Alfred University Engineering Academic Institute class teaches high school students smart home technology

A group of a dozen area high school students learned about smart home technology and design during a session of Alfred University's Summer Academic Institutes.

Xingwu Wang, professor of electrical engineering in Alfred University's Inamori School of Engineering, organized the program on smart home technology held Wednesday, July 9, with other engineering faculty, staff, and students assisting. The class is part of the first session of the Inamori School of Engineering's Summer Academic Institute, which was held this week (July 6-11). A second session, to which 18 high school students are registered to attend, is scheduled for this week, July 13-18.

Wednesday's class taught students how smart homes use computer coding to control and monitor a number of home functions, such as lighting, security, weather protection, and alternative power sources. Model smart homes used in the class contained a security system, which utilized a code or swipe card to open the house door, and a smoke alarm; weather monitoring sensors, such as one which detects rain and closes the house's window, and temperature and humidity sensors, which control whether heat or air conditioning needs to be turned on; and renewable energy systems, such as a roof-mounted windmill-powered generator.

Smart homes have systems-lighting, security, living comfort-that are automated. The small model smart homes were used for instruction in last Wednesday's class, with students breaking into teams of three to conduct experiments on coding for smart home technology. Wang explained that each team was made up of a software engineer, a hardware engineer, and a team leader.

John Simmins '84, PhD '90, executive director of Alfred University's GE Vernova Advanced Power Grid Lab, spoke to students about the reasons for having smart home codes, while Junpeng Zhan, assistant professor of renewable energy engineering, talked about how codes are developed for smart homes. Two Alfred University students-Chevy Adriaans, a sophomore electrical engineering major, and David Gonzalez, a junior majoring in biomaterials engineering and electrical engineering-assisted students in conducting their experiments.