Presented at THEITS 2014: The Raspberry Pi (RPi) and Beaglebone Black (BBB) are small single-board computers that bring relatively new computer concepts to higher education. The idea is to replace traditional expensive equipment with relatively inexpensive equipment that gives the student/user the freedom to experiment through trial and error without the fear/consequences of crashing more expensive systems. This session gave an overview of each board’s hardware, necessary peripherals, optional accessories, OS and development software, and their strengths/weaknesses/limitations. The new learning model these boards offer, the trade-offs, and areas in higher education in which they may play a role in learning and other applications were also discussed.

1. Introducing Credit Card
Computers (Raspberry Pi &
BeagleBone Black) and Their
Applications in Higher
Education
Monday, May 5th 2014
11:30a – 12:15p
Thomas Danford & Jon Calisi
Tennessee Board of Regents
"Leveraging IT to Empower Students to Complete College" All trademarks and services marks belong to their owners.
#THEITSSBC

2. Single Board Computers (SBCs)
Odroid-U3
Gooseberry
Intel GalileoDozens More!
Banana Pi
Cubieboard

3. For Purposes of this Discussion …
• A “Complete” Computer
• Small in Size (Credit Card)
• Inexpensive < $100
• Geared Toward Education
• Large User Community
• Relatively Easy to Use
• Significant Teaching/Learning Materials
• Significant 3rd Party Add-ons Accessories

4. Our Research Centered on …
RaspberryPi(RPi)
BeagleBoneBlack(BBB)

5. About the BBB …

6. About the RPi …
Note: In April Banana Pi, a more
powerful Chinese clone was announce
along with the HummingBoard.
The inside story of the Raspberry Pi

8. • SD Card 8GB (recommend class 10)
• Keyboard & Mouse
• Micro USB Power Supply
• HDMI Cable
• Display
Optional – Case
Getting Started – Hardware … (not quite a $45
computer)

9. 3rd Party Bundles
• 8 GB SD Card (Class 4) with NOOBS
• Micro USB Power Supply
• Case with GPIO Access
• HDMI Cable
• Breadboard
• Jumper Cables, GPIO Interface/Ribbon
• LEDs, Resistors, Switches

10. Copy.com
Storage, Connectivity and Printing
Options …
Headless ConnectivityStorage
Printing

11. Getting Started – Software … (Raspbian)
• Format the SD card with SD Formatter 4.0 (sdcard.org)
• Download & extract NOOBS (raspberrypi.org/downloads)
• Copy extracted NOOBS files to the SD card
• Put SD card in the RPi and plug in keyboard, mouse, and monitor
• Plug in USB power to boot
• Install Raspbian (and any other OSs you’d like) configure as prompted
• Login username = pi password = raspberry
• Load GUI with startx

12. Raspberry Pi Desktop – Raspbian (based on Debian) Linux with LXDE GUI

13. Raspberry Pi Software
• Accessories
• Education
• Graphics
• Internet
• Programming
• Sound & Video
• System Tools
Note: The Advanced Packaging Tool (apt-get) can be used to install lots of software not included with NOOBS

14. General Purpose & Educational
Applications
Accessories
• Text Editors
• Nano (Terminal)
• Vim (Terminal)
• Leafpad (GUI)
• Image Viewer
• LXTerminal
• File Manager (GUI)
Internet
• Midori
• Other Browsers
Educational
• Mathematica
• Scratch
• Sonic Pi

15. Why Use Single Board Computers?
Student Benefits:
• “Worry free” trial and error interaction with the device
• Complete control over the device hardware & software
• Low-level programming that wouldn’t be advisable on other platforms
Faculty Benefits:
• Ability to configure special class distributions
• More class time spent on teaching/learning rather than configuring

16. Programming Curriculum
• Python (2.7 & 3)
• PyPy
• Wolfram
• Ruby
• Bash (and Dash)
• Squeak Smalltalk
• C (gcc)
• GDB GNU Debugger
• Java
• Perl
• C++ (g++)
Many Others …
• MySQL
• Erlang
• APL
• TinyBASIC

17. Operating System Curriculum
Operating Systems
• Multiple Linux (Android, Arch,
Chromium, Debian, Firefox, etc.)
• Unix (FreeBSD & NetBSD)
• RISC
• Windows CE
• Plan 9 from Bell Labs
• ChibiOS/RT
Sample Areas
• Device Management
• File Systems
• Performance
• Scheduling & Dispatch
• Scripting
• Security
• Forensics
• Server Services

18. Networking & Security Curriculum
Software
• Raspbian
• Apache & Cherokee Webservers
• Nmap (Zenmap)
• Wireshark
• Netcat
• Iperf
• NetHogs
Sample Areas
• Protocols - TCP, DNS, SMTP, etc.
• System Vulnerabilities
• Techniques & Tools – Detection
& Defense
• Security Principles – Sandboxing
& isolation
• Attacks – DoS, DDoS, SQL
Injection, etc.

19. General Purpose Input Output (GPIO)

20. • Electronics
• Adafruit Tutorials
• OpenSprinkler
• Robotics
• Udemy PiBot Course
• FishPi
• Microprocessor & Board Control (ARMv6
Assembler)
GPIO & Microprocessors in a Curriculum

21. Audio Cape
Camera Cape
Capes, Shields, and Cards
Audio Card
RS232/GPIO Shield
PiFace Expansion Board

22. Non-Academic HE Purposes
• Security
• Penetration Testing (PwnPi)
• Web Honey Pot (Glastopf Pi) (KippoPi)
• Small Server (Web) (BitTorrent) (FTP) (SFTP and Samba) (Web Cam)
• Automation
• Streaming Media (XBMC)
• Digital Signage (Concerto Digital Signage from EDUCAUSE listserv)

23. Nefarious Purposes?
Let’s face it. They’re small $35 - $45 (disposable) Linux computers with
very low power consumption that can operate off of AA batteries and
have WiFi/Ethernet capability!
• Man-in-the-middle Attacks RPi running PwnPi Linux distribution
• Tor Relay
• Trojan Horse (Phoning Home Using a Reverse Remote Ssh Tunnel)
• Wireless Sniffing (Kismet)
• Limited Only to the Hackers Imagination ...

24. Send in the Clones …
Raspberry Pi – Feb 2012 Banana Pi – Apr 2014 HummingBoard – Apr 2014
Processor: quad core 1GHz
RAM: 2GB
Gigabit Ethernet
mSATA
IR
Real Time Clock
Processor: dual core 1GHz
RAM: 1GB
Gigabit Ethernet
mSATA
IR
Processor: single core 500 MHz
RAM: 500MB
10/100 Ethernet

25. Some Closing Thoughts …
RaspberryPi
BeagleBone
Clone
Cost 3 2 1
Ease of Use 3 3 3
Technology 1 2 3
Ed Materials 4 2 4
User Community 4 1 4
3rd
Party Add-ons/ins 4 1 3

26. Q & A (Demo if Time & Technology Permit!)
Thomas Danford
Tennessee Board of Regents
http://www.linkedin.com/in/tdanford
http://twitter.com/tdanford
Thank You!
Jon Calisi
Tennessee Board of Regents
http://www.linkedin.com/in/joncalisi
Questions, comments, ideas, suggestions? Please tweet
them with the hashtag #THEITSSBC