Hi Everyone, I am from Pakistan and became an instructor in New Zealand. Was introduced to this thread just now by Jonah (Thank you for that Jonah). I conducted the first-ever software carpentry workshop last year in Lahore, Pakistan (Centre of Excellence in Solid State Physics, University of Punjab).
Based on my experience as a student in Pakistan and running an initiative (iDRACK: http://idrack.org/) in Pakistan under which I have been organizing scientific computing workshops (and other things), I would like to add a few things to this discussion. First to Mary Barkworth, while iDRACK is still in its infancy it aims to build either resources directly or train people to pursue such ventures which is reflected in the scientific computing workshops delivered under it. You could also look at Code for Pakistan which does similar things but not in the sciences, perhaps they would be open to ideas. Regarding internet access, (Deborah's comment), yes that can cause problems. In my experience, the internet quality is highly variable. However, for basic Zoom sessions it should be adequate. Getting funds approved for trainers to travel there is not as straight-forward. I did the travelling on my own, and doing the same this year when I travel back for two weeks of workshops in March. While funding exists, both in public and private sectors, the Carpentries need a few more years/workshops to become established. Following which funding will be easily accessible. I am also aware of a few students from my last year's workshop who expressed interest in become instructors and might be in training now (I think) so that will result in less costs involved as all the travelling will be domestic. To add to what Sabah Ul-Hasan said: While mostly true, there is an alternative explanation (from my personal experience). Pakistan has mostly paid attention to applied sciences, especially those which are directly transferable to industry -- e.g. medicine and engineering are the two foremost industries (I myself am a mechanical engineer who has now switched to biochemistry) and then loosing those people in a massive brain drain to the developed countries (I am also in this category unfortunately). Natural sciences will always be on the rear seat, as they mostly are in the industrialized world as well (and even more so in Pakistan especially because of lack of research funding). But yes lack of trust is a factor, gladly I don't have to face it :) while arranging workshops in Pakistan :) Regarding women in science, I am now aware of many groups (from my exposure running iDRACK) e.g. Women engineers in Pakistan (sorry again engineering), there is also a student group in UET, Peshawar which looks at building programming capacity in women (again engineering). If you are interested I could introduce you to them. Unfortunately, due to lack of timing, I won't be able to conduct a software carpentry workshop in March, but each of my workshops has a dedicated 15 minute slot to introduce software carpentry which will hopefully attract more people to sign-up for instructor training. I plan to have a second round later this year, which will definitely see at least "1" Software Carpentry Workshop. I know this message has gotten to stretched, but I (through iDRACK) am working on similar stuff and therefore wanted to share. Also any help I can get would be greatly appreciated. I think that by working together we can achieve more than doing the same alone. So if any of you are interested in collaborating, it would be great to work together :) /A [email protected] ------------------------------------------ The Carpentries: discuss Permalink: https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/T16ebb128aaa2137b-Mbbdb58dda3e3e3764a373b53 Delivery options: https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/subscription
