Dr. Dan Cuperman
In this study, engineering students didn’t just learn about the Internet of Things, they experienced it in action. Sitting far from the laboratory, they remotely monitored a real robotic production cell equipped with sensors, cameras, and cloud-connected controllers, watching machines work live while tracking data on dashboards they built themselves on their smartphones. Temperature changes, conveyor speeds, and system states flowed from the factory floor to the cloud and straight into students’ hands, turning abstract Industry 4.0 concepts into something tangible and immediate. By combining remote laboratories, real industrial hardware, and hands-on programming, the workshop revealed how modern factories are increasingly managed from a distance and how future engineers can create value by seeing, understanding, and improving production systems through data. The experience helped students recognize the power of IoT not as futuristic hype, but as a practical lens for understanding how today’s smart factories actually work.
