SPARK Raspberry Pi Community
SPARK will encourage, facilitate and nurture innovation in the use of Raspberry Pi. Through that effort ENTC will become recognized as a major contributor to the Raspberry Pi Organization in supporting the development of its product, service and for the support of the Raspberry Pi community locally and internationally. In delivering those outcomes, they become recognized worldwide as a leading exponent of the Raspberry Pi ecosystem.
Main Features Of The SPARK Raspberry Pi Community
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Demonstrating to the industry and society the capability of the ENTC by building core competencies and demonstrating the abilities of Raspberry Pi platform to a wider audience beyond the university
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Run 3 Raspberry JAMs every academic year teaching Pi enthusiasts about the capabilities of the Raspberry Pi platform.
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Enhancing the capabilities of high school teachers by undertaking ICT training.
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Participation in the Raspberry Pi Community will be encouraged for all year groups
There are a number of supportive activities to ensure a productive and smooth running of the SPARK Community:
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A fully worked up team entirely consisting of ENTC - E-Club members will manage the activities associated with both the SPARK Raspberry Pi Community
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A full marketing campaign directed at Raspberry Pi users and others interested in the platform or developments associated with that platform; ensuring targeted messaging to the SPARK Raspberry Pi Community about the developments being undertaken at ENTC
Technology Demonstrations
Pi Community - Pi-Mora - 2022
Pi-Mora 1.3 (3/3) Participants joined the third session to get some invaluable experience about the applications of Raspberry Pi in Robotics. This was lead by the very experienced Achala Athukorala who inspired over 100 participants who attended these sessions.
Pi-Mora 1.3 (3/2) Participants joined the second session hands-on to gain experience about the applications of Raspberry Pi in Computer Vision. The workshops were lead by the very experienced undergraduates Avishka Perera and Yasiru Karunanayake.
Janitha Gunarathna was the guest speaker for Pi-Mora 1.3 (1/3). The day’s session was conducted by a pioneering personality and entrepreneur in the field of UAV Technology. He will demonstrate his projects and share skills and knowledge with the participants.
Two further Pi-Mora’s were undertaken by the student community in 2022 with a fantastic reception for this innovation of this facility at ENTC. All participants had access to these workshops and seminars either through a Facebook live stream or Zoom. All resource material and replays are available on the internal ENTC servers.
Pi Community - Pi- Mora - 2023
Pi-Mora 2.2 took place in December 2022; With the intention to Explore Computer Vision with experienced Mr. Bimalka Plyaruwan, Undergraduate at Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, University of Moratuwa. Over 100 participants took part either physically or over zoom in both the lecture and workshops sessions.
Pi-Mora 2.1 took place in September 2022 over a two day period with speaker Yasiru Senarath , undergraduate of ENTC leading the partici-pants on the numerous issues related “Ethical Hacking” on day one; with a full practical workshops on day 2
Both these sessions are now available Youtube!
Day 1: https://bit.ly/3rJTDo1
Day 2 : https://bit.ly/3SzRSWb
Teacher Training Programme
A major project aimed at providing significant assistance to Sri Lanka was initiated by the Spark branch. The Spark branch collaborated with the Sri Lankan Ministry of Education to conduct a "Teacher Training" programme that aimed to equip advanced-level IT teachers with Machine Learning knowledge, which will be highly beneficial for good teaching practices. Teachers had the opportunity to learn about the basic principles of machine learning throughout the project, which will help them to have a solid foundation in this field and expand that knowledge after the project is completed. The course was broken up into six three-day sessions. Of those six sessions, three were devoted to imparting theoretical knowledge, and the remaining three to assisting the teachers in gaining practical experience with the scope. The department's instructors led the theoretical discussions. The undergraduates in their final year led the practical sessions. After completion of the three-day course, teachers were awarded with certificates as a token of appreciation.
