Launched as a digital education idea at the 2016 national IT summit in Saarbrücken, the concept of a tangible Internet of Things (IoT) is proving to be a unique tool for taking society with you. Whether it’s a CO2 traffic light, heavy rain gauge or solar table – making and new digitalization go hand in hand with the playful implementation of new ideas. Just in time for the Digital Summit 2022, the initiators Prof. Dr. Klaus-Uwe Gollmer and Guido Burger have now documented their experiences in a booklet and published it on the website of the Environmental Campus. This is intended to encourage people to take digitalization and the energy transition into their own hands.
Mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology (STEM) form the basis of the concept: “The key to mastering current and future crises can be found right there,” says Guido Burger, a committed maker from Stuttgart and one of the co-initiators. From Fridays for Future to Extinction Rebellion and the Last Generation – young people everywhere are rightly demonstrating for the preservation of our planet. “Just do it, study STEM or go into the trades. Become part of changing the world with your innovative ideas,” appeals Professor Klaus-Uwe Gollmer from the Environmental Campus to young people. “Finally give young people the digital tools to not just complain about future problems, but to develop new solutions themselves,” is the appeal to the education system and politicians.
Thousands of DIY projects from the IoT2 workshop, which have been successfully implemented in schools across Germany, show what is possible.
The IoT CO2 traffic light3 has proven to be an outstanding application. Food and water hygiene are taken for granted today. However, in view of the global threat of pandemics, there is a considerable need to catch up when it comes to indoor air quality. It is a very different matter whether a purchased sensor hangs on the wall or whether a system built by the young people themselves reminds them of the STEM background of the ventilation rules.
IoT2 for the protection of people, not only from infectious aerosol pollution, but also from climate impacts, such as the heavy rainfall events in the summer of 2021 on the Ahr and Kyll rivers. IoT heavy rain gauges4 built by schoolchildren are already monitoring various bodies of water in the Vulkaneifel and St. Wendel districts.
Applications are currently focusing on the economical use of energy. Be it ventilation or the prevention of moisture damage at low room temperatures. Also in the booklet: monitoring electrical energy consumers using smart sockets and switching depending on the supply of renewable energy. With the Datenpuls app5 , we are coloring the electricity from the home socket for the first time. IoT2 also helps us to use our own solar energy in the balcony power plant6.
In this way, we make challenges visible (air quality, CO2, energy, climate impact), create the space to find solutions together in society and then change our actions based on the knowledge we have gained: Ventilation, switching electricity consumers, operating balcony power plants.
At its core, digitalization is the foundation for all of our futures. Recognizing STEM connections and finding innovative solutions together at an unprecedented speed will become the decisive factor. Today’s investments in education will pay for themselves many times over in the future. “Let’s do it – now!” say the initiators and proudly point to the solar table that the IoT2 workshop presented a few weeks ago at Germany’s largest maker fair in Hanover. This is the only way to move from talk to action.