To help students gain deeper exposure to the world of technology—especially the rapidly booming IoT–AI field—NTT Institute of International Education (NIIE) organized the workshop “Introduction to IoT Systems and Challenges in System Development” for students taking the course Intelligent Embedded Systems and IoT.
The workshop was led by Mr. Ha Huu Phap, MSc, currently the Technical Director at Huu Phap Technology Co., Ltd., who has over 10 years of experience in IoT, embedded systems, hardware–software product development, and technology optimization for businesses. With hands-on experience in building and operating large-scale IoT systems, he offered students a “real-world” perspective—where IoT is no longer an abstract term but a collection of complex engineering, cost optimization, and operational challenges that companies face every day.
At the beginning of the workshop, the speaker helped students understand the true nature of an IoT system: the integration of sensors, controllers, actuators, networking systems, and data analytics platforms to enable interaction between the physical world and information systems. Practical examples of temperature sensors, actuators, edge controllers, and cloud-based analytics platforms helped students visualize the complete structure of a functional IoT system.
From this foundational overview, the workshop moved into its core content: the challenges of IoT system development. The speaker broke down each technical problem businesses commonly encounter: ensuring accurate data collection, maintaining stable data transmission in noisy environments, processing big data in the cloud, optimizing device energy consumption for long-term operation, and handling sensor failures caused by environmental factors.
Students also explored cost and hardware optimization problems: choosing between ESP32 and STM32, selecting WiFi or LoRaWAN, deciding whether to build or buy gateways, and allocating processing resources to ensure the system runs efficiently.
One of the most popular segments among students was the discussion of real-world issues in hardware, software, and system operations—problems that could crash an entire system due to “RAM leaks,” “MCU freezes,” “sensor noise,” or “devices going offline without alerting anyone” if monitoring dashboards weren’t in place. These are issues rarely encountered in theory-based classes but happen constantly in real industry environments.
At the end of the session, Nguyen Dinh Gia Hung, a K23 student majoring in Information Technology, expressed his excitement at seeing for the first time the full picture of an IoT system—from idea → prototype → final product. One student shared: “What impressed me most was how the speaker broke down very real challenges like maintaining stable data transmission or processing big data—things I had never thought about. The workshop helped me realize that IoT development is not just about connecting devices, but about solving a chain of problems from user needs to system operations. It really inspired me, and now I want to build complete IoT projects on my own in the future.”
The workshop not only equipped students with advanced technical insights but also broadened their understanding of IoT as a vast field that requires systems thinking, analytical abilities, and patience when working with real-world technology. This serves as an important foundation for NIIE students to confidently pursue future career opportunities in IoT – AI – Data in the coming years.
