Overview
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a collection of networked sensors that feed information to applications to make smart decisions. In this unit, you will learn the fundamentals of the IoT as well as the opportunities IoT brings to the connected smart world. This unit will develop your understanding of the hardware and software components of IoT systems, including sensors, gateways, and applications, as well as the network protocols used to communicate between devices. You will learn to store and present IoT data using a dashboard, and learn of the challenges associated with the proliferation of IoT, such as standardisation of communication protocols, reliability, and sustainability, and identify how they impact future IoT deployments. Finally, the unit will cover privacy, security and ethical issues raised by the connected smart world of IoT.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Pre-requisite: COIT20245 Introduction to Programming
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 3 - 2025
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of 'pass' in order to pass the unit. If any 'pass/fail' tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully ('pass' grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the 'assessment task' section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Unit coordinator's reflection
The unit content does not reflect the recent innovations.
The unit effectively addresses key innovations in IoT and related fields. However, given the rapid advancements in this emerging area, updating some of the lecture contents to incorporate recent developments would enhance the unit's relevance and provide greater value to students.
Feedback from Unit Coordinator's reflection
Assessment 1 and Assessment 2 may be susceptible to GenAI influence.
The specification for Assignment 2 was revised in Term 2, 2024 to encourage students to engage in reflection and critical thinking while responding to the questions. This approach aimed to enhance higher-order thinking skills and reduce reliance on generative AI tools. However, the use of GenAI tools was not formally incorporated into the assignment. It is recommended that GenAI tools be incorporated into both Assignment 1 and Assignment 2 in future offerings to help students develop an understanding of how to use GenAI tools ethically and responsibly as part of their learning process.
- Evaluate the concepts and the technologies of IoT
- Analyse IoT devices, sensor types, protocols and standards appropriate in different scenarios
- Design and develop an IoT network dashboard for presenting live data for social and business solutions
- Evaluate the ethical and security concerns related to IoT technologies.
The Australian Computer Society (ACS) recognises the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). SFIA is adopted by organisations, governments and individuals in many countries and provides a widely used and consistent definition of ICT skills. SFIA is increasingly being used when developing job descriptions and role profiles. ACS members can use the tool MySFIA to build a skills profile.
This unit contributes to the following workplace skills as defined by SFIA 7 (the SFIA code is included):
- Network Design(NTDS)
- Systems Design (DESN)
- System Integration and Build (SINT)
- Application Support (ASUP)
- Solution architecture (ARCH)
- IT Infrastructure (ITOP)
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 20% | ||||
| 2 - Group Work - 30% | ||||
| 3 - Project (applied) - 50% | ||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | ||||
| 2 - Communication | ||||
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | ||||
| 4 - Research | ||||
| 5 - Self-management | ||||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | ||||
| 7 - Leadership | ||||
| 8 - First Nations Knowledges | ||||
| 9 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
| 1 - Written Assessment - 20% | |||||||||
| 2 - Group Work - 30% | |||||||||
| 3 - Project (applied) - 50% | |||||||||
Textbooks
IoT security- Advances in Authentication
- 1st edition (2020)
- Authors: Madhusanka Liyanage, An Braeken, Pradeep Kumar, Mika Ylianttila
- Wiley
- ISBN: 9781119527923
- Binding: eBook
The Internet of Things- Foundation for smart cities, eHealth and Ubiquitous computing
- 1st edition (2018)
- Authors: Ricardo Armentana, Robin Singh Bhadoria, Parag Chatterjee, Ganesh Chandra Deka
- Taylor and Francis
- ISBN: 978-1-4987-8902-8
- Binding: eBook
The Internet of Things- from Data to insight
- 1st edition (2020)
- Authors: John Davies and Carolina Fortuna
- Wiley
- ISBN: 9781119545262
- Binding: eBook
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- Node.js and NODE-RED
- Grafana
- InfluxDB
- AWS Academy Student Accounts
- Microsoft Azure, MSLE portal and Skillable Student Accounts
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Harvard (author-date)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
j.hassan@cqu.edu.au
Week 1
Begin Date: 10 Nov 2025Module/Topic
Introduction to IoT- definition, applications, architecture
Chapter
Multiple resources as mentioned in the lecture slides.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 2
Begin Date: 17 Nov 2025Module/Topic
Communication technologies for IoT
Chapter
Multiple resources as mentioned in the lecture slides.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 3
Begin Date: 24 Nov 2025Module/Topic
Energy harvesting IoT (EH-IoT)
Chapter
Multiple resources as mentioned in the lecture slides.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 4
Begin Date: 01 Dec 2025Module/Topic
Drone assisted IoT (Drones serving IoT: Mobile data collector)
Chapter
Multiple resources as mentioned in the lecture slides.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 5
Begin Date: 08 Dec 2025Module/Topic
Internet of Drones (IoD)
Chapter
Multiple resources as mentioned in the lecture slides.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 6
Begin Date: 15 Dec 2025Module/Topic
Framework of IoT
Chapter
Multiple resources as mentioned in the lecture slides.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Vacation Week
Begin Date: 22 Dec 2025Module/Topic
Term Break
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Vacation Week
Begin Date: 29 Dec 2025Module/Topic
Term Break
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 7
Begin Date: 05 Jan 2026Module/Topic
IoT gateway and edge computing
Chapter
Multiple resources as mentioned in the lecture slides.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 8
Begin Date: 12 Jan 2026Module/Topic
Edge computing to cloud
Chapter
Multiple resources as mentioned in the lecture slides.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 9
Begin Date: 19 Jan 2026Module/Topic
Convergence of traditional network and IoT
Chapter
Multiple resources as mentioned in the lecture slides.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 10
Begin Date: 26 Jan 2026Module/Topic
Use cases of IoT
Chapter
Multiple resources as mentioned in the lecture slides.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 11
Begin Date: 02 Feb 2026Module/Topic
IoT security and data privacy
Chapter
Multiple resources as mentioned in the lecture slides.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 12
Begin Date: 09 Feb 2026Module/Topic
Artificial Intelligence (AI) assisted IoT
Chapter
Multiple resources as mentioned in the lecture slides.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Exam Week
Begin Date: 16 Feb 2026Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Unit Coordinator: Dr Jahan Hassan <j.hassan@cqu.edu.au>
1 Written Assessment
In this assignment, you will
- individually reflect on your weekly tutorial activities from weeks 1 to 5.
