Official Raspberry Pi magazine features pupil’s project

July 6, 2016

sampi3sampi1sampi2

An innovative schoolboy’s Pi in the sky idea has been featured in the official Raspberry Pi magazine this month.

Monmouth School pupil Sam, 17, is celebrating seeing his hard work mentioned in the July edition of The MagPi as part of a double page spread on high-altitude ballooning.

Sam combined science and technology to create SkiPi, a huge balloon with a GPS tracker, a tiny Raspberry Pi Zero computer, camera and radio within its precious payload.

He spent around two months developing his skills and working on the project, which was funded by an engineering scholarship, and saw it come to fruition in May.

After painstakingly filling the balloon with helium in a friend’s field, Sam’s schoolmates, family and physics teacher, Dr Dan Jones, watched him send it off on a two-hour mission to snap Monmouth from a dizzyingly high perspective.

The result was a collection of beautiful photographs taken from 32,000 metres in the sky.

The MagPi included one of Sam’s stunning shots, along with a lovely interview about his project.

You can find the issue in WH Smiths, or download it from the website

Read more about Sam’s balloon here