IoT Hackathon Challenges Students to Think Differently
Hackathons, Maker Fairs, and Robotic competitions are what’s needed to teach our children the skills needed in the coming world of ubiquitous connectivity. If your schools are not doing these things then you should work with businesses in your area to get it going.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is changing the nature of engineering and technology, but the growth of jobs in this new area is outpacing the ability of universities to turn out students with the proper skills and training.
“With engineering, you end up learning a lot of core stuff in college, but you’re looking at a book that’s been the same copy since 1958,” says Jake MacDonald, a senior at UMass Amherst. “They stick to the basics and then go, ‘well, at internships and jobs you’ll learn everything else.’”
With this approach, students often lack the hands-on training required to be successful in their jobs, and navigate today’s world of connected products.
This is why hackathons have become one of the biggest things to happen to education since the rise of the Internet, allowing students to not only take what they’ve learned in school and apply it to the real world, but also master new skills they may not necessarily pick up in a classroom.
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