Employment, Volunteering & Education
| Since 2016 | Technology Projects Officer, Science Oxford |
| Since 2019 | Freelance Maker & Educator |
| Since 2014 | STEM Ambassador, Volunteering |
| 2014–2016 | Workshop Deliverer & Project Coordinator, STEM Sussex |
| 2014–2016 | Library Assistant, East Sussex County Council |
| 2013–2015 | Freelance Education Coordinator & Volunteer, Shipwreck Museum |
| 2009–2013 | Science Technician, Bournville College & Washwood Heath School |
| 2005–2008 | BSc(Hons) Physics, University of Birmingham |
| 1998–2005 | 3 A2, 1AS, 10 GCSE, Brookfield Community School |
Projects & Experience
GLAM Digital Makers
I am currently working on the GLAM Labs project with the University of Oxford’s Gardens, Libraries and Museums (GLAM) to help their staff gain the skills and confidence needed to run digital workshops. This involves running training workshops for staff members and working with them to develop their project ideas around their own working environments and collections.
This is currently in progress, but some of the resources can be seen here: GLAM Project Resources
Future Engineers Project & Robocamp
I developed and delivered a robotics summer camp for Science Oxford, funded by the IET/IMechE, in 2018. I worked with young people at Rose Hill Community Centre to build and program a BBC micro:bit robot in MicroPython or Edublocks over the course a week. I taught them basic programming skills, how to solder and how to design 2d and 3d models in TinkerCAD. They then built robots around their laser cut robot chassis designs, and programmed their choice of sensors.
I gave a talk about the project at PyCon UK, which can be viewed here: Future Engineers PyCon talk
Evaluation was very positive, so I ran a variant of the camp, Robocamp, in August 2019 at the Science Oxford Centre in Headington. Learning from previous experience, I designed a printed circuit board (PCB) in KiCAD for the young people to solder, and prepared a range of differentiated instruction sheets to give more help to those who needed it, whilst still providing challenges. To give more room for creativity, I organised a greater range of challenges for them to complete at the end of the week, such as an obstacle course, a dance-off and robot football.
I produced the resources under a Creative Commons BY-SA licence, and they can be found here: micro:ant
Creative Computing Club
I run a successful computing club for Science Oxford, one Saturday a month. I choose a new theme for each month, for example programming Minecraft with Python on a Raspberry Pi, programming BBC micro:bit self-driving cars, designing games for Scratch Day, programming ‘Choose-Your-Own-Adventure’ books for World Book Day, and coding puzzle boxes to answer riddles.
Each month I have a mixture of returning students and new attendees, so have gained a lot of experience in managing groups of mixed ability and experience levels.
I was interviewed about my club on the Ubuntu Podcast, which you can listen to here: Ubuntu Podcast S12E22
Adult Coding Course
Last year I developed and ran a six-week beginner Python programming course for adults. I started with basic programming on a micro:bit, then moved on to sensors, data collection via a Raspberry Pi and data analysis. For the final two weeks, I supported them as they worked on a project of their choice including a micro:bit morse code decoder, a graphical user interface (GUI) and a micro:bit seismograph outreach project. At the end of the course, I organised a Raspberry Jam meetup, to introduce them to other local digital makers, and encouraged the attendees to share their projects with them.
Files from the course can be found here: Introduction to Programming
Antweight Robots
I compete in ‘antweight’ robot competitions, mini robot wars with weight (150g) and size (4” cube) restrictions. I enter two styles of robot. The first being fully 3d printed, designed in Fusion 360, with well researched electronics, the second micro:bit controlled and built from accessible materials and scrap. My aim in entering these competitions is to learn new skills, share design ideas with other builders, and build entertaining robots that start conversations.
Find out more about my antweights here: Antweights
Pi Wars
I led a team, Sky Fawkes, in Pi Wars 2019 – a robotics competition based around the Raspberry Pi, with a number of remote control and autonomous challenges. I created the physical robot, designed in Fusion 360 and Inkscape, with both 3d printed and laser cut parts, working with my team to design around the features we needed to succeed in the challenges. I also programmed the distance sensors used in some of the challenges, learning to adapt previously written code to suit our needs, and worked with young people at Science Oxford to program firework animations to run on an attached micro:bit.
Blog posts about the design and build of Sky Fawkes can be found here: Sky Fawkes blog