PA Consulting challenges young innovators to create…

PA Consulting (PA), the consultancy that’s bringing ingenuity to life, has launched its eighth Raspberry Pi competition. This year’s competition asks students to create a positive human future by designing the sustainable city of tomorrow. The UK competition launches in parallel with PA’s Netherlands edition of the competition which is taking place for the second time.

Students will need to use their ingenuity to imagine a world where we can protect habitats while making the best use of natural resources. A smart and sustainable city would be the one in which we can travel simply, safely and without pollution and where our food is sourced with minimal waste.

Teams compete across four categories based on their academic years: years 4-6, years 7-9, years 10-11 and years 12-13. Three finalists from each category are invited to an inspiring event in London, the PA Raspberry Pi Awards Day in April 2020. A panel of expert judges will select a winner from each of the four categories, who will be awarded with £1,000 for their school or college.

Anita Chandraker, global head of innovation at PA Consulting, said: “At PA we’re passionate about technology and innovation. The aim of our competition is to encourage more young people to see how they can play a part by working in teams to tackle important challenges using technology. We chose this year’s theme because sustainability should be a driving force for all future-looking organisations. We’re facing probably the greatest challenge of our lifetime – climate change – and we want our next generation to innovate and tackle this head on.

“Each year I see incredible creative thinking, teamwork, commitment, coding and engineering skills from the students – some as young as eight years old. The determination and imagination of students is truly incredible and as adults, we’re always moved by the passion of students to help make the world a better place.”

Paul Broadhead, Rolls-Royce’s head of community investment and education outreach, described the Raspberry Pi competition: “It’s one of the best examples I’ve seen of unearthing hidden coding talents and increasing interest in STEM subjects among the next generation on a national scale. Rolls-Royce is once again thrilled to support this ingenious initiative and we look forward to hosting one of the launch events this November.”

Penny Bunting from King Edward VI Grammar School explained how the PA Raspberry Pi competition benefits her students: “Since taking part in the PA Raspberry Pi competition, I’ve noticed the students’ teamwork and cooperation skills improve significantly. Putting theoretical concepts from lessons into practice and going beyond basic lesson material is a great opportunity for the students. Thanks to initiatives such as this competition, younger students, who take part in club activities, realise that engineering can be a possible and fun career for them.”

PA first launched the competition in 2012 in response to a fall in programming skills to help tackle the growing talent gap in programming and coding. The Raspberry Pi was selected as it is a low-cost computer, launched with the intention of promoting the teaching of basic computer science in schools and stimulating interest in the IT industry. Entry is free and open to all schools and colleges in the UK.

Details of how to enter can be found here.

You can find more information on PA’s previous Raspberry Pi competitions here.