IBM and Coursera Partner to Provide a Developer's Guide to the Internet of Things

FREMONT, CA: IBM and Coursera, a provider of online educational technology, announce partnership to offer a new open online course for students who are interested in the Internet of Things (IoT) and those wanting to learn basic IoT programming.

The course is called "a developer's guide to the Internet of Things," and includes what an IoT solution is and how to create one. The course takes students through the steps required to create an Internet of Things solution using the popular small computing device- Raspberry Pi, and IBM’s cloud based platform, IBM Bluemix.

The course will also teach usage of Node-RED, an application development environment, on both the device and the cloud.  With Node-RED students can create Internet of Things solutions by leveraging its pre-built componentry that rapidly enables "things" to "talk" to each other, along with lowerlevel APIs to manipulate and analyze the data sent by the device. Node-RED is a visual tool, built by IBM, used for wiring together hardware devices, Application Program Interfaces (APIs) and online services for the Internet of things.

The entry level course for the IoT focuses on the programming required to capture data from trusted devices; and to get that data to the cloud platform where it can be exploited by services available on a typical cloud platform.

The IoT is a rapid growth area for many businesses today and is enabled by technological innovations. These technological Innovations allow more devices to connect, collect and send data to the cloud. New programming constructs and more programmers are required to help keep pace with the explosion of data and apps.

“There is no question that cross-discipline skills are already in demand, and as a result a new generation of developers is being urgently trained in multiple skill areas and tools to fill the growing demand for ‘connected solutions’ in the coming months and years,” says Kevin Turner, Program Director, Innovation Strategy - IoT Developer Ecosystem, IBM. “I hope that the course will fuel your imagination for what is possible with a simple prototyping environment, powerful analytics, and cloud technology at your fingertips. There is an incredible potential just waiting to be realized by the combination of a few sensors, some programmable devices and the skills of an ‘IoT developer’," he added.