Startup Offers Free Sensors to 150,000 Schools Across U.S. and Canada

Today, at Maker Faire Ottawa, a local startup called Beagle Sense announced their Young Innovator’s program offering free Internet of Things sensors to schools.

Beagle Sense has produced a range of  modular wireless sensors that capture environmental data about your home. There are seven different sensors available — air quality, temperature, pressure, humidity, light, and both indoor and outdoor noise sensors – which connect back using Bluetooth LE to a wireless base station connected to your home network.

Beagle Sense’s Young Innovator’s program will offer free sensors to around 150 thousand schools across Canada and the United States as part of the beta program for their sensors, and starting today they are inviting both teachers and parents to vote for their school to be a part of this initiative.

Schools will get an early access version of the sensors at the same time as other beta users and will receive a kit consisting of a WiFi base station and all seven different sensors. They will also be able to buy additional sensors at an educational discount — including new sensor types, such as pollen and smoke sensors, when they become available.

While Beagle Sense hasn’t yet released their initial developer API , the company says that it is their intention to provide students access to the data generated by each of the sensors attached to their user account, along with the ability to modify the data sampling rate of the sensors. The beagles will also be integrated into IFTTT allowing both students and developers to build applications using their beagle sensors.

The Beagle sensors are crowdfunding on Kickstarter, and are currently just under half way to their funding target with another two weeks left to run on the campaign.

Now in its sixth year, and its first as a featured faire, Maker Faire Ottawa is being held in the Aberdeen Pavilion, Lansdowne Park, Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th of November — between 10am and 5pm. Tickets can be bought ahead of time and cost $10 for adults, with discounted tickets for children, students, and seniors. Children under 12 have free entry to the event.