Wales’s leading manufacturer Sony UK Technology Centre (UK TEC) is supporting a collaboration to create educational programmes promoting STEAM learning.
This is becoming an increasingly important area as information technology advances.
The Pencoed-based manufacturing facility, which creates the latest broadcast and 4K technology equipment, is supporting an initiative between Sony Global Education and Raspberry Pi to develop Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Maths (STEAM) educational packages.
The partnership will see Sony Global Education, which aims to inspire technological learning, utilise its educational software, while Raspberry Pi will provide its single board computers, popular for its compactness and versatility.
Through the collaboration the organisations will create a package to provide educational computer science programmes to enhance STEAM learning.
As part of the process, they will develop educational content for the Japanese market, which will be released next year, with the longer-term aim of contributing to the future of STEAM opportunities globally.
Sony UK TEC will be supporting the project as the manufacturer of the Raspberry Pi, having created over 20 million of the popular credit card-sized computers since 2012.
Earlier this year the award-winning Welsh site announced that it would also be manufacturing the highly anticipated new Raspberry Pi 4 8GB computer.
This comes as Raspberry Pi saw sales leap to 685,000 units in June, a jump which has been attributed in part to growing demand for home working and learning technology during the coronavirus outbreak.
Gerald Kelly, Director of Professional Services at Sony UK TEC, said they were excited to be supporting this “progressive project”, which underlines the significance of STEAM learning.
He said:
“Here at Sony UK TEC we have always been forward thinking and recognise the wide-ranging importance of adopting greater digital literacy and computational thinking.
“Coding education and STEAM learning are absolutely essential skills that young people today need to adopt, not only to support their future prospects, but to advance sectors globally.
“We are delighted to be supporting this progressive collaboration, which will bring engaging computer science educational and STEAM packages to young people worldwide.”
The Raspberry Pi was originally manufactured in China, but founder Eben Upton moved production to Sony UK TEC in 2012 due to the facility's capacity and innovative automated processes. After initially being approached to make 10,000 of the low-cost computers annually, demand quickly soared, and last year Sony UK TEC produced over 6 million Raspberry Pi products in total.
