Cambridge Judge Business School alumnus launches micro-computer
Dr Eben Upton, an Executive MBA alumnus at Cambridge Judge Business School and founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, has announced that Raspberry Pi – the much anticipated low-cost micro computer – has gone on general sale.
The idea came about five years ago when Eben was lecturing and working in Admissions at Cambridge University and noticed that the number of young people applying to study Computer Science has declined over the years. The concept of Raspberry Pi was to create a small and cheap device aimed at children in a bid to develop their interest in technology and how it all works and consequently increase admissions for computer-based courses in the future.
There are two versions of the Raspberry Pi device, which is the size of a credit card and priced at £16 and £22. When connected to a television and keyboard, it is capable of many desktop PC functions and also plays high-definition video.
Eben said that as he embarked on his Executive MBA at Cambridge Judge Business School in 2009, the idea was sound and the technical know-how was in place, but missing were some of the ways of moving those forward.
“I have done a little software business in the past, but certainly nothing in the volume manufacture of physical devices.
“The Executive MBA helped me think about what we were doing in a much more structured way, rather than just muddling through. It helped us to think about how we developed the brand for the device and about how we work with partners. It also focused our thinking on how we dealt with some of the challenges that came with being a ‘not-for-profit’ organisation such as being restricted in the ways one can raise capital at the same time as getting a very large number of devices out.”