James Devine

I hold a PhD in Computer Science and have a passion for building systems that are efficient, accessible, and user-friendly. My interests include electronics, embedded systems, and accessibility. More recently I have turned my focus towards AI and machine learning. I love sharing knowledge and building things that help others.

In my past, I co-wrote the micro:bit runtime, a lightweight operating system that for the BBC micro:bit that supports Microsoft MakeCode and Python. I later generalised the runtime as CODAL to support other microcontrollers and programming language platforms (e.g. Micropython). These technologies are used by millions of children around the world to learn computer science concepts.

More recently, I created Jacdac, a plug-and-play communication protocol for microcontrollers - think USB but actually a bus and implementable on microcontrollers that cost just three US cents. With my research colleagues, Jacdac was productised and released to the world. It is now integrated into computing accessories sold by manufacturers around the world.

I now lead the Azure Sphere OS and tooling team, an IoT platform that provides hardware protections and secure connection to the cloud for connected device scenarios.