I am disappointed.

Not angry. Not entirely frustrated. But genuinely disappointed by a question that keeps repeating itself every single time I meet university students working on IoT projects.

“What platform are you using?”

And the answer I almost always get… Blynk. ThingSpeak.

Two platforms from overseas. Two names so deeply embedded in our local IoT education ecosystem that it feels as though no other option exists in the world.

When I ask why, the standard answers come out. “Lecturer told us to.” Or, “There are plenty of resources online.” Or the most common one, “Many people already use it, so tutorials are easy to find.”

I understand all of those answers. I do not blame the students.

But something is clearly broken in this ecosystem, and I think it is time we talked about it honestly.

We Already Have the Resources

I will admit this openly. In FAVORIOT’s early days, we were lacking in tutorials and step-by-step guides. We relied too heavily on users to explore the platform on their own. That was our weakness, and I am not denying it.

But now? The resources are there. More than enough to get started.

And if students still feel it is not enough, there is one approach most have not thought to try… ask AI. Ask ChatGPT how to set up FAVORIOT. Within seconds, you get a clear, step-by-step walkthrough in plain language. The technology is literally at your fingertips, yet we still default to the same old path.

Why?

Malaysian Students and the Culture of Sharing

This is the part that puzzles me the most.

Every time a Final Year Project demo wraps up, the video exists. The hardware is built. The system runs. But after that moment, where does everything go? Saved to a hard disk. Forgotten. Never shared with anyone.

Look at students from India. They finish an IoT project and immediately upload it to YouTube. They post it on LinkedIn. They proudly show the world what they built, even when the project still has rough edges. And the result? Companies notice. Some of those students land job offers directly from those posts.

Are Malaysian students embarrassed by their own work? Or do they feel their projects are not polished enough to share?

This is not about being perfect. This is about being brave enough to show the effort.

What if a technology manager somewhere is scrolling through LinkedIn one evening, stumbles across your project, and sends you a message? That is a reality happening elsewhere right now. Why can it not happen here?

Lecturers Have the Certificate, But…

This is the most sensitive part I want to address.

I know that many university lecturers already hold a FAVORIOT Professional Certificate. We ran the foundational courses ourselves. They attended. They learned. They saw firsthand what this platform is capable of.

But when they return to their universities, what happens?

Students still use Blynk. Labs still do not include hands-on sessions with FAVORIOT. The syllabus remains unchanged.

I understand there are constraints. University syllabuses are not easy to update. The process is long and involves many stakeholders. But if we only teach embedded systems without ever getting students to work directly with a local IoT platform in a practical setting, is that really enough to produce engineers who are ready for the industry?

I do not think it is.

A Misconception Worth Correcting

Some still say, “Blynk is free and has a mobile app. It is easy to use.”

This is a misconception that needs to be set straight.

FAVORIOT also has a free tier. For mobile dashboards, MQTT Panel works well as a fully functional alternative. The capability is there. The features are there. What has been missing, perhaps all along, is simply exposure. And that exposure should start from within the university itself.

The Comfortable Path

• Use what everyone else uses.
• Follow old tutorial habits.
• Finish the demo and keep quiet.

The Braver Path

• Try local technology seriously.
• Share projects publicly.
• Build confidence before graduation.

Some Are Already Getting It Right

I want to be fair here, because not every university is doing the same thing.

There are institutions that take this seriously. Monash University Malaysia is one example. They did not just encourage students to use FAVORIOT. They subscribed to a paid package to ensure students get the full platform experience. That is real commitment. That is what genuine belief in a local product looks like.

But how many other universities are doing the same?

That question, I leave open.

What Troubles Me Most

Lecturers who hold a FAVORIOT Professional Certificate, but still do not encourage their students to use FAVORIOT.

I genuinely do not fully understand this.

If you already have the knowledge, if you already have the credential, if you have seen firsthand what this platform can do, why still let students default to something else? Is it that we do not trust a product born from our own soil? Or have we simply grown too comfortable with whatever comes from abroad?

This Is Bigger Than FAVORIOT

This is a much larger story.

We constantly talk about becoming a Producer Nation. About creating technology, not just consuming what others build. But if we are serious about that ambition, the first place that needs to change is the university.

That is where our young engineers are born. That is where their entire mindset about technology is shaped. If from the very beginning they are taught, explicitly or implicitly, that foreign products are inherently better, that Blynk is more reliable, that ThingSpeak has more support, then that is exactly what they will carry into the industry when they graduate.

And we will keep depending. Keep paying subscriptions to overseas platforms. Keep supporting someone else’s ecosystem. While a platform built by Malaysians, for the Malaysian ecosystem, keeps waiting on the sideline for an opportunity that is slow to arrive.

I have not given up on this.

But I cannot stay quiet either.

If not us, who will speak up about this? And if not now, when?

Let students build with tools that also build the country.

What do you think? Should local universities be more proactive in introducing homegrown Malaysian IoT platforms to their students? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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