You'll recall I have NO background in electronics.  I come from a career in healthcare.  So when I first heard we needed to select an "MCU" for our board, I was left to conjure up some sort of medical abbreviation ... maybe Medical Care Unit?

Having learned that the microcontroller unit (MCU) is the brain of my IoT-enabled beehive monitoring system, making it one of the most critical components in my design. I had to consider several factors when choosing an MCU, such as processing power, energy efficiency, and ease of programming, all of which directly affect the performance and longevity of my prototype. To help with the selection, I created a table comparing various MCU options, focusing on trade-offs between processing capability, power consumption, and physical size