Education 4.0: Living Labs for the Students of the Future

Education 4.0: Living Labs for the Students of the Future

Background
A future of interconnected labs, brought together and powered by waves of advances in digital technologies, will turn the tide of innovation and future education capabilities.

The big challenge? Navigating oceans of information. An unprecedented number of experiments are being explored today in many science domains. Innovations, while incredibly exciting, have also exposed a fundamental weakness in laboratory operations: the collective inability to harness the power of the oceans of data we generate. Whether in labs engaged in research, or in labs generating and analyzing research data, the volume, velocity, and variety of data being generated by scientists is overwhelming the systems required to support it. An Accenture study[1] found out that up to 70% of experimentation is not reproducible, often due to the inability to find the original research data, or because the experimental conditions (metadata) are inconsistently or inadequately documented.

Unless we act now to bring order to this chaos, we are likely to miss the current opportunity to successfully scale scientific advances and improve the lives of people everywhere. The good news? A systematic approach to how we produce and consume scientific, operational, clinical, and other patient-related data has been shown to have significant positive impacts. And it all begins in the lab.
[1] https://www.accenture.com/sa-en/insights/life-sciences/digital-lab-transformation

According to the Vision of the European Commission, the EU's digital decade evolves digitalisation with a clear focus on data, technology, and infrastructure.

Through the development of the international network of interconnected smart labs that we are proposing, we aim to provide students from Master and PhD levels, from different parts of Europe with flexible digital study options. Through this, the project will ensure a more accessible higher education by providing the right conditions for students of different backgrounds to succeed, but also by using a delivery technology that is accessible all around the world. The project will thus provide digital readiness (in terms of IoT studies) to the universities promoting the project, but also resilience of educational services in the face of unexpected events, like the COVID-19 pandemic.
This aspect of the project will thus refine the user experience and content so that the online platform provided through the project can contribute to a better digital capacity for universities.

Objectives
The project aims to pilot a program for Living Labs showcasing a study on the creation of education and innovation value through the introduction of Digitally Interconnected Smart Labs.
We wish to introduce smart laboratories, where the learning experience is centred around DATA as well. This will not only help the project partner universities to create a new and better education tool, but it will enable students everywhere to learn and research on a real life establishment with real people living/working inside. We are providing the beginning of an international network of interconnected smart labs that will be available worldwide and will help in Digital Education and Innovation programmes and engineering in Internet of Things and Data Engineering.
The project is reflecting a common and integrated approach and aiming to:
· contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals to create a better world by 2030: quality education; gender equality; responsible consumption and production and digitalisation;
· implement, test and disseminate new solutions and pedagogical approaches, and provide strong interdisciplinary approach in the field of digital technologies;
· further develop European online training for smart specialization on IoT and Big Data technologies offering a Methodology to integrate the identified mechanisms into existing security procedures already adopted by partners;
· address the lack of Living labs in an international environment and thus diversifying the academic offer.

Activities
OS1. Creation of the interconnected smart labs
A.1. Analysis of existing digital HW/SW products and services that will be included in the smart labs and of missing elements to enable their interconnection (M1-M3);
A.2. Development of extensions and technologies to allow for secure remote access and usage of the instruments and tools to be included in the project (M3-M12);
A.3. Methodological Toolkit for Training on smart labs (M11-M20);
A.4. Development of the inter-coupled smart labs with automated catalogue/dashboard (M13-M36);
A.5. Training and testing the inter-connected smart labs with PhD research activities (M11-M36).

OS2. Creation of the digital programme on IoT and data engineering with applications supported by the smart labs (living labs)
A.6. Analysis of the set of existing disciplines in the participating entities and of the training needs (M1-M6);
A.7. Adapting the set of teaching Master classes from participating universities to Education 4.0, and development of the teaching materials for the Master programme, and of the dedicated training dashboard (M7-M36);
A.8. Training of the Trainers (M13-M24);
A.9. Training of students - Organisation of the classes for at least one academic year (M25-M36).

Impact
The Living Lab will enable students through active research activities to realize the actual impact of their choices on a real life establishment with real people living/working inside. Moreover, private companies will be able to take advantage of the Living labs, for example by putting into test new related products (e.g. new smart meters, thermostats, controlled plugs) in real environments. During the project, three digital laboratories will be developed in the University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal, and Università Politecnica delle Marche, Italy.

IO1: Internet of Things and Data Engineering Training Methodological Toolkit (eLearning smart digital labs)
A1: Analysis of existing digital HW/SW products and services that will be included in the smart labs.
- R.1.1 Set of available products and services identified;
- R.1.2 Missing components/elements/services to enable interconnection identified.
A2. Development of extensions and technologies to allow for secure remote access and usage of the instruments and tools to be included in the project.
- R.2.1. Set of components, extensions and technologies identified to enable interconnection;
- R.2.2. Authorisation mechanism for secure authentication and access to remote labs;
- R.2.3. Methodology to integrate the identified mechanisms into existing security procedures already adopted by partners.
A3. Methodological Toolkit for Training on smart labs
- R.3.1. A methodological toolkit to use for sustainable development of smart labs.

IO2: Distributed eLearning Training Platform for Internet of Things and Data Engineering (Inter-connnected Living Labs)
A4: Development of the inter-coupled smart labs with automated catalogue (dashboard)
- R.4.1. One dashboard for interconnected tools;
- R.4.2. 4 meetings.
A5: Training and testing the inter-connected smart labs with PhD research activities
- R.5.1. 6 PhD students enrolled during the project’s duration developing themes on top of the research infrastructure;
- R.5.2. 4 co-authored journal articles (between universities).

IO3: Joint Design of Training Programme on IoT and Data Engineering
A6: Analysis of the set of existing disciplines in the participating entities and of the training needs
- R.6.1. Report of collected data through questionnaire
- R.6.2. Set of identified disciplined (at least the 4 disciplines identified in the pre-proposal analysis)
A7: Adapting the set of teaching Master classes from participating universities to Education 4.0, and development of the teaching materials for the Master programme, and of the dedicated training dashboard
- R.7.1. set of classes adapted to the online remote teaching
- R.7.2. Guidelines for the development of training materials
- R.7.3. Set of materials for at least 4 disciplines
A8: Training of the Trainers
- R.8.1. At least 8 training sessions done through STSM
- R.8.2. Two training workshops organised
- R.8.3. 24 trainers trained (2 trainers from each university)
A9: Training of students - Organisation of the classes for at least one academic year
- R.9.1. 1 final workshop
- R.9.2. More than 200 students participating in the pilot Master selected classes between the partner universities

LEARNING/TEACHING/TRAINING ACTIVITIES
LTTA C1: Train the Trainers Education Week
LTTA C2: Students Winter School
LTTA C3: Student Training Week

The Partners:

Universitatea Nationala de Stiinta si Tehnologie POLITEHNICA Bucuresti, Romania - Coordinator

TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY, Israel
UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE EDUCACION A DISTANCIA, Spain
UNIVERSIDADE NOVA DE LISBOA, Portugal
UNIVERSITA POLITECNICA DELLE MARCHE, Italy