Lutterworth College – Pibot

Team principal: Andrea Keightley

About the team:

• 3-6 students aged between 14 and 17 some with no programming skills and lots of enthusiasm, some with limited programming skills and chaotic enthusiasm!
• 2 teachers (computing teachers) supervising the chaos mostly), helping with a little bit of programming
• 1 network technician/engineer that loves to build things and loves electronics

The 2015 journey: 2015 was our 2nd year. The first time round we found it more difficult as we had to make sure we kept to a very tight budget. This time round we decided to go for ‘reclaimed’ materials so we managed to scrounge a remote control toy car and adapt it to run with a Raspberry Pi – the students then had the job of customising it. Getting everything done during after-school sessions between September and December was almost impossible, but now the dates have been moved it takes the pressure off somewhat!

The highlight: Seeing the kids meet some very enthusiastic model makers, letting them loose at the fair to see the different models, seeing them talk to people like Eben Upton as well as collecting a prize!

Advice for competitors:

• Start early.
• Try and have a plan of what you are going to do.
• Recruit enthusiastic helpers!

Next year: We’ll probably apply again, but we’ve only been back for 2 days, so we’re not sure yet!