Collyer's college wins Raspberry Pi coding competition

The event saw the UK’s brightest innovators from schools across the country compete in the final of PA Consulting Group’s sixth annual Raspberry Pi coding competition on Tuesday April 17.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK based charity producing small, affordable computers roughly the size of a credit card.

They are designed to help people learn programming skills to equip them for an increasingly digital world.

Schools were asked to produce innovations under the theme of sustainability and Collyer’s 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.

The judges were impressed by the imagination of the team and how their innovation used mostly recycled materials.

The team were also able to present the technical details of their idea to the judges with clarity.

Anita Chandraker, who leads PA’s innovation services team, said: “The quality of ideas the teams have come up with for the 2018 Raspberry Pi challenge is astounding.

“The finalists have developed genuine innovations, some of which we think could be applied in the real world to help improve sustainability.

“As a firm, we are passionate about technology and our aim for the competition is to highlight the importance of technology and coding skills, and their role in supporting our future economy.

“It’s such an inspiring competition and we are delighted to see young children getting involved in coding with such passion and enthusiasm.”