Collaborating with Frugal IoT

Collaborating with Frugal IoT

The whole point of Frugal-IoT is collaboration, so please read on.

Frugal IoT is intended to be a middle layer. To bring solid technical capability, to projects creating meaningful change.

We are looking to collaborate with.

• Changemakers - working on solving the world's problems, of sustainability, and inequality, in particular in resource-constrained environments where commercial solutions do not work.
• Platforms - for example in agro-ecology / regenerative agriculture, who would like to integrate sensors into their projects.
• IoT Engineers and companies - lend your skills to the project, pick up one of the issues, or use Frugal-IoT as a way to get some solid experience.
• AI or ML Engineers - who can help integrate sensor data to solve problems involving, for example, prediction.
• Other (mechanical) engineers - if you are trying to solve a problem, or willing to help someone with a problem, that could use sensing capabilities.
• Donors - yes please, help leverage our work.

Elaborating on these below.

Changemakers

We are interested in projects where sensing could be relevant to solving the problems you care about.

Some examples:

We are collaborating with Graam Disha Trust who are working with farmers, mostly of apples, in Himachal Pradesh, India, on their Varta project. Varta will use low-cost sensors to measure temperature, humidity, soil moisture, temperature and then use some Machine Learning (ML) to make predictions, that can then be used with a SLM (Small Language Model) to provide recommendations, in English and Hindi, on an app the farmers are already using. GDT have found a couple of inexperienced engineers, who we are mentoring to build a device specific to their needs. They have also found a volunteer to do the ML and SLM part of the predictions, and are working with the developers of a government funded agriculture app to integrate the results.

Platforms - especially in Agro-Ecology / Regenerative Agriculture.

The Frugal-IoT system has a user interface that works on browsers (laptop, and mobile), but it could be more useful when integrated with other data, in the places that users are already going. We are interested in integrating into platforms such as for example LiteFarm, which smallholder farmers use to track farm activities.

IoT Engineers

There are plenty of places for engineers, of varying skill levels to get involved.

If you have more skills than us, there are problems we have not yet solved, and you may have tips and ideas we have not yet thought of.

If you are a relative beginner, then Frugal-IoT might be a good way to get practical experience, with the rewarding experience of solving a real problem for someone, rather than just building a hobby.

We have had some great advice from professional IoT developers. Frugal-IoT is not their competition, since it is typically being deployed in situations which could not afford a professional solution.

• AI or ML Engineers

Sensors can be used to make predictions, for example GDT tell us, that they can use hyper-localized weather and soil data to predict pest outbreaks, allowing the farmer to use organic prevention methods, rather than waiting for the outbreak at which point they will need to use harmful, and often expensive, chemicals.

I would love to see a ML/AI framework that allowed simple solutions to be deployed using the sensor data.

For example we have been approached by several people with problems that need a solution that involves integrating camera images (from phones, or cheap microscopes) with soil, weather and location data to make predictions (e.g. "what bug is this" or "what should we be doing to our soil"). The data and human skills are available, but lack a technical framework to plug into.

• Other (e.g. mechanical) engineers.

As with AI/ML, there are projects that require not just affordable IoT, but other engineering skills to solve a problem. For example to design a piece of sensor-enabled machinery.

We particularly enjoy working with engineers who come with a problem they are already working on in-country. Combining a locally based engineer with our remote IoT engineers could make it much easier to solve problems.

• Donors -

Yes please .... this project has expenses, which include both equipment to test and develop on, travel time, and ideally also some support for local organizations looking to adopt IoT. Please get in touch.