Helium Powers Innovative IoT and AI Program for New York Area Students

The Helium Foundation announced today that One Planet Education Network (OPEN), Seeed Studio, and Tingkart have designed and deployed a smart agriculture IoT sensor network in a Brooklyn school garden. This initiative serves New York City schools, with the goal of inspiring the next generation to advance sustainable projects at the local level, while equipping them with the right tools and technology. The Helium IOT Network, the world's largest public LoRaWAN network, powers this program. It's a prime example of grassroots initiatives achieving public good. The Helium Network offers low-cost, reliable, and widespread connectivity, opening the door for innovative IoT educational programs in cash-strapped school districts.

“The garden project at Dr. Ronald E. McNair/P.S. 5 has transformed into the “Learning Garden”. The students now garden with a purpose. By hypothesizing and conducting the OPEN sustainable agriculture experiment, our students have an opportunity to engage in an experience where they learn how artificial intelligence can help students and farmers produce healthier and more productive crops to further ensure food security. Our students can also collaborate with fellow students, farmers, and experts in many parts of the world. Consistent monitoring of air and soil quality has created an ongoing learning opportunity that encourages students to solve challenging environmental problems.” said Principal of PS5, Lena Gates.

The sensors are enabled by the Helium IOT Network, a decentralized, open-source, accessible and secure wireless network with hundreds of thousands of active IoT Hotspots in use today. The longer-term goal of the OPEN project is to produce healthier, locally grown food crops for PS5’s student-run school restaurant and demonstrate the value of smart gardening systems to the local community. With outdoor gardens and greenhouse, students can create and manage community farm stands, providing their neighborhoods with healthy vegetables and produce year-round.

The project, which began in late April 2024, was timed well for the spring planting of Dr. Ronald E. McNair’s (PS5) school gardens. The OPEN-PS5 project fielded a Seeed Studio sensor to monitor soil temperature and moisture, ambient light, CO2, air temperature and humidity, and more. The Tingkart AI and Machine Learning crop management knowledge system gathers local weather data, ingesting the data from PS5’s Seeed sensors for ongoing assessment of the garden vegetables, soils, CO2 output, and growing conditions. The system makes recommendations for the apprentice gardeners for the best care and results given the ever-changing environmental conditions.

“Seeed Studio, RAKwireless, and OPEN have been community builders on the Helium ecosystem for many years, creating products that help solve real-world problems," said Abhay Kumar, CEO of The Helium Foundation. “I’m thrilled to see so many Helium partners working together to help support this initiative to educate our youth using the people-powered network for good.”

"Our goal is to provide hands-on IoT education and related science education to students of all ages,” said George Newman, CEO and Founder of One Planet Education Network. “Teaching them the intricacies of IoT, data science and the positive applications and utilization of AI and Machine Learning early on, we are upskilling them for the rapidly evolving AI-ML directed workplace. Applying IoT and AI-ML to sustainable community development, we are also challenging them to address the many environmental challenges faced by the broader local and global communities. These young minds are at the forefront of solution-making, as these environmental problems we face are universal. They are our future, and it's critical that schools across America integrate these programs and technologies into their curricula.”

Since 2019, OPEN has leveraged the Helium Network for Smart Farming and Sustainable Community projects, including the collaboration between OPEN and the Forestry Training Institute (FTI) in Liberia Join Together to Deploy Internet Sensors.

In a related development – RAKwireless, a provider of WisBlock sensor modules for developers, launched a new line of IoT Education Sensor kits with OPEN targeted for a wide variety of vertical markets. RAK has partnered with OPEN to develop courses and associated network services which will first focus on the Environment (Air Quality, Climate Change), and Agriculture. Students will design, build, and program their own air quality sensors for deployment around their NYC schools, while learning about the IoT industry and additional socially responsible AI-ML applications. With on the ground support by OPEN and Dr. Wednaud Ronelus, of the NYC school-based Alchemist Club, PS5 was the recipient of the first run of those two education sensor kits donated from RAKwireless and OPEN. PS5 students will begin their first courses in the fall of 2024.