Seconded.

Additionally, without any analysis, the market rate for this type of thing
is such that $15K for the whole 5-7 days is going to be the neighborhood
that you find.  Plenty of 1-day software seminars are $700/person and have
a class size of 20.  I actually found the $15k number for 5-7 days to be
fairly generous based, again, on lots of market price numbers I've seen.

Additionally, you're not just asking for "how to use this piece of
software", but a fairly complicated (to most people) suite of software AND
signal processing knowledge on top of it.

I have a lot of experience with both industry and academia, and your best
bet, I think is to go 100% academia here, specifically within seismology if
you can.  You might be able to do some sort of exchange where you're able
to get an expert to come in for a few days and "pay" them with access to
some of your data, instruments, etc that they don't have.

I'd start googling for numpy/scipy users within the seismology community
and try to catch somebody who has some free time this summer and perhaps
turn this into a mutually beneficial engagement that's not just about the
money.

Just a thought.

-- Nate


On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 11:08 AM, Morris Bernstein <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Good luck with this.
>
> Here's why you're seeing those numbers.  Let's say a competent software
> engineer's salary is $100k.  With a 2000-hour year, that $50/hour.  But
> that's not the total cost which you can double for insurance, capital
> equipment, overhead, profit, etc.  A reasonable loaded labor rate is about
> $100/hour.  What's your auto mechanic's shop rate these days?
>
> How much prep time is required for a 40-hour class?  3 hours per hour of
> class time?  so that's a minimum of 160 hours, or $16k.  Of course, one can
> reduce that a bit if the course materials can be reused, but you're asking
> for custom work.
>
> Since commercial training is so expensive, you are going to want a whole
> level of polish on the presentation.  Something of the quality of a
> textbook with professional-looking graphics.  That takes time to prepare.
>  Some chicken scratching that I can do on paper (or a white board) in a
> couple of minutes takes an hour or more to do as a crude drawing with
> illustrator (or inkscape).  It'd take me hours to do the same graphic at
> publication-quality, just making it look good, not adding information
> content.  Time is $$$.
>
> I'll admit to having tried to do this last quarter and falling on my face.
>  It wasn't the money, which I considered a loss leader; it was simply that
> I did not have enough time to devote to bringing the presentation to the
> level of quality they expected.
>
> You're asking for champagne on  a beer budget if you want something
> customized.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 3:41 PM, Chad Trabant <[email protected]>wrote:
>
>>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> We are looking for an instructor to come to our office and teach our
>> experienced developers basic to advanced Python.  I'm hopeful the SeaPIG
>> can help us find such an instructor.  The course topics we would like to
>> cover include:
>>
>> * Introduction to Python (for experienced developers)
>> * Reading and writing technical data (HDF, NetCDF, MATLAB)
>> * NumPy
>> * SciPy with focus on signal processing
>> * Interfacing with C and Fortran
>> * Data visualizations (matplotlib and beyond)
>>
>> Class size would be up to 8 or 9 folks with smaller groups depending on
>> the topic (some have Python experience and can skip the basics).  Looking
>> to do the training before the end of the year, ideally later this summer or
>> fall.  Ideally we would like these covered in a week or week and a half
>> with a mix of full days and some half days, but we are flexible.
>>
>> Naturally we are prepared to compensate the instructor(s).  After getting
>> quotes from some well known Python training companies and suffering sticker
>> shock ($15K and up!), we are looking for alternatives.
>>
>> Before we commit with any instructor we'll want to see examples of
>> experience, specifically for coding and ideally for instruction.
>>
>> If you are interested in such an opportunity please contact me.  If you
>> have any suggestions for how to find such an instructor please pass that
>> along too.
>>
>> About us:  We are non-profit seismological data center (funded by the
>> National Science Foundation), our users are academic researchers in the US
>> and around the world.  Our office is near the main UW campus in Northeast
>> Seattle.  http://www.iris.edu/dms/nodes/dmc/
>>
>> thanks,
>> Chad
>> IRIS DMC
>
>
>

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