Certainly, there’s been a fair share of larger Pi-related Kickstarters and IndieGoGos, such as the Pi-Top<\/a>\u00a0but the thing I’ve noticed this past year is a trend towards smaller projects with lower goals. Hap-Pi<\/a> (the cardboard case and robot platform) was probably the first, in May, and since then we’ve had campaigns from MyPiFi<\/a> (Paul Brown), Average Man<\/a> (Richard Saville), the EduBoard<\/a>, Andrew Gale<\/a> (with his Christmas trees), Zachary Igielman<\/a> (with his PiPiano<\/a>), Tom Murray (with his SmartiPi<\/a>) and Mark Williams<\/a> (with his BerryIMU).<\/p>\n It will be interesting to see if this trend continues into 2015. My hope is that the quality of the projects continues to improve. There’s been some good ones (most of which have succeeded) and some\u00a0not-so-good ones, so here’s to a year of LCK – Less Crap Kickstarters<\/a> (TM).<\/p>\n As well as teaching kids to program\u00a0and get into electronics in the developed world, there has been a spate of projects occurring in less-developed countries. Here are the ones I’ve found, but there are doubtless others out there:<\/p>\n This is more of a personal trend for me, but one worth looking at anyway. Myself and Tim Richardson<\/a> have enjoyed\u00a0great successes in 2014\u00a0with\u00a0Cambridge Raspberry Jam and we hope to be able to deliver more of the same in 2015.<\/p>\n We started off in February<\/a> with what we like to call a ‘regular CamJam’. This was comprised of workshops in the meeting room, talks in the lecture theatre, show-and-tell on the mezzanine and, of course, our ever-popular Marketplace in the foyer. In May, we held a Jam entitled \u201cFocus on Education<\/a>\u201d: a huge event with 200 people attending, including 75 teachers. We had show-and-tell as usual but a smaller Marketplace. We held a massive nine workshops on various different topics in the Meeting Room and Foyer whilst education-specific talks took place in the lecture theatre. We were overwhelmed with the positive reaction to this Jam and we are planning on holding another Focus on Education next year. The Jam in July was a smaller, less-attended affair that we think suffered from being too close to the summer holidays for a lot of people. It did, however, have an expanded Marketplace which visitors seemed to enjoy and we launched the CamJam EduKit, a low-cost beginners electronics kit<\/a>.<\/p>\n September saw a \u201cFocus on Robotics\u201d, with both talks and workshops designed to expand attendees’ knowledge of robotics concepts and practical skills. We welcomed a crew from CNBC who shot some footage and interviewed various people (including me!) and it was later broadcast on US television as part of a feature on Cambridge and the Raspberry Pi<\/a>. And in December, of course, we launched the first ever Raspberry Pi robotics competition, Pi Wars, which has its own website<\/a>. You can\u00a0listen to a great podcast that was recorded at the event over at RasPi.Today<\/a> and you can read a lot more about the event in this great write-up from the Raspberry Pi Foundation<\/a>. We also launched our second EduKit, which includes\u00a0several sensors<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you’d like to\u00a0find out more about CamJam, please visit this website<\/a>. You can also visit this YouTube channel<\/a> which acts as a kind of ‘virtual CamJam’ and contains recordings of almost all the talks given at the Jams.<\/p>\n The Foundation haven’t exactly been resting on their laurels this past year! They’ve got involved in lots of outreach, sharpened\u00a0their educational focus and released two new models of the Raspberry Pi. Here are the blog posts that have told the story of the Foundation’s 2014:<\/p>\n It\u00a0started\u00a0off on the 2nd January with an article from Linux User & Developer on adding streaming video to your robot<\/a>\u00a0and was followed by an explosion of robot-related activity. We’ve had a\u00a0line-following self-balancing robot<\/a>\u00a0and, of course, Pi Borg’s enormous DoodleBorg<\/a>\u00a0(and its smaller companion the Diddyborg<\/a>).\u00a0But the thing that’s really struck me over the past twelve months\u00a0is the growth in the accessibility of robotics boards and kits. 4tronix, in particular, positively swamped the market\u00a0with robot controller boards<\/a>\u00a0and of course there was the brilliant budget robot kit from Ryan Walmsley<\/a>\u00a0which I spent a day with back in May<\/a>. [edit] I should also mention the MeArm from Phenoptix<\/a>\u00a0which is a great little servo-controlled arm. At one point, with the closure of Phenoptix, I thought the\u00a0product was dead, but Ben decided to keep the MeArm side going and you can still buy one<\/a>. It’s\u00a0good that he did because the MeArm has become incredibly popular and it’s another brilliant way of getting into robotics and control theory.<\/p>\n Robotics, as the Raspberry Pi Guy is always reminding us<\/a>, is a great way for kids to learn programming and electronics and with the Raspberry Pi being such a low-cost platform, there’s really no excuse not to explore and learn by getting hold of some bits and having a go!