The Pi’s the limit – a computer for everyone!

The following is a guest post by Sophia Wootton, summer intern at the British Consulate General in Chicago. Sophia is a recent graduate of the University of Birmingham.

In only my second week as an intern for the British Consulate General in Chicago, I have been lucky enough to meet British software engineer, Rob Bishop, the first employee of the Cambridge-based educational charity Raspberry Pi. Following numerous visits sponsored by the Science & Innovation Network, last week Raspberry Pi returned to the US, its first stop being here in Chicago. No, Raspberry Pi is not a delicious delicacy, but one of the UK’s fastest-growing and innovative start-up charities – Bishop is touring the Midwest on an ‘American Pi Hackspace Tour’ in order to promote the organisation’s vision for the future of STEM education. Last October, Bishop stopped by the British Embassy in Washington to demonstrate Raspberry Pi.

Raspberry Pi (or ‘Pi’ for short) makes open-source, credit card-sized computers and sells them for $25 or $35, depending on the model.  The concept has been hugely successful entering the market in 2011; the Raspberry Pi team had forecast selling 10,000 units in the first year but soon reached 100,000 pre-orders, and now have impressively sold more than 1.5 million. Maintaining just a seven person team, Raspberry Pi has its work cut out.

The core of Raspberry Pi’s mission is education, namely, to promote STEM and the study of computer science in schools. Bishop joked in his remarks at Argonne National Laboratory last Monday that at $25 dollars, the Pi “allows students to build robots and still have money for beer.” Part of the thinking behind the Raspberry Pi was that the price allows users to experiment. The team’s vision is to promote computer science as a tool for everyone, not just for mathematicians.

One of the best aspects of Raspberry Pi is its versatility – it can be used by top computer scientists and children alike. For those who are intrigued but also a little overwhelmed by the Pi (as I was!), there are plenty of forums that facilitate discussion on how to use the Pi. In fact, the online community of Raspberry Pi users is one of its great strengths, encouraging collaboration and mutual help.

When talking to Bishop, I was struck by his passion for changing societal attitudes towards the use of computers and addressing the computer science knowledge gap in the UK. One of the goals of Raspberry Pi is to restructure the way that computer science is viewed; it should not be something left to the ‘computer geeks.’ At the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Bishop observed students using Pis to control their art installations, emphasising the point that whilst engineering/computer science has become synonymous with math – it is just as relevant to art and creativity.

Raspberry Pi seeks to revive the days of people “creating stuff,” of being interested in how computers are built and how they are programmed. Raspberry Pi encourages interest and participation in STEM education and reminds people that computers do what you tell them to do, so there is a lot of fun to be had through computer programming!

The diversity of Pi projects is simply astounding. Pi enthusiasts have used their Pis to control high-altitude balloons, take and email photos of anyone who happens to ring your front door bell whilst you are out and to control a mini-robot Nerf gun.

Bishop’s tour has been a great success so far, raising awareness of what is certainly a great British innovation, but also for inspiring a new generation of computer enthusiasts, regardless of age. He now takes his mission to other technology hubs and maker communities throughout the Midwest, and we look forward to welcoming him and his team back to Chicago later in the month for an education focussed reception.