Welcome Ben!
We’re welcoming a new member to the team at Pi Towers today. Some of you already know Ben Nuttall from his work on the Pi Weekly email newsletter (if you haven’t signed up already, you should), his hosting of the Manchester Jams, and his STEM activities.
Ben is sheepish about being photographed. He asked me to use a picture of Fry from Futurama instead. Tough luck, Ben. :)
I first crossed paths with Ben when we met the incredible Amy Mather, a 14-year-old from Manchester who does amazing things with her Pi. Ben was tutoring Amy outside school, along with a number of other local kids, and we got chatting as a result of his work with her. He’s a STEM Ambassador, a FLOSS advocate, and curates Pi projects for youngsters. He’s also saved the life of a drowning, hypothermic, trouserless dinghy paddler. Like many of us, he cycles to work. His laptop has a sticker of Carrie Anne Philbin on it. His birthday cake had raspberry icing. We think he’s going to fit in just fine.
Ben just moved to Cambridge from Manchester for this job at the weekend. He’s going to have a number of roles here: he’s working on a revamp of this website, with separate areas for projects and for educators, which we’ll be trialling in 2014. He’s building demos; writing educational materials; and doing outreach work, especially with kids. We’re very excited to have him join us: welcome to the family, Ben!
27 comments
asb
Hurrah! Ben, I hope you’re able to find enough Cambridge-based $TECH user groups to feed your addiction.
Rachel Rayns
It’s going to be so fun having Ben around :)
Michael Horne
The madhouse has a new inmate ;-) Glad to hear you made it, Ben!
guru
Ben’s a stellar bloke and he’s definitely in the right place with the right people :D
Andrew
Agree about Ben being a stellar bloke, but what about our loss in Manchester? We’re still coming to terms with it.
Raspberry Pi Staff liz — post author
I’m actually feeling rather guilty about that; we’ll do our best to send him to visit every now and then!
Simon Walters
:-)
Ben Nuttall
Give it a few weeks, you’ll be saying “Ben who?”
Ken MacIver
Amy for Ben2.0 ??
ukscone
yep keep them all in one place, much easier to herd, control & avoid if you keep all the trouble makers together :)
IrishFramboise (AlanMc)
Brilliant. Congrats Ben & Congrats RPI team. Bonne continuation!
Davespice
Welcome Ben! =)
The Raspberry Pi Guy
Congratulations Ben! I look forward to meeting you one day!
The Raspberry Pi Guy
RealProgrammer
Ben DOES look like Fry and I think that if he wants to use the name for communication (and it isn’t taken) then let him, says I. Young coder – wait until you see what 25 years+ of stress, late-nights, inability to plan for the future (you may be needed at work so booking holidays is tough) and starting to do all of your paper arithmetic in HEX & dreaming about inner-loops are common features…
exartemarte
He speaks truth. I once had a nightmare in which I was inside a computer program, trapped in an endless loop – it ended when my other half woke me up because I was trying to scream.
But you’ll be all right, Ben …
AndrewS
Sounds like it might be starting to get cramped in your little office? ;-)
Welcome to Cambridge Ben, I’ll see if I spot you on Saturday http://camjam.eventbrite.co.uk/
William H. Bell
Hi,
In the new education resources site, would it be possible to add sections for different languages? We have been making some more progress in the French speaking world and would greatly value the a central place to collate useful information.
Would it be possible to collate a list of schools that are actively using the Raspberry Pi in teaching? This would make putting them in touch with each other much easier.
Thanks and best regards,
Will
Raspberry Pi Staff liz — post author
We’ve got some (currently inchoate) ideas about a schools list and helping teachers to share ideas; I’ll make sure we carefully consider support for languages besides English, but if we do go ahead with that it’ll be in a later phase.
Stick
Well done Ben, always good to see the Pi creating jobs. By the way, health and safety will not be happy with that pile of cardboard boxes by the door.
Raspberry Pi Staff liz — post author
Yeah – I hear they get a bit touchy about the flamethrowers and the pit with the spikes, too…
AndrewS
Isn’t keeping out unwanted visitors (such as health & safety inspectors) exactly what the Portal turret is there for? :-)
Raspberry Pi Staff liz — post author
And the Minecraft sword. Don’t forget the Minecraft sword. (We also have some very pointy awards.)
svenn
A futurama fan can be nothing then a gain for RPI foundation;
“To shreds you say?”
Ben Nuttall
How’s his wife holding up?
Ben Nuttall
I had a still from that episode on the front cover of my dissertation :)
Jim Manley
I believe it was one of your countrymen named Floyd who coined the phrase, “We’ve got to keep the lunars on the path.” Welcome to Mooncake, I mean Moonbase One, Poor Ben! Then again, a guy with the surname Nutall must descend from a long line of people whose neighbors considered them lunars :D
By the way, which one is Pink?
Raspberry Pi Staff liz — post author
Jack (and for once I’m being completely serious here) actually used to be a roadie for Pink Floyd. He is depressingly short on fantastic rock and roll stories, though. He just talks about lifting things.