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Official blog of Bangladesh Open Source Network

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Ada Lovelace Online Programming Contest for Girls held

An online programming contest to mark the celebration of Ada Lovelace Day was held on 12th October 2016. Ada Lovelace Day (ALD) is an international celebration day of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). It aims to increase the profile of women in STEM and, in doing so, create new role models who will encourage more girls into STEM careers and support women already working in STEM. Founded in 2009 by Suw Charman-Anderson, it is now held every year on the second Tuesday of October. This year the day was celebrated on 11th October.

To celebrate the day, BdOSN organized an online programming contest for the girls. The contest was held in the online judging platform Codemarshal. The contest was participated by 256 participants. Although the contest was intended only for the girls but few boys also participated in the contest. Out of 256 participants 167 solved atleast 1 problem where as top 13 girls solved all six problems. The problem sets used in the contest were developed in the mentors camp held recently. 

 
As part of the #missingdaughter activities, BdOSN organized this event.
 
 
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Mentors Are Ready for the Missingdaughter’s Local Programming Camps

14 selected mentors (both male & female) from different parts of the country had just enjoyed a 3 day residential camp in Dhaka held from 8-10 October 2016 organized by Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdSON).

The young participants attended different sessions in this duration covering some core sessions on programming, basic sessions on how to conduct the programming lesson, motivational sessions run by different renowned personnel and some other relevant workshops.

Keeping the Missingdaughter’s officially starting from very soon across the country, Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdSON) has arranged this residential camp to boost the future mentors and encourage them to lead the local girls programming camps in their own localities. To mention, Missingdaughter is an initiative of BdSON that aims to increase girl’s participations and involvement in the field of Science and Technology and different similar activities arranged nationally and internationally.

Therefore, the aim of this residential camp is to create a strong mentor group who will in turn conduct the workshop among the target groups in the Missingdaughter program. The mentors will be acting as ambassadors who will conduct the programming camps and inspire the deserving girls to join the ICT sectors and take part in various events and competitions.

Under the Missingdaughter program, 2 types of the camps will be organized.

1. Grace Hopper Girls Camp for Programming Contest

2. Ada Lovelace Programming Camps for the girls

However, the mentoring sessions under the Misingdaugter will be recorded that will be used later as a referral sample of programming lesson. The video will also be shared and circulated in different platforms

The camp was successfully conducted by Dr Nova Ahmed, associate professor of NSU; Mr Tahmid Rafi, CEO of Dimic Computing School Mr Tarif Ezaz , Mr All Rabbi and Mr Mosaref Hossain, Naveed Mahbub, engineer and comedian; and Dr. Muhit Kamal, associate professor, department of psychiatry (Mental Health) NIMHANS.

The mentors were awarded with certificates on 10th morning. The renowned author, physicist and professor Dr. Muhammed Zafar Iqbal and computer scientist, educator, author, and columnist Dr.M. Kaykobad were present in the closing days and motivated the participants.

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Girls Programming Camp Held in Three Districts

'Girls are doing great in all public examinations in the country, but unfortunately they are not visible much in the working space, especially in the field of ICT. However, attempt like organizing girls programming camp in different parts of the country will change the situation in coming days." These are the hopes we noticed recently held "Grace Hopper Girls camp for Programming Contest" held in three district of the country. The Dhaka camp was held from 28-30th August while Dinajpur and Mohespur camps were held 6-8 and 7-9 September respectfully. A total of 89 girls from high school and early years of university joined camp to improve their programming skill. Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN) in association with University of Asia pacific, Dinajpur IT Solutionsa nd Mohespur Junior Coders organized the camps.

One of the news paper wrote, "Nafiza Islam kalpo is a six grade student of Netrokona Govt. high school. In some ways she is far advanced than other girls of her age. When her fellow students use computer just for surfing websites in online, she thought of how to create those websites. She started learning programming from her mother and now she knows C and C++ programme within one year.
Mahfuza Homaira, Student of CSE in BRAC University is learning programming since 2014. She has created a mobile app by using her experience.
They are two participants of 30 girls who attended in girls’ programming camp held recently at University of Asia Pacific. All the participants are studying in different institution from Schools to University.
Bristy Shikder, Student of Massachusetts Institute of Technology leaded this training camp as trainer. She taught the participants about basic rules of programming and problem solving. Trainers gave them problems for solving. If they faced problem, trainer helped them solve it.

