In the past few years, the internet of things (IoT) has garnered a lot of attention owing to its significant deployment for fulfilling the global demand. It has been seen that power-efficient devices such as sensors and IoT play a significant role in our regular lives. However, the popularity of IoT sensors and low-power electronic devices is limited due to the lower lifetime of various energy resources which are needed for powering the sensors over time. For overcoming this issue, it is important to design and develop better, high-performing, and effective energy harvesting systems. In this article, different types of ambient energy harvesting systems which can power IoT-enabled sensors, as well as wireless sensor networks (WSNs), are reviewed. Various energy harvesting models which can increase the sustainability of the energy supply required for IoT devices are also discussed. Furthermore, the challenges which need to be overcome to make IoT-enabled sensors more durable, reliable, energy-efficient, and economical are identified.

Amid growing demand for solar photovoltaic (PV) energy, the output from PV panels/cells fails to deliver maximum power to the load, due to the intermittency of ambient conditions. Therefore, utilizing maximum power point tracking (MPPT) becomes essential for PV systems. In this paper, a novel internet of things (IoT)-equipped MPPT solar charge controller (SCC) is designed and implemented. The proposed circuit system utilizes IoT-based sensors to send vital data to the cloud for remote monitoring and controlling purposes. The IoT platform helps the system to be monitored remotely. The PIC16F877A is used as a main controller of the proposed MPPT-SCC besides implementing the perturb and observe (P&O) technique and a customized buck–boost converter. To validate the proposed system, both simulation and hardware implementation are carried out by the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment and laboratory set up, respectively. The proposed MPPT-SCC can handle the maximum current of 10 A at 12 V voltage. Results show that the efficiency of the proposed system reaches up to 99.74% during a month of performance testing duration.

Technical skills are one of the attributes, an engineering student must attain by the time of graduation, as per recommended by Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC). This paper describes the development of technical skills, Programme Outcome (PO) number 5, in students taking the Bachelor of Electrical Power Engineering (BEPE) programme in Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN). Seven courses are identified to address the technical skills development. The course outcomes (CO) of the courses are designed to instill the relevant technical skills with suitable laboratory activities. Formative and summative assessments are carried out to gauge students' acquisition of the skills. Finally, to measure the attainment of the technical skills, key course concept is used. The concept has been implemented since 2013, focusing on improvement of the programme instead of the cohort. From the PO attainment analysis method, three different levels of PO attainment can be calculated: from the programme level, down to the course and student levels. In this paper, the attainment of the courses mapped to PO5 is measured. It is shown that Power Electronics course, which is the key course for PO5, has a strong attainment at above 90%. PO5 of other six courses are also achieved. As a conclusion, by embracing outcome-based education (OBE), the BEPE programme has a sound method to develop technical psychomotor skills in the degree students.