Raspberry Pi creators given NMI award for advancing next generation’s skills

The skills, training and development award was presented to the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s founder and trustee Robert Mullins by NMI CEO, Derek Boyd. Derek said: “Nurturing young talent in electronic and software engineering is essential for the future of the UK’s electronic systems industry; and the stripped-down, low-cost Raspberry Pi enables anyone with a curious mind, regardless of background to develop these skills from an early age.”

The Raspberry Pi is a £25 ARM based PC, developed and manufactured in the UK with the intention of stimulating the teaching of computer science in schools. It was launched in July 2012 with a large ecosystem evolving and over 500,000 units shipped in its first three months with the 1 million mark anticipated before Christmas.

The award is sponsored by the IC Group. Director Neil Dickins is optimistic that current initiatives, such as Raspberry Pi, will bring much-needed engineering talent into the industry: “We foresee excellent career opportunities and options available to engineers graduating in the UK and Europe for many years to come. If we can shift the emphasis in secondary education from ‘how to use a computer and its software’ to ‘how to design a computer and its software’, our industry and economy will expand…as will the minds of the students who represent the next generation of innovation.”

The importance of skills development was a key theme throughout the awards ceremony with NMI also naming ST Microelectronic’s Kevin Moore as 2012’s top young engineer and the University of Edinburgh’s Rares-Mihai Popa as UKESF Scholar of the year. These categories were sponsored and presented by ARM’s HR director, Kirsty Gill, and IC Group’s Neil Dickens respectively.


• Innovation - Oxford Digital Limited
• Innovation in Power Electronics - Supply Design Limited
• Low Power Green Design - ST Microelectronics
• Manufacturing Site of the Year - International Rectifier
• Manufacturing Supplier of the Year - Compugraphics International Limited
• Product Excellence - Wolfson Microelectronics
• R&D Achievement - Freescale Semiconductor Inc
• Semi360 - XMOS
• Skills, Training & Development - Raspberry Pi Foundation
• UKESF Scholar of the Year - Rares-Mihai Popa (Edinburgh University)
• Young engineer of the year - Kevin Moore (ST Microelectronics)

The awards promote practices conducive to the long-term health of the UK’s electronic systems community. This year saw the Awards’ 10th anniversary with the annual event held at the exclusive Portman Blu Raddison hotel in London. 300 guests from throughout the UK and around the world attended and the celebrity speaker was the BBC’s Bill Turnbull.