Raspberry Pi Foundation

Robert Mullins [ http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rdm34/ ]

The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK registered charity that aims to promote the study of computer science and electronics at the school level.

The Challenge

We believe that everyone can benefit from a solid foundation in computer science as they do from one in mathematics. The skills it provides are becoming increasingly important to our economy as computer systems are used to enhance an ever wider range of human endeavours.

Computer science describes how computers work, how they may be programmed and even helps determine how hard a problem will be to answer. This is in stark contrast to ICT or IT skills that simply teach how to use computers and their applications. Unfortunately, many young people are only ever exposed to ICT courses rather than the much broader, richer and exciting world of computing. The ability to write even simple programs is a powerful tool for helping solve difficult problems or for just having fun! Of course, thinking like a computer scientist also means more than being able to program [ http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs/usr/wing/www/publications/Wing06.pdf ]. Designing algorithms, using abstraction and decomposition, selecting appropriate representations, learning how to build correct, robust and scalable systems are now key skills in the information age.

The Computing at School working group describe the challenges faced at school in this area [ http://www.computingatschool.org.uk/index.php?id=the-challenge ].

The Raspberry Pi Computer

Our first project is an ultra-low-cost (and low-power) computer. It will provide an ideal environment for experimenting with programming and electronics. The final computer will be credit-card sized, fanless, will start almost instantly, consume at most 2 watts of power and cost around $25 or 15 UK pounds.

Of course there are numerous other applications for a powerful and low-cost computer including helping to close the digital divide.

The Raspberry Pi computer is designed and manufactured in the UK.

Slides/Media

A recent presentation [ http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rdm34/raspi-talk.pdf ]
Photographs of Alpha board [ http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rdm34/raspi/photos ]

Related links

What present are you wrapping up for teacher this Christmas? (The Guardian) [ http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/dec/13/schools-children-christmas-presents-teachers?INTCMP=SRCH ]
Computing classes don't teach programming skills (Telegraph) [ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/video-games/8931387/Computing-classes-dont-teach-programming-skills.html ]
Government's response to the "Next Gen." report [ http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/publications/Govt-Resp_NextGen_Cm-8226.pdf ]
The $25 Computer (The Wall Street Journal) [ http://blogs.wsj.com/tech-europe/2011/11/22/the-25-computer/ ]
"Kids today need a licence to tinker" (The Guardian) [ http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/28/ict-changes-needed-national-curriculum ]
The £25 computer to teach youngsters real computing skills (The Register) [ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/28/raspberry_pi/print.html ]
"A 15 pound computer to inspire young programmers"(BBC) [ http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/rorycellanjones/2011/05/a_15_computer_to_inspire_young.html ]
Click-on BBC Radio 4 article (from 6m50secs) [ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0174dzt ]
BBC stories and videos [ http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/?q=raspberry%20pi ]

Wikipedia page [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi ]

Supporters

The foundation is kindly supported by the Computer Laboratory and Broadcom.

The trustees of the foundation are David Braben, Jack Lang [ http://www.emma.cam.ac.uk/teaching/fellows/display/?fellow=239 ], Pete Lomas [ http://www.norcott.co.uk/corporate/pete.php ], Robert Mullins [ http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rdm34 ], Alan Mycroft [ http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~am ] and Eben Upton.

More information

Read the Raspberry Pi blog [ http://www.raspberrypi.org/ ].

For more information or press enquiries email info@raspberrypi.org or press@raspberrypi.org.