Google is helping to find the next generation of computer scientists by helping to donate 15,000 Raspberry Pi computers to various school-aged children across the U.K. Google’s Eric Schmidt and Raspberry Pi co-founder Eben Upton visited a school in Cambridge recently to distribute the first batch of systems and teach a programming lesson.
It’s all being made possible by Google Giving, the search giant’s charitable arm, in the form of a grant to the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The grant is providing the funding necessary to purchase the computers which will then be distributed to children with the help of six educational institutes: Codeclub, Computing At School, Generating Genius, Coderdojo, Teach First and OCR.
Each organization will have a supply of Raspberry Pi computers that they can hand out to children who demonstrate an aptitude and passion for computing. In addition to the computer itself, each child selected will also receive a teaching and learning pack created by OCR that will help them get started with the machines right away.
The Raspberry Foundation noted in a blog post that they were absolutely “made up” over the news, saying it is a brilliant way to help them find kids all over the country whose aptitude for computing can now be explored properly. It’s also a step in the right direction to solve the CS education problem in the U.K. and shows that companies like Google aren’t going to wait for the government or someone else to fix the problem.
