Carrie Anne Philbin is an English teacher of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

and an author. She is a director of educator support at the

Raspberry Pi Foundation The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a British charity and company founded in 2009 to promote the study of basic computer science in schools, and is responsible for developing the Raspberry Pi single-board computers. Foundation The Raspberry Pi Foun ...

and chairs the

Computing At School Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, e ...

(CAS) diversity and inclusion group, ''#CASInclude''. She wrote the computing book ''Adventures in Raspberry Pi'' (2013) for teenagers. She runs the

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

channel ''Geek Gurl Diaries'' and in 2017, was the host for '' Crash Course Computer Science''.

Early life and education

Philbin studied history at the

University of Essex The University of Essex is a public research university in Essex, England. Established by royal charter in 1965, Essex is one of the original plate glass universities. Essex's shield consists of the ancient arms attributed to the Kingdom of Es ...

. She taught herself to program and manage computer systems after she graduated. She trained as a school computing teacher and worked in East London.

Career

Philbin has been responsible for teaching children and teachers how to code in

Python programming language Python is a high-level, general-purpose programming language. Its design philosophy emphasizes code readability with the use of significant indentation. Python is dynamically-typed and garbage-collected. It supports multiple programming p ...

and the

Scratch programming language Scratch is a high-level block-based visual programming language and website aimed primarily at children as an educational tool for programming, with a target audience of ages 8 to 16. Users on the site, called Scratchers, can create projec ...

. In 2014 she began to work at the

. She is a Google Certified Teacher and was a

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...

Movement Maker. Philbin leads strategy, continuing professional development (CPD) program and learning at the

. She was an advisor to the

Department for Education The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, child services, education (compulsory, further and higher education), apprenticeships and wider skills in England. A Department ...

for the UK's first computing curriculum. In 2016 she was named as one of ''

Computer Weekly ''Computer Weekly'' is a digital magazine and website for IT professionals in the United Kingdom. It was formerly published as a weekly print magazine by Reed Business Information for over 45 years. Topics covered within the magazine include outs ...

''s most influential women rising stars. She chairs the

diversity and inclusion program and was a member of the board of directors at

Python Software Foundation The Python Software Foundation (PSF) is an American nonprofit organization devoted to the Python programming language, launched on March 6, 2001. The mission of the foundation is to foster development of the Python community and is responsible for ...

until 2017. She was appointed a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the

and named ''

s third most influential woman in IT in 2017. She is a founder member of CasInclude an organisation supporting diversity in computing, for children in school. She won the 2018 FDM Group Everywoman Tech Digital Star Award. Philbin is a regular speaker at conferences like the British Educational Training and Technology Show ( BETT), Raspberry Jams,

International Society for Technology in Education The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is a nonprofit organization that focuses on accelerating innovation in education through the smart use of technology in education. ISTE provides a variety of services to support profe ...

(ISTE) conference and Python conferences PyCon AU, EuroPython and PyCon UK. In 2019, Philbin was 17th in

's 50 'Most Influential Women in UK Tech' shortlist for her role as Director of Education at the

''Geek Gurl Diaries''

''Geek Gurl Diaries'' was created by Philbin in 2012 to communicate to young people how exciting and creative science and engineering are. It has 34,000 subscribers on

. It won the TalkTalk Digital Heroes award in 2013.

Adventures in Raspberry Pi

''Adventures in Raspberry Pi'' first published in 2013 with subsequent editions published in 2014, 2015 and 2016. It contains an introduction to programming as well as 10 projects and instructional videos.

''Crash Course''

In 2017 Philbin partnered with '' Crash Course'' to create a series of videos explaining the origins of modern computing. The series consists of 41 videos, with between 177,000 and 3,200,000 viewers.

Awards and honours

She was appointed

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(MBE) in the

2020 Birthday Honours The Queen's Birthday Honours for 2020 are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded ...

for services to education.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Philbin, Carrie Anne Computer science educators English computer programmers Members of the Order of the British Empire British women computer scientists Schoolteachers from London Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Raspberry Pi