Pitch of the week: Helping to stamp out e-cigarettes while removing hurdles to digital learning

Comment From the department of "Just what can't IoT do?" comes plans from Ruckus to both aid digital learning while also stamping out vaping.

The networking outfit is plugging its new Wi-Fi access points and multi-gigabit switches with the aim of getting cash-strapped schools "digitally enabled". Power-over-Ethernet cabling makes for some intriguing IoT options and, to that end, Ruckus is going to have a crack at what it describes as "the vaping epidemic".

The plan is that as well as a school ponying up cold, hard cash for Ruckus’s gear in order to shovel data around classrooms, all that extra bandwidth could also be used by new chum Soter Technologies' Fly Sense real-time sensors to sniff out vaping.

Those sensors could be stashed in places where cameras shouldn’t really go, such as restrooms, and trigger alerts as well as turning on cameras pointed at the restroom door to catch the miscreants post-vape.

We assume Ruckus's access point has sufficient power to reach behind the bike sheds (or is that no longer a thing these days?)

It's more Internet-of-Snitching than Internet-of-Things.

Bart Giordano, senior vice president of worldwide sales for Ruckus Networks, insisted that "Digital learning, the vaping epidemic and overall student safety are top of mind for school administrators."

While we've yet to find a lot of conclusive evidence linking vaping to educational achievement and would suggest spanking cash on decent teaching staff is perhaps a better use of funds than installing snooping IoT sensors in toilets to augment existing smoke detectors, Ruckus does have a point regarding student safety. A Florida man came to an unfortunate end last year when his device exploded and drove bits of itself into his cranium.

San Francisco has, of course, announced plans to stop retailers flogging the sickly smoke generators until the health effects were better understood. Interestingly, no such ban was inflicted on tobacco products.

We salute Ruckus for its, er, "puff" that manages to link student vaping to the buying of its network gear to boost education.

If only it had managed to add 5G blockers to stop the little darlings melting their brains. ®