Rifat Ara Proma, CSE student from MIST says about this camp, “We are living in the era of ICT. Everyone prefers working by using internet. So, there is no alternative to programming. Programming is essential for male-female. I like programming. I have attended this camp to learn more programming.”
Two trainers trained this camp. They are Bristy Shikder from MIT and Rezwan Mahmud Tonmoy from Dhaka University. Tonmoy says, “We have taught them about Dynamic programming, Graph, Data Structure, mathematics and Geometry.”
Bangladesh progressed considerably in creating skilled programmers but there are hardly any female programmers. Bristy Shikder says, “Success in any field is not comprehensive without active participation of whole section of people. Many girls are interested in learning programming. This camp offered a helping hand to some of them to excel in this sector.” (http://www.daily-sun.com/printversion/details/164561/Girls%E2%80%99-programming-camp-held).

The camp will continue to be held and a total of 15 camps would be organized in coming days, informed bdOSN

BdOSN Workshop on Big Data held
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BdOSN Workshop on Big Data held

A half day workshop on the "Unlock the Potential of Big Data" held on 24th June, 2016 at the University of Asia Pacific Dhaka.  The workshop  discussed the Big Data market, the skill requirement to be in Big Data marketplace, where can one learn more about it, what are the use cases, and how to go about it. Around 50 participants participated in this workshop. Mr Mahdee Uz Zaman of virtu stream inc, conducted the session while Mr Munir Hasan of BdOSN welcome the participants and Asso. Prof Khan Md Anwarus Salam of UAP express the vote of thanks at the end of the workshop.

Mr Mahdee Uz Zaman explain in details the various aspects of Big data and gave emphasis that to be a big data expert it is very important to be extremely Open Minded with the innovation mindset.  He also discussed some tools and technology as well as few reference architectures. At the end of the workshop a discussion on how to build innovative solution using Big Data has also been held.

This workshop started the series activities on Big data planned by BdOSN and other organizations. There will be more workshop and seminar after the Eid.

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Hasin Hyder shared his journey towards excellence

Hasin Hyder, the re-known programmer, software architech, photographer and the entreprenuer, shared his journey towards excellnce with the hundreds of young people. He ask the new generaion to stick to one's idea till it succeded and suggested them to enjoy the life, in full aspect. He was talking in the the BdOSN Talk-4 organazised by Bangladesh Open Source Network and held in Bisso Sahitya Kendra on 7th May afternoon. The three hours session was mesmarized by Hasin's wonderful, witty and fluent presentation.

Hasin remebered differently able her mother's contribution towards his journey. Despite his study in Civil Engineering, he took the path of Programming of his own and excel with the persevarance and hard work. He said that he took this path as he loves programming and urges the young to take the path he/she loves. Hasin also answered different questions from the audiances.

The talk was sponsored by Hello academy, Adarsa Prokason and ET calling while Zero Degree Communication help the with the event management.

 

  

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Girls in ICT : Winners of online contest

The following 15 girls became the winner of the online programming contest held on 21st April. A total of 210 participant tried to solve 5 problems in 3 hours of time. Congratulation to the winner and thwy will be awarded with their Prize on 30th April at the closing ceremony of the Girls in ICT Programme in Bangladesh.

