Linux Smart Energy Meter (final-year honours project)
University of Melbourne × Metropolis Metering Assets Pty Ltd
Industry-sponsored honours project — a working Linux-based smart energy meter that met Australian Standards accuracy and reported over GSM cellular networks.
Overview
Jenks's year-long final-year project was sponsored by Metropolis Metering Assets, an Australian metering company. The brief: design and build a smart energy meter that runs Linux, measures accurately to Australian Standards, and communicates over the mobile network.
What Jenks built
- A working prototype of a Linux OS-based smart energy meter.
- Metering performance compliant with the relevant Australian Standards, with high-accuracy measurement achieved through noise filtering.
- Network capability integrated via cellular GSM communication.
- Hands-on work across power systems, embedded systems, PCB design and electronic prototyping.
Why it matters
It is an end-to-end systems project — hardware, firmware, measurement, standards and connectivity — delivered for an industry sponsor. The same instinct (instrument it, make it accurate, connect it) shows up in Jenks's later telecom, API and AI work. The thesis paper and photos of the device will be published here.