Internet of Things (IoT) Fundamentals for Beginners

Dr. Alfred Ang has built a complete Internet of Things platform from scratch, which gives this beginner course a strong practical foundation. Dr. Ang is a full-stack AI developer, Agentic AI solution architect, corporate trainer and CTO of Tertiary Infotech Academy Pte Ltd in Singapore, the training organisation behind Tertiary Courses, building intelligent agents and business solutions end-to-end across front end, back end, databases, cloud deployment and native mobile apps. Among the 300+ public repositories, the IoT work is substantial. IoTFlow is a low-code, self-hosted IoT platform powered by n8n that connects Arduino, ESP32 and Raspberry Pi devices over MQTT and HTTP, displays live sensor readings on dashboard widgets, controls devices in real time and triggers automations when conditions are met. Dr. Ang also built native companion apps for the platform on both iOS, in SwiftUI, and Android, in Kotlin and Jetpack Compose, so devices can be monitored and controlled from a phone. Related projects use live data feeds in the same spirit, including apps that show bus arrivals, car park availability and EV charging points from public transport APIs, and a warehouse inventory dashboard with derived stock status. An AI inventory agent running on a local language model adds forecasting to the picture. Together these projects cover the whole IoT chain, from sensor to cloud to dashboard to action, which is exactly the path this course follows. Dr. Ang also deploys these services on self-hosted cloud servers, so learners hear how an IoT prototype becomes a reliable, always-on system.

Internet of Things (IoT) Fundamentals for Beginners walks learners along that chain in four hands-on topics. The first, an overview of the Internet of Things, explains what IoT is, how sensors, microcontrollers, connectivity and cloud services fit together, and where IoT is transforming homes, buildings, healthcare, agriculture and manufacturing. The second, collecting and posting data to the cloud, has learners connect a microcontroller to sensors such as temperature and humidity, then send readings to a cloud service over Wi-Fi using HTTP or MQTT, the same protocols Dr. Ang's IoT platform relies on. The third topic, reading data and remotely controlling devices from the cloud, reverses the direction, so learners switch LEDs, relays or other actuators from a dashboard or phone and understand how commands travel safely back to the device. The fourth topic, IoT data analytics and visualisation, turns the collected data into charts and dashboards, sets up simple alerts and rules, and introduces how AI and automation can act on sensor data. Dr. Ang keeps the pace beginner-friendly, explaining each concept in plain English before learners wire and code it, and offers individual help with the inevitable connection issues. Security basics, such as protecting credentials and limiting device access, are covered along the way. Learners finish with a working end-to-end IoT prototype and a clear picture of how to take it further. To explore IoTFlow and Dr. Ang's other projects, visit https://github.com/alfredang.