For me, one of the most fruitful developments is set out in Using Meraki APIs with Node-RED
This is a Cisco DEVNET / Meraki Developer Hub project.
I find the Node-RED idiom incredibly powerful and helpful when working with engineers in such fields as aeronautics, naval architecture, implementing comms in harsh conditions, telemetry, autonomous control systems and weather simulation. The "wire them up" idiom seems to strike a chord with this type of engineer.
Why is this important, well, it makes it easier to integrate parts of the network stack into larger systems. it is a great way of getting stuff done in the IoT field, and not unimportantly, I can run the code on my mobile phone and, waving my arms around and jumping up and down (like a loony), simulate an autonomous vehicle going "off-piste".
Yes we can put gateways on race boats and anything that moves.
A big plus is that this is extremely interesting.