 

Pos Name  Institution
1 Sharmin Mahzabin University of Dhaka
2 Arifa Khatun Islamic University
3 Shahreen Salim University Of Dhaka
4 Tahanima Chowdhury BRAC University
5 Faria Tasnim Daffodil International University
6 Puja Chakraborty University of Chittagong
7 Nabila Ahmed North South University
8 Sumaia Akter CUET
9 Sabrina Zaman Ishita University of Dhaka
10 Fatima Tasnim East West University
11 Maknun East West University
12 Sultana NSTU
13 Ummay Sani Pria BRAC University
14 Arshiana Shamir University of Chittagong
15 Fariha Moomtaheen University of Dhaka
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Girls in ICT Day : Celebration begins

The 10 days long 'Girls in ICT " activities in Bangladesh stsrted with open house day and online programming contest. On 21st April girls visited Bording Vista, a offshore software house in Uttara Dhaka and on 23rd April some other girls visited UY System at Mohakhali. In both the locatins, the participants learn the various scope in the respective companies and they have been answered with their questions. Md.Shariful Islam, Team Leader, Retail and Toll Group and  Mr Palle Bo Hansen facilitated the visit while Ms Farhana A Rahman , Dr Sultana and Ms Eti helped the participants to fullfiled their queries. Ms Kaniz Fatem, Mr All Rabbi and Mr Mosarof hossain coordinate on behalf of the organizars. In this week more participants will visit Digicon Technologies, Grameen Phone, Samsung RDI, Bosundhara P1, Graphic people, D-net, Microsoft Bangladesh Ltd, Brac IT Services and windmill infotech limited.

On 21st April more than 200 girls participated in an online programing contest. They were challnges with five problems to solve within three hours. The top 10 perfermers will be awarded prize at the closing ceremony of girls in ict programme. 

Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN) and Bangladesh Women in IT (BWIT) are jointly organized different progammes in different cities of the country to celebrate the ITU's International Girls in ICT Day.

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Celebrating International Girls in ICT Day

 

Bangladesh Open Source network (BdOSN) and Bangladesh Women in IT (BWIT) will celebrate the international Girls in ICT day with a handful programme. ITU is celebrating the 4th Thursday of April as "International Girls in ICT Day". This year the day will be observed on 28th of April. However, because of the resource constrain and to reach more girls, BdOSN and BWIT will organize programme from 20th April to 30th April 2016.

The programme included –

  • Workshops on web and mobile technology for the girls
  • Technology Career fair for the girls and young women (30th April, 2016 at University of Asia pacific Premises)
  • Opportunity and Challenges in ICT for the girls and women awareness programme in different education institute including high schools and universities
  • . ICT Open house day in different ICT Companies included Microsoft Bangladesh, Grameen Phone, UYSYS, Dnet, Samsung R&D Centre, Bank etc.
  • A get-to-gather with icon ladies with the students, etc. (At UAP premises on 30th April)

The awareness seminar and hands on activities will be held in Dhaka, Chittagong, Mymensingh, Sylhet, Rajshahi and Khulna district.

Any girl, female university student or young women can join any particular programme by registering herself in the appropriate form.

The details of the different programme and method of registration is available at event website http://girlsinict.bdosn.org/

The corresponsing facebook event is also be contacted for further information. 

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Workshop on Basic Cryptography Tools

Bangladesh Open Source Network (BdOSN) organize a workshop on Basic Crypography Tools. The hands on activity titled "CryptoParty: Learn and Teach Basic Cryptography Tools." will be held on 4th April, Monday at 5.00 pm. The venue of the workshop is the computer lab of Institute of Information Technology, Dhaka University. 

A CryptoParty is free, public and fun event. It is an open format where everyone is welcome independent of their age, gender or knowledge. People bring their computers, mobile devices, and a willingness to learn! CryptoParty is a decentralized, global initiative to introduce the most basic cryptography software and the fundamental concepts of their operation to the general public, such as the Tor anonymity network, public key encryption (PGP/GPG), and OTR (Off The Record messaging).

George Kargiotakis, Systems and Service Engineer of GRNET, Greece will conduct the party while Dr B M Mainul Islam of IIT, DU will coordinate the event.  Participation in this event is by invitation only.

   

 

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Programming 2016 : Workshop for NHSPC

A day long workshop to help the kids programmer for the preparion of NHSPC Chittagong region held in Chittagong University Campus on 11th March, 2016. 60 enthusiastic students participated in the workshop and learn different problem solving technique and the basics of programming contest. The workshops also covered the different aspects of programming.