IoT in Schools Pilot (phase 1) project brief 1.01

Key project team members   

Stakeholders       

Project Summary

The UoE IoT Research & Innovation Service LoRaWAN network currently covers the city of Edinburgh.  The WCDI IoT Programme intends extending this network across the Edinburgh City Region Deal (ECRD) area, which as well as the city of Edinburgh, includes West Lothian, Midlothian, East Lothian, Fife and the Borders.  The programme’s targets include deployment of 10,000 devices delivering 100,000 measurements.

The Data Education in Schools (DES) project is tasked with educating all children and young people in South East Scotland about data.

The WCDI IoT Programme and the DES project will collaborate to deploy UoE LoRaWAN connectivity and IoT teaching support materials to schools throughout the ECRD area.  

This collaboration is beneficial because it brings together the requirement to provide cutting edge educational data projects in schools with the best distributed group of buildings to deploy the IoT infrastructure. This initial pilot project is the first to deploy the UoE LoRaWAN network outside of Edinburgh.   This will be a pilot deployment in the Midlothian region. 

Project Scope

This project will pilot technologies and processes that will eventually provide UoE Research & Innovation Service LoRaWAN network connectivity, as well as materials and processes to support IoT and data education, across schools in the ECRD area. The project will target the Newbattle Digital Centre of Excellence initially, as well as a primary school linked to Newbattle.  The primary school will be identified during the project. 

Objectives:

• To provide and prove UoE IoT Research & Innovation service LoRaWAN network connectivity to Newbattle Digital Centre of Excellence and one other school, to support learning and teaching activities around IoT and data in those schools. 
• To prove the processes for deploying and supporting LoRaWAN network connectivity to schools.
• To provide and prove teacher support materials and investigate how to engage learners in creativity around the use of sensors to collect real-world data to solve problems.
• To have a demonstrable model of the UoE R&I LoRaWAN network, and IoT in schools, for subsequent deployments throughout the wider ECRD area.

 Deliverables:

• Project brief – this document
• TAD (technical architecture document)
• Risk assessment, including a security assessment
• DPIA
• Engagement and communications plan
• Technology for the classroom (not a classroom hub at this stage) to support teaching during phase 1.
• A LoRaWAN gateway (based on a design to be agreed), for each in-scope school, providing backhaul for sensor data to the UoE.
• Access to visualisation tools and data downloads from UoE secure IoT cloud.
• An initial pack of example sensors, for use with programmable units, e.g. Micro:Bit, LoPy, RaspberryPi.   Type and amount of sensors to be agreed during the project.
• Technical documentation for Digital Services personnel.
• Learning and teaching materials, including a teacher support pack. Data Education in Schools will offer a CPL event for teachers about the materials.
• Online support content (nature and location of this to be agreed during the project).
• A decision re the continued deployment of the solution proven by this pilot project.
• Agreed approach  and draft project brief for the phase 2 pilot, which will carry out a further deployment to up to 40 additional schools within the ECRD area (it is anticipated that this will span multiple regions within the area).   The agreed approach for phase 2 will come from engagements with the regional authorities within the ECRD area.
• A smart button may be included in each IoT kit which can be used by teachers to notify the project when they are using the teaching materials to assist in monitoring KPIs

Not in scope

• Deployment of equipment outside of  Newbattle Digital Centre of Excellence, and one additional primary school (to be identified). Classroom hub devices.   However, alternatives are available to support teaching in the classroom during phase 1.

Benefits

• This deployment is the first step towards the WCDI IoT Programmes objective of deploying an IoT network across the ECRD area.   This is a pilot project and the experiences gained from the deployment activities and support processes put in place will inform design and planning decisions, as well as potential risks and issues, as well as their mitigation options, for the wider rollout across the ECRD area.
• This deployment can be a demo site for the other regions within the ECRD area, allowing reps from those regions to see the solution and benefits for their own regions.
• This deployment will allow learners to understand the possibilities of IoT and LoRaWAN in the digital world. It will also generate interest in the use of data to solve real world problems.
• There are a wide range of interdisciplinary projects that could be supported by this technology and this will enable the learners to think creatively around topic such as climate change.
• The pilot will inform the possibility of an IoT related project for the National Progression Award in Data Science.
• It is also beneficial to enable the Data Education in Schools team to pilot and refine teaching materials relating to IoT before releasing them more widely in future years.  

Budget

• All effort covered by core and DDI funding.

Risks

• Technology adoption within the schools may be an issue.   To mitigate this, we should clarify the problems that the solution is addressing. This will be assisted when the Data Education in Schools technology infrastructure audit is published in October.
• Key resources may not be available to meet the desired project timescale.

Assumptions

• At the time of project kick off, we are assuming that a new, but as yet unproven, gateway from PyCom, will meet our requirements.
• That we can achieve good connectivity for devices within the school environment including backhaul to UoE
• That schools are willing to develop their curriculum to include IoT in their teaching around technologies.

Issues

• No issues identified at project kick off.

Dependencies

• The LoRaWAN upgrade to v1.1 being carried out by WCD001 IoT R&I Service Phase 2 project, will provide more efficient DIY IoT device registration and improved project on boarding procedures, and this is a requirement for the wider rollout to schools beyond this pilot.