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The competition is now in its sixth year and showed its reach with more than 100 schools entering, all of them using the Raspberry Pi as the engine for their ideas.
The imaginative entries – demoed on the day to the judges at the IET – included Raspberry-Sky, to monitor air pollution by decoding aircraft ADB-S data (using “dump1090“) and crowd-sourcing the results; Smart Bin, which uses the Clarifai AI system to categorise images via the Cloud (AWS); and Recycle Michael, another smart bin, which interfaced a bar-code scanner to a Pi to identify the materials being thrown away…
The very worthwhile aim of the compo is to give teams of students – some as young as eight – the opportunity to gain practical, hands-on experience of computer programming and engineering.
Winning Raspberry Pi projects
There were three categories in play, with a description of the winning projects:
Primary School Award (academic years 4-6, ages 9-11) – winner: Ysgol Deganwy, Conwy
This is an interactive rubbish bin that uses a barcode scanner to scan barcodes on waste packaging and then display useful information on a screen above the bin compartments. The bin is designed to enable users to identify which recycling compartment to put their waste into and also develop their understanding of the importance of recycling through interesting and educational facts displayed when a product is scanned.
Secondary School Award (academic years 7-11, ages 12-16) – winner: Kenilworth School, Warwickshire
This team created a solution to energy waste; a system of infrared beams which work together to identify when no-one is nearby, and switch off the unnecessary streetlights in the area. Multiple infrared pointers and receivers can be controlled by a single Raspberry Pi, saving costs and energy consumption. An infrared mirror on the opposite side of the road to the transmitter is used to reflect the beam back to the receiver, and when the beam is broken, all the streetlights nearby are turned on.
Sixth Form and College Award (academic years 12-13, ages 17-18) – winner: Collyer’s Sixth Form College, West Sussex
The winning team created a simple, portable and lightweight charger that makes use of two renewable energies (wind and solar power) to charge four rechargeable AA batteries. It does this without harming the environment. The team created a small-scale model that has the potential to power much more than batteries if it was to be upscaled and produced industrially.
And as well as the glory, the winners of each category received £1,000 for their school/college.
Expertise
The expertise-packed panel of judges included the BBC’s Rory Cellan-Jones, Craig Morley of the Raspberry Pi foundation and the CTO of Lloyd’s Register Nial McCollam, and the excellent presenter and technologist Maggie Philbin was again the host.
“The quality of ideas the teams have come up with for the 2018 Raspberry Pi challenge is astounding,” said Anita Chandraker, who leads PA’s innovation services team. “The finalists have developed genuine innovations, some of which we think could be applied in the real world to help improve sustainability.”
See also: PA Consulting Group celebrates annual Raspberry Pi school coding competition (2017)
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