We know the Raspberry Pi is popular with computer hobbyists. But Google wants to take it even further. On Tuesday, the web giant announced it will be donating 15,000 of these cheap, credit card-sized computers to schools in the U.K., hoping to spawn a new generation of hardware and software hackers.
Google is providing a grant for the machines to the foundation behind the device. Google chairman Eric Schmidt also paid a visit to Cambridge, England, where he and the foundation's executive director, Eben Upton, taught programming to a class full of local kids.
The Pi has caught on with hobbyists who needed a cheap way of embedding computers into their projects – such as a computer-monitored beer fermentation system. But the foundation's goal was always to foster a new generation of hackers. The foundation's Summer Code Contest was a great example of that, and hopefully, this grant will put the Pi into more hands.
The Raspberry Pi team has been busy in recent months. They launched a more second generation of the device last October, and in December, they launched an app store that enables anyone to share their Raspberry Pi creations and giving Code Contest winners an instant market for their applications.
Teaching kids to code has become a high priority both for educational companies aiming to prepare students for the jobs of the future, and for technology companies who want to ensure there are enough qualified engineers to fill opening positions. The code literacy movement has spawned startups like CodeAcademy, initiatives to promote computer science in schools and even a children's book that introduces programming concepts to children.