberry Pi
- Sensors — temperature, humidity, motion, distance, current
- MQTT and an HTTP API
- Node-RED and a cloud IoT platform
- Multimeter and oscilloscope
Projects you will build
Network resilience test
Deliverable: The same device demonstrated surviving a deliberate Wi-Fi outage — buffering readings while offline and delivering them on reconnection with no data loss.
Battery-powered device with a measured life
Deliverable: A sleeping sensor node with actual current draw measured on a multimeter in each state, and a calculated battery life supported by those measurements.
Actuation with a safety interlock
Deliverable: A relay-controlled load switched from a cloud command, with a local interlock that prevents an unsafe state even if the network instructs it.
Where this course can take you
- IoT Developer
- Embedded Systems Engineer
- Automation Engineer
- Hardware Test Engineer
- Product Development Assistant
Duration, modes and fees
- Duration
- 4 months
- Delivery modes
- Classroom
- Fees
- Share your details for the current fee
- Fees vary by batch. Development boards, sensors and lab equipment are provided; ask about the take-home kit option.
Placement assistance
Every student gets placement assistance — that is what 100% placement assistance means. It is support for all, not a job for all. We do not promise a specific salary, a specific number of interviews, or placement at any named company, and you should be wary of anyone who does.
What is included
- A place in the monthly placement drive, held every third Saturday
- The readiness programme every second Saturday — mock interviews and preparation
- CV review against the specific roles you are targeting
- Portfolio review, so your project work is presented the way a reviewer will read it
- Access to the vacancy pool employers send directly to the Samyak network
- Guidance on which roles realistically fit your background and which do not
- A place in the next drive, with coaching, if you are not selected in this one
What is not included
- Any guarantee of a job, an interview, or a particular salary
- Placement at a named or partner company
- Applying to jobs on your behalf
- Support before you have completed the course and its project work
- Visa, relocation or overseas placement assistance
Sensor to dashboard, on a bench
This is a classroom course only, and that is deliberate.
IoT taught from slides is a lecture about IoT. Every project here is a working device — a board, a sensor, wires that are wrong the first time, a reading that is noisy until you filter it. The physical world is uncooperative in specific ways that no simulation reproduces, and meeting that is most of the education.
The prototype-to-product gap
Almost anybody can make a sensor publish a reading over Wi-Fi in an afternoon.
Then the Wi-Fi drops and the readings vanish. Then the battery is flat in nine days. Then the device hangs in a cupboard and nobody notices for a week.
Two full modules exist for this gap — connectivity resilience and power — because it is where real deployments fail, and because a candidate who can talk about measured current draw and buffered reconnection is immediately distinguishable from one who has only done the afternoon version.
Measure the current, do not estimate it
The battery project will not accept a calculation from a datasheet.
You put a meter on the device, read the actual draw in active, transmitting and sleeping states, and compute a life from your own numbers. Datasheet figures are best-case and reality includes your code, your peripherals and your radio’s retries. The gap is usually large and always instructive.
Interlocks, because the device does something physical
The last project switches a real load from a cloud command, and it must refuse an unsafe instruction locally.
Software that only moves data can be wrong and cost a report. Software attached to a relay can be wrong and cost something else entirely. Building the local safety check before trusting the network is a habit worth forming on the first device rather than the tenth.
Questions
IoT (Internet of Things) — frequently asked questions
Do I need an electronics background?
It helps, but the first module builds the necessary electronics from voltage and current upwards. What you do need is basic programming in C or Python. Computer science graduates usually find the hardware unfamiliar and manageable; electronics students usually find the cloud half unfamiliar and manageable. Both complete it.
Is this course only theory, or do we build things?
You build things — it is classroom-only for that reason. Hardware is provided, and every project involves a working device on a bench. A course that teaches IoT from slides is teaching about IoT, which is a different and much less useful subject.
Why does power management get a whole module?
Because it is the most common reason a working prototype fails as a product. A device that runs beautifully on a bench and flattens its battery in nine days is not deployable. Measuring real current draw in each sleep state, and calculating a life you can defend, is the difference between a demo and a product.
Which is better to learn, ESP32 or Raspberry Pi?
They solve different problems. An ESP32 is a microcontroller — cheap, low power, ideal for a battery sensor node. A Raspberry Pi is a small computer — more capable, far hungrier, right when you need a filesystem, cameras or heavier processing. The course uses both and the point is knowing which the job calls for.
Enquire about IoT (Internet of Things)
Three details is all we need. A course advisor will call you back.
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Next step
Talk to a course advisor
Tell us what you want to learn and we will help you pick the right course, batch and mode.