Lancaster University’s School of Computing and Communications plays host to pro² Summer School – dedicated to supporting innovators in building prototypes of digital devices – for the summer school’s second year of running.

The Device Prototyping Summer School ran from 15^th-18^th July, and is the flagship event for the UKRI-funded research network pro², which aims to equip enterprising individuals with the skills and knowledge they require to produce digital devices. The network – a joint endeavour between Lancaster University and the University of Bristol – was established in 2022 in an effort to democratise digital device production and encourage more people into the field, providing a space for inventors, researchers, and entrepreneurs to meet like-minded individuals and provide peer-to-peer support.

Organised by Professors Steve Hodges and Joe Finney, and Dr Lorraine Underwood from Lancaster University and Maura Lydon, Matt Sutton and Sarah Hughes from the pro² network+, this year’s school boasted an expanded portfolio of events. It featured practical tutorials on printed circuit board design, a surface mount assembly session hosted in Lancaster’s brand new Engineering labs, an array of talks on everything from Raspberry Pi (presented by co-founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation Pete Lomas) to “Building an Electronics Manufacturing Business on a Shoestring” by author Simon Monk, and the return of the ever-popular evening gig with the School of Computing and Communication’s house band “The Usuals”. Additionally, there were sessions in which attendees could showcase their own device prototypes and gain feedback from their peers, as well as the opportunity to participate in a competition to receive funding to develop their prototypes further.

The event was hugely successful, with more than 40 attendees from a range of institutions, countries, and industrial backgrounds. The competition for funding resulted in 14 participants receiving £200 towards prototyping costs for their inventions:

• Jonathan Sanderson – Northumbria University
• Shyamli Suneesh- Lancaster University
• Emma Kathrine Derby Hansen - Malmo
• Arne-Wolf Lenssens - TUdelft
• Yang Gao – Oxford University
• Michael Langton – Imperial College London
• Hannah van Iterson – Eindhoven University of Technology
• Pranjal Jain – University of Swansea
• Chris Lowerson – Lancaster University
• Sebastian Prost – University of London
• Ulrike Kulzer – Saarland University
• Terry Fawden- University of Cambridge
• Manuel Heredia Ortiz - Hobbyist
• Seher Singh - University of Nottingham

The grand prize of £1,000 was awarded to Benjamin Seleb from Georgia Tech for his “TinkerTrap”, an innovative, customisable wildlife camera trap intended to plug the gap for ecologists trying to image animals in unusual scenarios or remote settings. The prize amounts can be spent on parts for prototyping to bring to life their concepts, or develop early prototypes further. You can learn more about the TinkerTrap and all of the other prototypes submitted to the 2025 summer school on the pro² website.

Ben said of his experience at the summer school: “I had a great time at the summer school - getting introduced to free-to-use CAD and PCB tools, learning more about device production, and meeting other participants working on such a variety of devices. It was fun seeing how many of our projects fit into the “long tail of hardware” in such a supportive environment. Winning the grand prize was a big surprise, and it’s given me a boost of motivation to keep pushing TinkerTrap forward.”

On the success of the summer school, Professor Hodges commented: “It was a pleasure to welcome so many innovative and enthusiastic attendees to the 2025 Device Prototyping Summer School at Lancaster University. Over the course of the three and half days, we heard from expert speakers, engaged in hands-on tutorials and showcased delegates' prototypes through presentations and a demo session. We're already looking forward to building on this success at the 2026 summer school.”

pro²’s Network Manager Sarah Hughes added: “I'm really pleased with how well the summer school has gone at Lancaster this year. We had people in attendance from a mixture of places and professions, all of whom created a warm and engaging atmosphere. The pro² team were able to share their enthusiasm for device prototyping and production which I hope our delegates will carry with them on their device development journeys. We are already using the feedback we've received to start planning the Device Prototyping Summer School 2026.”