Budding coders and programmers of all ages gathered to learn the basics of computer science using a $30 credit card-sized computer known as the Raspberry Pi.

Mathematician and computer scientist John Gill, who has been working with open source software for more than 30 years, hosted the event at Chewstick’s new headquarters on Front Street as part of a fundraiser for the charity’s redevelopment project.

Participants were introduced to the personal computer and its various functions, which include a media centre full of local Bermuda photos and video content, streaming retro video games, and even building a robot.

The event was held on March 14 (3.14.15) which has become known as Pi Day on account of the first three digits of the mathematical constant, Pi.

There were performances by the Harvard Glee Club and servings of raspberry pie cooked by chefs at Lemon Tree.

Mr Gill told The Royal Gazette: “We got the game centre up and running and the media centre, which had a little movie of the performances by the Harvard Glee Club, and we ate all the pies!

“The media centre is running on this $30 computer and it will upload the weather, music, videos, movies ... you can upload any content into it.

“You can also get a lot of plug-ins, where you can do things like listen to streaming radio and watch YouTube videos.

“We are with the Khan Academy, an educational system quite popular here in Bermuda, which provides online learning tools and it is absolutely free.”

Mr Gill plans to continue to work with Chewstick and other outlets on the Island to use the Raspberry Pi to stream locally made content on screens for the public to see.

“My vision for Chewstick is to have a permanent media centre show pictures and content of Bermuda,” Mr Gill said. “One guy who came to the talk said he was interested in putting a centre in his business premises — it showcases the media centre and showcases Bermudian media.”

Mr Gill said he would like to ship a number of Raspberry Pis to sell in Bermuda and to get more people interested in computer science.

Outlining the benefits of the equipment, he said: “If you put your content on Facebook you have to worry about sharing content with more people than you want to, so there is a privacy matter.

“Also, we are in Bermuda — if the links ever go down to the rest of the world you can survive that sort of issue if you are hosting your content locally.

“The key thing about the Raspberry Pi is that you can think of it as a tool that you can put to many uses — the media centre is one but people are building robots and controlling LED lights.

“If you can do it with a computer you can do it with a Raspberry Pi.

“You can write very simple programmes that actually switch the current on and off on a set of pins and use that to control other devices. You could turn one into a security device or a webcam.

“To make a robot there is another device that you have to mount the Pi on top of — you can get these little kits with motors and wheels.

“For the robot you can write a programme that will turn on the pins in the right order for the wheels to move in the right way.”

Mr Gill is working on an idea to use the Raspberry Pi during the America’s Cup for a model yacht.

“I would like to work with the Island’s schoolchildren,” he said. “They will build these little model yachts that would navigate themselves around a little course, so we could do Raspberry Pi yacht racing.”