Flying Seamlessly into the Future: Computing Students Create Futuristic Solutions with AI and IoT Taught in Three Countries in Four Weeks

Imagine putting on a pair of smart glasses and stepping into a Renaissance masterpiece. Or putting in an earpiece to listen to a journal article read directly from a PDF.

These are not futuristic concepts but prototypes developed in late 2025 by a group of students from Singapore Management University's (SMU) School of Computing and Information Systems (SCIS). Over four intensive weeks, they experienced student life in Finland, Singapore, and Thailand while building multiple smart device prototypes each week.

The students are part of the 'Developing AI for IoT' (DevAIoT) course, led by the University of Helsinki and co-developed by SMU's Lee Kong Chian Professor of Computer Science, Archan Misra, together with faculty from two other universities. Combining theory with hands-on implementation, the course adopts a hackathon format and brings together computing students from Finland, Singapore and Thailand.

The programme brought together fiveYear 3 Computer Science students from SMU - Alson Wei, Set Lin Kaung, Philip Leong, Yekai Wu and Chong Yong Ong - along with 15 other students from Chiang Mai University, the University of Jyväskylä and the University of Helsinki. Over the course of the programme, they travelled from Helsinki to Singapore, and then to Chiang Mai, spending a week or more in each city. Along the way, they developed increasingly sophisticated prototypes designed to make everyday life easier and more productive by integrating IoT hardware, software and AI algorithms. Teams were reshuffled in every city, enabling faculty researchers to collect empirical data on the learning effectiveness of both individuals and teams.

Part of this four-week course took place at SMU in late January, following the programme's start in Helsinki. At each university, students and instructors showcased their innovative projects and shared their learning experiences through public poster sessions.

Five cool prototypes

Students completed a total of five projects, including two which focused on interacting with smart spaces. One was an AI-powered smart-glass-optimised museum guide that identifies artworks and generates descriptive insights, creating a more seamless and immersive cultural experience for visitors. Another introduced a contactless feedback system for restroom users that uses visual gestures to capture responses.

The third project was a smart IoT-enabled system that intelligently transforms PDF documents into context-aware audio, delivering a more seamless, accessible, and higher-quality listening experience than standard text-to-speech tools.

The fourth project was an AI system that counts jumping jacks and movement rounds for physiotherapy and sports training. The fifth and final project was an AI-based logistics solution designed to optimise the final ''last mile' stage of package delivery, helping to ensure packages reach their destination in pristine condition. The system monitors packages inside a moving van using a sensor that tracks the van's movement on the road, while a camera and an AI processor simultaneously detect whether packages have been hit or displaced by the bumps or turns during transit.

A project within a project

Planning for the hackathon began two years ago when Professor Petteri Nurmi and the University of Helsinki proposed to Professor Archan Misra to jointly run an international IoT course as part of an education research project funded by the Finnish government. The project aimed to develop a reusable course on a timely topic, while also testing the efficacy of the pedagogy across a geographically distributed and culturally diverse group of students.

Prof Misra, who is also SMU's Vice Provost (Research), said, "The collaboration does not just involve delivering the course, but also producing jointly-authored research papers to investigate the effectiveness of the hackathon-style pedagogy adopted in the course. SMU was approached because of our research reputation and excellence on the topics of IoT and AI, our innovative education practices, and Singapore's broader reputation in physical AI and IoT for urban systems."

He added that he plans to work with his collaborating faculty to aggregate the content into a widely accessible online programme, enabling SMU and the three partner universities to reach a global community of learners.

He noted that this collaboration has given the participating SMU SCIS students a deeper appreciation of how IoT devices, data analytics and embodied AI can be harnessed to create new solutions that embed computing in our everyday lives. "It also aligns with SCIS's goals of providing students with an international learning experience and the skills to translate academic knowledge into practical solutions," he said.

Better with real-life IoT work

Alson shared that it has been a very enriching programme for him and his four course-mates. He said, "This experience has provided us with a valuable opportunity to explore the intersection of AI and the IoT, particularly in resource-constrained settings. We have gained insights into how AI and IoT technologies function across various environments, which helped us in our prototype development process."

"Collaborating and presenting our research alongside peers from different universities has enriched our learning experience and fostered an exciting exchange of ideas. We are very appreciative of this exposure," he added.