Practice Module for Architecting Smart Systems

Objectives

The objectives of the Practice Module are:

1. To expose participants to real world problems to practice the skills they have learned during the component courses in a holistic manner.
2. To enable participants to demonstrate their proficiency across all of the skills learnt in the course modules and obtain a grade at the Graduate Certificate Level.

Intended Audience

This Practice Module is targeted at software architects and software developers who wish to complete the certification process for the Graduate Certificate in “Architecting Smart Systems”.

Prerequisites

To enrol in the “Architecting Smart Systems” Practice Module, participants must:

• Successfully obtain the Graduate Certificate in Architecting Scalable Systems, and
• Successfully obtain a competent score (or have been exempted from) these component courses for the Graduate Certificate in Architecting Smart Systems:
  • Architecting IoT Solutions
  • Designing Intelligent Edge Computing
  • Humanizing Smart Systems

Components

There are two parts to the Practice Module.

1. Practice Project: Participants will need to undertake a project to gain practical experience and demonstrate understanding and mastery of the skills taught in the four component courses. The practice project will require each participant to expend an estimated 10 days of effort. These days are not expected to be contiguous and may stretch over many weeks. These projects may be conducted by individual participants or in teams depending on the nature of the project requirements.
2. Examination: Each participant is required to sit for an examination on a stipulated date and time.

The overall grade for the participant will be based on the Practice project and Examination.

      Typical examples of projects:

1. Problem description:

A building maintenance company would like to install sensors on existing properties that they manage, to monitor energy consumption and alert for potential faults in fixtures and elevators. For privacy and responsiveness reasons, they would like the sensors to perform data processing and trigger actions without connecting to the cloud. This project is about designing the sensor network and validating the design through prototyping.

Deliverables and success criteria:

• Liaise with stakeholders to understand all the business requirements
• Create a design specification of the building sensor network to meet the business requirements. Include, for example:
  • Overall system architecture of the sensor and processing nodes
  • Human-centric interactions, such as touch, voice, vision or wearables
  • Characteristics of sensors, actuators, and data streams
  • Connectivity and protocol requirements
  • Data lifecycle
  • Algorithms used to perform data analytics and decision-making
  • Device management and deployment
• Execute the plan that covers key aspects of the system
• Demonstrate application of key architectural and design principles in the proof-of-concept

   

   

• Problem description:

 

A fleet management company deploys delivery vehicles that travel to remote locations with no or limited internet connectivity. The drivers have to perform their own vehicle maintenance and route planning. They would like a system that can gather vehicle data, perform analytics on-board the vehicle, and provide real-time alerts to the driver.

 

Deliverables and success criteria:

• Create a design specification of the building sensor network to meet the business requirements. Include, for example:
  • Overall system architecture of the sensor and processing nodes
  • Human-centric interactions, such as touch, voice, vision or wearables
  • Characteristics of sensors, actuators, and data streams
  • Connectivity and protocol requirements
  • Data lifecycle
  • Algorithms used to perform data analytics and decision-making
  • Device management and deployment
• Execute the plan that covers key aspects of the system
• Demonstrate application of key architectural and design principles in the proof-of-concept

Illustrative real-world examples of the types of projects to be considered are listed below (note that the scope of the Practice Project to architect, design, and build proof-of-concepts or prototypes):

1) Care.ai

2) MachineMetrics Industrial IoT Platform

3) Foghorn.io

4) Changi Airport’s Smart Parking Guidance System

Application (For Stackable Students)

• Participants are only allowed to take the practice module after completing all courses in the Grad Cert.
• Participants who wish to take the practice module concurrently in the same semester with the courses in the same Grad Cert must write to ask-iss@nus.edu.sg citing reasons by the application deadline. Email requests received after the deadline will not be considered. Requests will be reviewed after the deadline and approved on a case-by-case basis.
• Participants who miss the application window will have to apply for the practice module in the next semester.
• Participants who do not attend the briefing will be withdrawn from the practice module.