The Internet, or, more specifically, IoT devices, depends on secure access to networks and clear identification. This has become more and more of an issue over the years as cloud service providers do not have physical access to IoT devices. Moreover, the entire process of recognition and authorization is done manually for each device, which is a difficult and time consuming endeavour when done in large quantities. So the idea behind the joint project between TUMO Labs, the educational programme at the heart of the EU TUMO Convergence Centre for Engineering and Applied Science in Armenia, and British company Viciniti revolved around solving this global issue, with students participating in the project creating an application that recognises, validates and allows secure and complete access to IoT devices on a cloud server.

Viciniti (which has a branch in Armenia) provides infrastructure software for industrial organisations. Through their software, users gain access to simple, secure and reliable methods that allow them to deploy and manage applications and devices (gateway, sensors, servers) locally on-premises rather than from a traditional cloud/data centre typically located much farther away.

With this project, representatives from Viciniti expressed a desire to help young people launch themselves into a new career, giving them the skills demanded by the needs of the labour market and laying down foundations for future collaborative efforts. “When we heard of the TUMO Labs initiative, we immediately wanted to participate, because this would be our opportunity to share our expertise and knowledge with students who WANT to learn,” said Armine Saidi, CEO of Viciniti. 

In order to develop the mobile application, participants were divided into several groups, with each group tasked with tackling a different section, using React Native, Javascript, HTML, CSS and previously developed virtual machines (duplicates of IoT devices). “This mobile application will facilitate and speed up the work for Viciniti’s industrial client base. Now the user can authorise and adopt unregistered IoT devices seamlessly and at scale, cutting down a time-consuming, manually intensive, costly process,” said student Haykanush Karapetyan.

Although the project is still a work in progress, the organisers are already seeing encouraging results. “Most of the different parts of the project have already been developed and are working as expected. We’re now at the phase of putting everything back together and closing the loop. It’s exciting to see it all coming together,” explained David Esteves.

TUMO Labs is the educational programme at the heart of the EU TUMO Convergence Centre for Engineering and Applied Science. The programme is funded by the European Union in Armenia.

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