<\/p>\n And, of course, there was Pi Wars<\/a> in Cambridge. We’re hoping to do it again in 2015 so get\u00a0learning now!<\/p>\n There have been so many blog posts in 2014\u00a0about using an Arduino with the Raspberry Pi, from expansion boards such as the Pi Co-Op<\/a>\u00a0and the RasPiO duino<\/a>\u00a0to programming the ATtiny from the Pi<\/a>. Here’s a link to a search for Arduino-related posts on my blog<\/a>. The Arduino can add so many\u00a0fantastic options in terms of input and output to the Pi and they really are perfect companions.<\/p>\n Home automation and integration has been a really hot-topic. Here are just a few of the projects that caught my eye:<\/p>\n It’s been really great hearing about the successes of Picademy at the Raspberry Pi Foundation<\/a>. The\u00a0first cohort joined the two-day scheme in mid-April (see this write-up of the first day from Sway Humphries<\/a>) and this was followed throughout the year by additional groups, including one cohort that was taught at the Sony headquarters in Pencoed, Wales where the Pi is manufactured. You can get a flavour of the Picademy by reading these write-ups from Lenny Dutton<\/a> and Allen Heard<\/a> and also from Clive Beale<\/a>, who heads up the educational team. I\u00a0applaud the Foundation for starting up Picademy and getting teachers trained up – it’s amazing that they’re able to offer it as free CPD (continued professional development) and I hope they continue to do it\u00a0in 2015.<\/p>\n 2014 has seen a great growth in the number of Raspberry Jams popping up. Here are just a few of them:<\/p>\n There’s also been\u00a0the development of Alan O’Donohoe’s Jam Packed<\/a> initiative which aims to bring the Jam experience to more remote, under-privileged areas of the country.<\/p>\n Jams are great fun and if you haven’t been to one yet, then I recommend keeping an eye on the official calendar for one in your area<\/a>.<\/p>\n When I originally decided to come up with a list of my top 10 posts of the year, I thought it would be easy. Then I realised quite how many amazing projects people have come up with in the last twelve months. I found over 40 posts which could qualify for the top 10 list so I’ve had to be quite strict with myself to get it down to ten. So, here goes, in no particular order (and definitely not based on the number of page hits):<\/p>\nThe Raspberry Pi in the Developing World<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.understandglobalization.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/05\/economic-development-map.gif?resize=560%2C281\")
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The development of CamJam<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/CamJam-4_sm.jpg?resize=448%2C487&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0176\/3274\/products\/EduKit.jpg?resize=425%2C321\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/camjam.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/CamJam-EduKit-2-small1.jpg?resize=428%2C322\")
<\/a><\/p>\nLots of developments at the Raspberry Pi Foundation<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thomaskioko.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/raspberry-pi-logo-HD1.jpg?resize=560%2C318\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\n\n
Rise of the Robots<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.dawnrobotics.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/pi_magician_small_03__98633.jpg?resize=560%2C509\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/piwars.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/Logo-v2-RGB-sm.jpg?resize=560%2C207\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\nThou shalt use an Arduino<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.raspberrypi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/arduinopi.jpg?resize=560%2C397\")
<\/p>\nRaspberry Pi around the home<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/smartphonesoutions.eu\/dh\/img\/admin.schema.png?resize=560%2C257\")
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The first year of Picademy<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.raspberrypi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/642A0316.jpg?resize=560%2C373\")
<\/p>\nNew Raspberry Jams<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.raspberrypi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/Raspberry_Jam-01-300x225.png?resize=300%2C225\")
<\/p>\n\n
And now…\u00a0The Awards<\/h2>\n
Top 10 posts of the year<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"top10\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.recantha.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/top10.jpg?resize=317%2C379&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\n\n
Video of the Year<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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