Milestones - Happy Birthday Raspberry Pi

This year has been something of a milestone for me, but the journey started way back….

I found school really difficult with almost zero engagement in most subjects. I tried but the spark just wasn’t there.?Looking back I couldn’t see the point of some, well most, of the things they were trying to teach me.

Fortunately, probably due to parental osmosis, I became fascinated by electricity and inevitably all things electrical.?My dad was a foreman electrician for a well-known construction company. I’d watch and learn as he repaired and installed electrical equipment. With a bit of help I became proficient at decent quality soldering. I also fairly quickly learnt thriugh unsanctioned experimentation what 240v feels like, that large capacitors do not discharge immediately and the rear of televisions CRT tubes is a potentially lethal place even though waving magnets around could create curious effects on the screen.?So electricity in all it's forms now had my total respect, largely out of the desire for self-preservation.?

At fourteen, well before the advent of personal computers, I managed, somehow, to turn a chunk of an old telephone exchange into a Nought and Crosses game.?Tic Tac Toe if you prefer. It was hundreds of hours work but I was very very focused. Eventually it worked.?Family and friends were impressed but my mum less so with the now solder ingrained bedroom carpet.?In the process I learnt about relays, diodes, uniselectors and the requirement for proper fusing of circuits. Also the theory of AND / OR gates and Flip-flops, all made out of these simple components. This knowledge acquisition was out of necessity as this was the pathway to the success of the project.?Dull school homework inevitable to a back seat to my maker projects.

I left school at sixteen with a modest selection of what were then ‘O’ levels. My best performance was technical drawing followed by engineering workshop theory and practice.?I wanted to take my interest in making things forward, so I enrolled on an OND in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Bolton Institute of Technology.?It was a fantastic move for me, they had stuff. Stuff you could experiment with and get to understand how it worked. Some of the things I’d nearly learnt in physics at school suddenly came to life and why you need to know the equations, made sense.

Amongst this ‘stuff’ they had a PDP8 Minicomputer.?It was so new, also read expensive, that it was maintained, OK guarded, by a laboratory technician Graham Beech.?It was only technically available for use to degree course students. Having observed my "eye’s out on stalks", Graham suggested that if I was really interested I could come back at lunchtime and he would give me a tour.?I wasn’t sure exactly what this PDP8 could do, but hey, it had enticing flashing lights. Who could resist?

I went back at the lunchtime and he sat me down at a terminal (an ASR33 for those who remember such things).?It’s basically an electric typewriter connected to the computer.?

It was programmed in BASIC and so the inevitable first program was written:

After a frantic few minutes and many feet of paper printed with “Hello World”, Graham eventually introduced me to Ctrl-C, phew!

There was a key lesson in here about this technology; if you don’t know, you are unlikely to be able to work it out or guess.?So before all else fails, ask someone or read the manual. I did, all of them. I still have the copies Graham decided were too well thumbed to stay in circulation including a full set of schematics for that PDP8.

I was hooked. Every lunch time became an adventure in computer land.?I realised that if I could figure out a program the computer could do the work for me. Graham gave this young lad from a relatively deprived area of Salford, opportunity, access, control (C) and encouragement to have a go.??

The confidence he instilled over those lunchtime set me on a journey to a very enjoyable career as a digital maker, AKA electronics and computer engineer. Through those years I’ve reflected on how I could “pay it forward” for others. The opportunity came by a chance meeting in 2008 with a group of Cambridge academics, engineers and entrepreneurs, soon to become the founders of Raspberry Pi.

So let’s skip forward to this month.?2022 is the 10th anniversary of the Raspberry Pi Foundation and letting that credit card sized computer we designed out into the wild back in 2012.?We celebrated the event at the science museum in London with a wide cross section of the community present.?Particularly poignant was the panel discussion, learning from Amar how Raspberry Pi is providing opportunity across the UK particularly in Blackburn, to Caitlin on championing alternate educational methods and the experiences of Spencer an awesome educationalist and supporter of everything Raspberry Pi.??

It was also great to catch up with some of the youngsters who engaged with Raspberry Pi early days and their views on how it has changed their career path as they become young adults. Ten years has that effect.

The evening cemented the diversity of reach and opportunity provided by the foundation under the guidance of Philip Colligan and a fantastic cast of hugely talented individuals.?On the other hand, hats off to Eben Upton and the engineering group for taking my early designs onward and upwards in technology, style, raw power and not forgetting shear deployed volume. Crucially still supporting the original “Classic” Model B, and still only $35 for an entry level product or very much less if you go full PICO.

At this gathering it really hit home and truly I’m humbled to have been part of such a great team. To be honest it’s taken until now for me to stabilise my thoughts. Having stepped back as a trustee in 2019 it has been easier to see the achievements than when you are at the coal face and change is daily and incremental. As children who get to their first LED flashing we should have celebrated with hi-fives and dancing around the room shouting "Yes" "Yes" we did it, at least some of it. Although, if I recall correctly when Raspberry Pi won the prestigious MacRobert award something very similar occurred.?When you work with children their infectious enthusiasm and joy definitely rubs off.

Complementing that event, last weekend, through my role as President of the Institution of Engineering Designers I had the opportunity to get back to the grass roots of the community movement. Dusting down my travelling Raspberry Pi showcase that Covid-19 sadly put into cold storage I headed off to Westbury the home of the Bratton White Horse and the Institution itself.

Whilst some brave souls were hurtling down a Soap Box Derby run, we were able to engage with youngsters and parents to explain what Raspberry Pi is and what you can do with it.?I’ve always found these events great fun and an opportunity to recharge my mission batteries.?

One young boy was fascinated by the ladder game and was convinced he had found a bug, he had!

An older girl loved the aircraft tracking system and quickly worked out most of the programs functions.?We eventually figured that having a large chalk escarpment to one side was probably impeding reception of some aircraft transponder signals that would suddenly appear as if out of nowhere.

The demonstration of object recognition system using a Raspberry Pi 4 and a camera stimulated many discussions on how intelligent (or not) computers are, and that context is important in making sense of the real world.

Overall it was a hugely rewarding and enjoyable day and something I’ve really missed over the last few years.?There is still a long way to go in encouraging youngsters of all genders into looking at a career in engineering. Together they will build a rich diverse community of ideas and invention that can help solve the physical and societal problems that people across the globe have to face today.

So to you Graham, I just want to say a huge thanks and to let you know that your act of kindness and encouragement apart from changing the course of my life has also helped thousands of others. I know that within the community of Raspberry Pi there are hundreds of Graham’s or Gemma’s actively doing the same.

I’m truly overwhelmed by what we have collectively achieved. Long may it continue and grow.

Happy Tenth Birthday Raspberry Pi.