Toward a Smart and Sustainable Campus: Future Vision, Opportunities, and Challenges

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a buzzing technology nowadays. It is believed to have the potential for revolutionizing today’s world. Several projects and publications addressed the use of IoT in various applications such as smart cities, smart homes, wearables, smart grids, connected vehicles, and health care. However, few works addressed the potential of using IoT in educational institutions. The technological revolution along with several changes through the past era, including the COVID-19 global pandemic, have made it indispensable to employ innovative learning methods, also, the students will be looking forward to existing in the environment of a smart campus. This study presents a framework to elucidate how IoT can be used to bring a smart and innovative university campus to life in order to improve the efficiency of delivering the daily educational activities. In the context of sustainable development, the social and environmental interactions should be considered to provide a sustainable campus. Also, challenges are investigated and research opportunities are highlighted. This framework can be put in practice in guiding universities to adopt novel visions to improve the performance of their educational activities and student life experience by properly adopting and deploying IoT technologies. These concepts are elaborated based on the case of the innovative campus of the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology, which is located in New Borg Elarab, Alexandria, Egypt.