Abstract—The paper presents experiences with student projects aiming at gradually acquiring practical command of programming skills in the areas of embedded computing systems, cyberphysical systems, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Three projects are described, one per each domain: Google glass as an example of an embedded system, networking a 3D printer as an example of a cyperhysical system, and using a smatwatch to collect medical data and make them available to doctors and patients, as an IoT device. Finally, the impact of the results of these projects on STEM education is discussed. Keywords—Cyberphysical Systems, Embedded Systems, Internet of Things, STEM Education. I. INTRODUCTION TEM education relies on introducing awareness of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, collectively called STEM, and teaching respective skills and knowledge that would enhance students competitiveness on the job market when they graduate. The central motivation in this approach is a widespread belief that STEM focused education contributes to the innovativeness in product development and as such has a significant impact on strengthening the economy and making it more competitive globally [1]. In addressing this challenge, the Florida Gulf Coast University’s (FGCU) Software Engineering Department has developed over recent years a sophisticated undergraduate software engineering lab for use in embedded and cyberphysical systems and related project courses [2]-[3]. As a result, a number of teaching modules have been put in place, with emphasis on developing complex systems, studying their properties, and providing web-based access to the lab. This work has been supported in part by a grant from NASA through University of Central Florida’s NASA-Florida Space Grant Consortium (UCF-FSGC 66016015). Partial support was provided by a WIDER grant from the National Science Foundation, Award No. DUE-1347640. Part of the project has been accomplished under agreement with Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Future Education, China. Views and findings expressed herein are those of the authors and not of the funding agencies. Janusz Zalewski (corresponding author) and Dahai Guo are with the Department of Software Engineering at Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers, FL 33965, USA (239-590-7317; fax: 239-590-7304; e-mail: {zalewski,dguo}@fgcu.edu). Robert Kenny and Xiaoxue Wang are with the College of Education at Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers, FL 33965, USA (e-mail: {rkenny,xxwang}@fgcu.edu). With the evolution of the Internet and emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT), new issues come into place, which have to be addressed in courses on Embedded Systems and Cyberphysical Systems. This paper looks into the extension of traditional courses of that sort, to meet the challenges of the IoT technologies. It offers a hierarchical approach to designing and implementing respective curricula, with project emphasis. At the lowest level, there is a need to prepare students to understand the measurement and control aspects of embedded systems. This is addressed in Section 2. Next, once the students have understanding of measurement and control aspects, the networking element is introduced, in a course on Cyberphysical Systems. A respective project example is outlined in Section 3. Finally, given that the students acquired respective background in two lower level courses, the next stage involves actual IoT applications with the use of a cloud, which is presented in Section 4. This is summarized in the Conclusion section, which ends the article. II. EMBEDDED COMPUTING IN STEM A. Need for Integration It has been argued in the previous paper [3] that one of the key factors in STEM education should be the integration of all four disciplines, which can be accomplished via the use of student projects. Such an integrated approach to STEM is very rarely seen in current teaching practices at the undergraduate college level [4]. In particular, math and technology disciplines can be viewed as the basis of respective activities, and science and engineering draw from the support of math and technology, developing respective concepts at the higher levels. In this view, science disciplines essentially rely on inquiry and discovery, while engineering activities apply scientific concepts to construction of respective artifacts. As a fertile example, a concept of feedback control is used to illustrate the idea. The feedback principle, illustrated in Figure 1, is one of the most fundamental concepts in nature and technology. In essence, every biological system, including a human being, exists due to the application of a feedback principle, which results in self-regulation. The same is true of social systems where self-regulation is essential to their survival and prosperity. In engineering, the first documented use of a feedback principle took place in the IV-th century From Embedded Systems to Cyberphysical Systems to the Internet of Things: Consequences for STEM Education Janusz Zalewski, Dahai Guo, Robert Kenny and Xiaoxue Wang S INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTERS Volume 11, 2017 ISSN: 1998-4308 48