Topic outline

  • General

    ELEC-E9900 - Networked Partnering and Product Innovation – NEPPI

    Online lecture link here:  https://aalto.zoom.us/j/67267065893

    NEPPI wiki - Tips and links (and teams' prototyping requirements for assistants)

    NEPPI is a 5 ECTS course where students from any background familiarise themselves with Internet of Things (IoT) related innovating. The course is part of the IDBM curriculum, and is targeted for students seeking to become design leaders in their field. This kind of position demands competences in the innovating process as well as a design-oriented mind-set, which promotes learning-by-creating. The course is located inside a technical school, i.e. the Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering (ELEC), and forms the technological core of the IDBM curriculum. 

    Innovation in any context requires the innovators to have at least basic understanding of the capabilities of the technology that they are working with. In the NEPPI course, the context is IoT innovation, whereby, the course covers the foundational building blocks of this very complex realm. The course is intended to serve the basics of IoT technology for students that may not have any technical background. However, the course offers a lot of learning potential even for a seasoned professional, as the context, process, and tools may not be the most conventional ones.

    The approach

    Learning-by-creating – NEPPI is organised as a set of two projects, where students iteratively express their design intent through cycles of researching, ideating, making, and getting feedback. The first two weeks are dedicated to the building of complex IoT machine on the basis of requirements, components, and materials assigned to the teams. The rest of the course manifests itself as a user-centred innovation project, which results in a design concept that will be shown in an exhibition (NEPPI EXPO).

    Precision-of-articulation – NEPPI focusses on the translation of ambiguous user needs into clearly, concisely, and unambiguously presented key requirements for an IoT application. This is achieved through repeated negotiations with engineers in the midst of the engagements with other stakeholders in the innovating process. 

    Domain-specific knowing – NEPPI introduces students to the realm of IoT applications with a wide and timely perspective. It covers IoT hardware, cloud services, apps, interfaces, algorithms, prototyping tools, and more. The intent is to establish a solid foundation of the key concepts related to IoT innovation.

    Schedule
    Week Monday Wednesday Friday
    01







    		 24.10. 09-12 Online

    Introduction to the Course [PDF, 0,3MB]
    What is IoT [PDF, 2 MB]

    [Lecture video]

    26.10. 09-16 Design Factory / Studio
    Hands on Exercises with Components
    Teaming up (Round I)

    [Miro]

    28.10. 09-16 Design Factory / Studio
    Hands on IoT Challenge I
    02

    31.10. 09-12 Online
    The Virtual Side of IoT

    [Lecture video]
    [Miro] pwd: neppi2022

    2.11. 09-16 Design Factory / Studio
    The Second IoT Challenge

    [Miro]

    4.11. 09-16 Design Factory / Studio
    Hands on IoT Challenge II
    03

    7.11. 09-12 Online
    HexMachine reflection [PDF, 6.5MB]
    Project briefing [PDF, 0.2MB]

    [Lecture video]

    9.11. 09-16 Design Factory / Studio
    Hands on familiarisation with the technical components for the project

    [The Context Mind Map]

    11.11. 09-16 Design Factory / Studio
    Project work: Idea
    09-11 Idea generation
    12-16 Dialogical Learning Sprint
    04

    14.11. 09-12 Online
    [Slides. PDF] (Covers only part, e.g., no discussion of costs)

    [Lecture video]
    [Miro] pwd: neppi2022

    24.11. 09-16 Design Factory / Studio
    Project work: Sharpening the Requirements

    [Slides, PDF]

    26.11. 09-16 Design Factory / Studio
    Communicating the Requirements to an Engineer
    05

    21.11. 09-12 Online - The Thing - About Reference Designs
    [Slides, PDF]

    [Lecture video]

    23.11. 09-16 Design Factory / Studio 
    Project work: Building and testing

    25.12. 09-16 Design Factory / Studio
    Project work: Building and testing
    06






    		 28.11. 09-12 Online

    [Slides, PDF]
    [Lecture video, part 1 - Key Design Reqs]
    [Lecture video, part 2 - Document]

    30.11. 09-16 Design Factory / Studio
    Preparation for NEXPO

    [Carl is helping in Zoom - link]

    2.12. 12-19 NEXPO
    12:00-15:00 Setting up
    15:00-17:00 The NEXPO show
    17:00-18:00 Dismantling and debrief
    07

    		 9.12. 10-12  Exam (online)


    Teaching staff:
    Salu Ylirisku, responsible teacher
    Marcell Berta, Carl Pellja, Shahram Barai, Kilta-Pate assistants