Some comments on “Research and Co-curricular Activities of Computer Science Students"

Some comments on “Research and Co-curricular Activities of Computer Students and Its Importance to Nation Building – By Kaykobad Sir”

Shameem Ahmed, Instructor and Research Assistant,
Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA
www.shameemahmed.com ashameem38@yahoo.com, ashameem38@gmail.com


 First of all, I want to thank Kaykobad sir (one of the best teachers I have ever had) to bring out some very good points in his recent article. With a very simple way, he has described many important issues related to research and co-curricular activities. However, while I was reading the article, some questions/comments/concerns jumped out to me. This writing is nothing but sharing those with all of you.




Some comments:
[Kaykobad Sir] I still remember the interest with which first batches of students at BUET started learning computer programming and other aspects of the technology at their own initiative overlooking whatever deficiency we had in the faculty. In spite of the fact that we were ill-staffed, students were far-sighted enough to select CSE departments for their career building at a time when other departments were much better staffed with richer heritage and resources.

[My comments] Although sir mentioned here the first batches, I think he meant the same thing for all of the CSE, BUET students. In that case, I should say most of the CSE, BUET students (surely including me) chose CSE as a “hujug”. After completing the HSC exam, the students normally don’t have enough far-sight to think about their bright future. What they see around them, what they are advised from their guardians, what they are suggested by their senior students, they just blindly follow those. I think the current trend to choose the EEE department by the top students is nothing but the similar “hujug”.

[Kaykobad Sir] I must say that this praiseworthy effort of computer science academic community is unprecedented for any discipline in Bangladesh. We are doing it very loyally for the welfare of the country in spite of the fact that computer science education has remained largely ignored. It has remained unlucky in terms of investment for development of laboratory and other infrastructural facilities and above all faculty development although we have not fallen short of chalking out plans to earn $2 billion dollar by software export. How can one avoid investment on education where the whole industry is knowledge driven, and we are yet to earn goodwill and respect from other countries for our education, science and technology? To earn such a handsome figure presupposes at least 10% investment on education.

[My Comments] I agree with sir. However, I want to add more. Besides investing handsome figure in education, it is also needed to have opportunity for the students to apply their acquired skill. It requires having more quality software industries and I believe that we, the NRBs can contribute a lot in this regard. At least, some NRBs should think from the entrepreneurial perspective. Then “brain drain” will go to the reverse order which is probably called “Brain gain” (I heard this term couple of days ago). The skilled students would get a chance to utilize their proficiency; the young generation would have opportunity to be expert by doing work with the skilled ones. This achievement will gradually drive our country to the right path of economic development. India is also doing the same thing.

[Kaykobad Sir] Our students have beaten about sixty Indian teams in their own soil in computer programming contest, where Indians are earning billions of dollar through software export and other nations are already considering India as a super power in computing. This has happened at a time when in Bangladesh we are also dreaming of earning a sizeable amount of dollar through software export although possibly not yet quite well planned.

[My Comments] I am wondering whether sir wanted to make a proportional relation between “doing good in programming contest” and “earning money through software export”. I have respect for all the good programmers. We are really proud of Suman Da, Saikat bhai, Susam bhai, Mustaq bhai, Pappana bhai, Ferdous bhai, Shahriar Monzur bhai, Farah apu, Abdullah bhai, Ragib, PPM, Sazzad, Kamruzzaman, Asif, Saifur, Mehdi, Nasa, Manzurur, Abdullah, etc. They are our assets. As I also participated in several programming contests, I personally know many of our “Boss” programmers very well. I know that they are simply splendid. However the number of good programmers is not significant yet. What the statistics says? Always few programmers are doing very well in the competitions. The performance of the others is not as good as the “Bosses” or they don’t get any interest to participate in the contest at all. Programming contest is really very good way to motivate students to be good programmers. But we should realize that everybody won’t be a good programmer. To improve us, we have to have more software industry and more skilled software developer. And I believe that it is not very hard to make an interested student to a good software developer.


What should we do?

Besides all of these, I want to add some points that, I think, might be important:

1. We should practice professionalism. Currently, many programming jobs, software development jobs, and service related jobs have been shifting from USA to India. Certainly the main reason is that they have many cheap yet skilled workers. But after talking to several guys closely related to the outsourcing business in USA, I found some other reasons and one of them is that Indians are very much professional.
2. We should have very good communication skill. Even a mediocre Indian student is very good at communication.
3. If a Indian/Chinese guy enters into a school/software company/industry/ anywhere else, within short period of time, the number of Indians/Chinese will increase exponentially. But alas, for our case, sometimes the multiplication factor becomes <1. However, I am very happy that this trend is changing. I personally know that Iqbal Bhai, Monzur Morshed bhai, Zulkarnain bhai are promoting the Bangladeshi students from their position. I personally got help from many senior brothers. My friends Ragib and PPM are also really trying very hard. This is truly a very positive sign.
4. All of us should contribute (more or less, what we can do) from our position whether we are students or faculty members or service holders or entrepreneurs. Our combined contribution would be really huge for our beloved country.
5. We all know that government can play a very important role. However, it is not wise to wait for a good ruler. May be, we won’t be fortunate enough to see such a ruler in our life. Then what we should do? We should raise our voice wherever and whenever needed. This is really a shame that we consider ourselves the creams of the creams but we can’t raise our own voice when required (I still remember the “Auto” event of BUET; only 4/5 students locked the BUET gate and we, several hundreds of students, were waiting outside the BUET gate). Also since we can’t wait for a good ruler, we ourselves will have to make our own way and I believe that there are lots of ways to do that.

BTW, I have concerns regarding trained teachers what Kaykobad sir mentioned several times in his article. I am wondering what might be the best way to train the teachers.

I would like to request you all to share your views. I firmly believe that such constructive discussion is urgently needed for the betterment of Bangladesh.

Finally I just want to repeat Kaykobad sir’s excerpt:
“ For a country like ours with a very high population density and not much resources other than human resources any sign of hope in the improvement of our lot will necessarily come through development of human resources. What else other than Information Technology can play a decisive role in this regard?”