- Investigate IoT communication protocols
- Investigate IoT-Cloud paradigm shift
You need to use your reflection and investigation to formulate a business case for solving a social, environmental, or humanitarian problem/issues.
AI ASSESSMENT SCALE - Artificial Intelligence (AI) COLLABORATION:
- You may use AI to assist with specific tasks such as drafting text, refining and evaluating your work. You must critically evaluate and modify any Al-generated content you use.
Detailed information about this assignment can be accessed from the unit website in Moodle.
Week 5 Friday (12 Dec 2025) 11:55 pm AEST
Submit online via Moodle link
Week 7 Friday (9 Jan 2026)
Online
Students will be evaluated based on the following:
- Knowledge of existing IoT applications and services.
- Ability to learn and utilise various IoT platforms.
- Capacity for self-reflection on their learning.
For detailed marking criteria, please refer to the Moodle unit website.
- Evaluate the concepts and the technologies of IoT
- Analyse IoT devices, sensor types, protocols and standards appropriate in different scenarios
- Evaluate the ethical and security concerns related to IoT technologies.
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Research
2 Group Work
In this assignment, you will use the business cases from assignment one and list the technologies involved in it to address the respective problem/issues. Your task is to locate scholarly articles, including published journals, books, and conference papers related to the technologies needed to achieve the outcome to address the social/environmental/humanitarian. This investigation will be conducted in a team (group) environment, and you will be required to:
- Find and research multiple scholarly resources to report on the scientific developments relevant to your topic.
- Prepare a report following the guidelines provided in the assignment specification document.
- Deliver an oral presentation based on your findings from the report. Instructions for this will be available on the Moodle unit website.
AI ASSESSMENT SCALE - Artificial Intelligence (AI) PLANNING:
- You may use Al for planning, idea development, and research. Your final submission should show how you have developed and refined these ideas.
Detailed information about this assignment can be accessed from the Moodle unit website.
Week 8 Friday (16 Jan 2026) 11:55 pm AEST
Submit the report via Moodle Link.
Week 10 Friday (30 Jan 2026)
Online
The students will be assessed primarily on the following criteria:
- Research skills in locating and utilising quality scholarly articles relevant to their topic.
- Ability to understand and analyse scientific articles in depth.
- Quality and level of detail in their report.
- Effective teamwork skills.
- Presentation of findings during the oral presentation.
For detailed marking criteria, please refer to the Moodle unit website.
- Analyse IoT devices, sensor types, protocols and standards appropriate in different scenarios
- Design and develop an IoT network dashboard for presenting live data for social and business solutions
- Evaluate the ethical and security concerns related to IoT technologies.
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Research
- Leadership
3 Project (applied)
In this assignment, you will be tasked with designing and developing an Internet of Things (IoT) application using IoT devices and tools. Additionally, you need to write a report outlining the process you followed during the project's development. This is an Individual activity, and the assessment requires you to:
- Analyse and identify an effective application of IoT.
- Design the IoT application-based project.
- Develop and deploy the project using the provided tools.
- Prepare a report documenting your activities, following the given instructions, using both text and multimedia (e.g., screenshots, videos).
- Participate in an oral presentation to demonstrate your understanding and findings related to the project via a video recording.
AI ASSESSMENT SCALE - Artificial Intelligence (AI) PLANNING:
- You may use Al for planning, idea development, and research. Your final submission should show how you have developed and refined these ideas.
Detailed information about this assignment can be accessed from the unit website in Moodle.
Week 12 Friday (13 Feb 2026) 11:55 pm AEST
Submit via Moodle Link
Online On Certification day
Students will be assessed based on:
- Their ability to analyse and develop the project idea.
- The feasibility and appropriateness of the proposed project (IoT application).
- The completeness of the development and deployment of the solution.
- The quality and level of detail in the report.
For more detailed marking criteria, please refer to Moodle.
- Evaluate the concepts and the technologies of IoT
- Design and develop an IoT network dashboard for presenting live data for social and business solutions
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
