U Florida to Open IoT Institute for Future Engineers
A new facility at the University of Florida (UF) hopes to design, develop and test state-of-the-art Internet of Things (IoT) systems. The Warren B. Nelms Institute for the Connected World will facilitate collaboration between resident expert research faculty in the Florida Institute for Cybersecurity Research and industry professionals in the IoT space.
The institute is supported by a recent $5 million gift from the children of Warren B. Nelms, an alumnus of UF’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) who built a solar “smart” house in which he raised his family. Another ECE alumnus and Japanese telecommunications mogul, Sachio Semmoto, put up a $1.5 million gift in July to establish a term professorship within the institute.
UF plans to use the Nelms gift to catalyze faculty recruiting, student recruiting, course offerings and experiential learning by building a laboratory where students can build, analyze and hack into IoT systems. One focus of the institute will be the security issues surrounding IoT systems and devices.
“There are many examples of IoT devices being hacked, and that’s a huge problem,” said John Harris, professor and chair of ECE, in a prepared statement. “We believe we can help with every aspect — from the sensors, the communication systems, processing in the cloud, machine learning and more.”
To learn more, watch the video below or visit the UF site.
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Sri Ravipati is Web producer for THE Journal and Campus Technology. She can be reached at [email protected].