Astro Pi

The Raspberry Pi Foundation (raspberrypi.org) has a partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA) to send Raspberry Pis to the ISS.


Primary and secondary school children in UK can enter a competition to develop code for two Raspberry Pis connected to the sensor-loaded Astro Pi boards that will be flown to the ISS. They'll be deployed around the ISS to collect data in orbit and send that data back to Earth to the winning teams.

The resources are available at opsy.st/AstroPiResources.

The Astro Pi hardware is available at swag.raspberrypi.org (for about $45.0).  The Astro Pi will be used with the Raspberry Pi 1 B+, though it's also compatible with the Raspberry Pi 1 A+, 2 B+, and 2.

The Astro Pi's sensors include a gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer, temperature sensor, barometric pressure sensor, and a humidity sensor as well as visible light or infared (Pi NoIR) cameras, five-button joystick, 8x8 RGB LED matrix display, additional function push buttons, and real-time clock with backup battery (details at astro-pi.org/hardware).

An Adventure in Programming

The book "Lauren Ipsum: A Story About Computer Science and Other Improbable Things" is an introduction to computer-science for children which is modeled on the book, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass" by Lewis Carroll.


It follows a young girl's adventures through a strange land, solving problems as she goes, using a wide array of techniques and concepts.

Managing Risk on Software Projects

Waltzing With Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects  by Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister assumes no prior knowledge of risk and uncertainty - and works its way up from assuming total ignorance of the key concepts of risk management by the Project Manager - such as inherent uncertainty/noise in all physical processes - to some semblance of quantitative risk management at the level of a person who has mastered Algebra II in a US high school.

Computer Poker

A research group at the University of Alberta has evidently solved the problem of computer poker.

Please see here:  http://poker.srv.ualberta.ca/