Department of Computer Science and Technology

Raspberry Pi

stackofpies The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK registered charity (No. 1129409). The object of the charity is to further the advancement of education of adults and children, particularly in the field of computers, computer science and related subjects. The charity was founded in November 2008 with support from the Computer Laboratory.

The challenge

Computer science is now a key problem solving tool in a broad range of industries and scientific disciplines. It is a rigorous academic discipline that is of great importance to everyone, not just those wanting to work in the computing industry. Just a little understanding provides access to a fantastic playground for young minds, where almost anything can be created and explored. Fundamentally, as with mathematics and other sciences, it enables us to understand the world around us in order to make informed decisions and to innovate.

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 contrast to ICT or IT skills that 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 to solve difficult problems or for just having fun! Of course, thinking like a computer scientist also means more than being able to program. Designing algorithms, using abstraction and decomposition to tackle large problems, selecting appropriate representations, learning how to build correct, robust and scalable systems are now key skills in the information age.

The Raspberry Pi computer

The Raspberry Pi provides low-cost and flexible hardware for experimenting with programming and electronics. The first Raspberry Pi went on sale on the 29th February 2012. The Raspberry Pi Foundation has since sold more than 10 million computers to become the best selling British Computer. The vast majority of Raspberry Pi computers are produced in Pencoed, South Wales



 
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