Wednesday January 1st 2020

As founder of the RASPBERRY PI FOUNDATION, Eben Upton anticipated making 1,000 basic computers for use by children who might go on to study computer science at university, and particularly Cambridge – where he completed his degree, PhD and MBA. By 2018, 11-12 years after the original concept, the Raspberry Pi had sold 15m units, making it the most successful British computer ever.

An informative and entertaining 28 minute podcast of Professor Jim Al-Khalili interviewing Eben Upton for BBC Radio 4’s “The Life Scientific” can be found at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09ly60f

BBC: “When Eben Upton was in his twenties, he wanted to get children thinking about how computers think, to boost the number of people applying to read computer science at university. He dreamt of putting a chip in every classroom. The result was Raspberry Pi, a tiny gadget, little bigger than a credit card, that can be hooked up to any keyboard and monitor, to create a programmable PC. And it's cheap. Raspberry Pi Zero, sticker price just £5, was given away free with a computer magazine in 2015. Eben tells Jim how it all began, in his loft with soldering irons and post it notes, and how, by ruthlessly pursuing a philanthropic goal he became CEO of a highly successful business enterprise.”