Silicon Valley NEDians Sponsoring Free Software Bootcamp in Pakistan

[Riaz Haq]

Pakistan has seen several boot camps started in recent years to respond to growing demand for practical tech training in the country. Two of my fellow NED University alumni in Silicon Valley - Saeed Kazmi and Idris Kothari - are "helping an initiative in Pakistan with a company xLoop Digital (www.xloopdigital.com), to provide advanced software Bootcamp training to fresh grads in computer science and engineering".  Idris and Saeed are senior NEDians who graduated from our alma mater in early 1970s.  I have personally known them since the early1980s when I first arrived in the San Francisco Bay Area. Both have solid track records as successful tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley.  Here are excerpts of their email sent to me on the subject: 

"The training center is located in Karachi . The first batch started in November 22.  Currently, we have about 50 developers under training in two tracks -1. Cloud Native Software Development, 2. Data Sciences/Engineering. The Bootcamp training is provided by www.emeritus.org , a U.S. based company. This is a 16-week program that includes 12 weeks of technical training provided by live on-line, U.S. based instructors, and 4 weeks of soft-skills training. ..... Most of these bootcamps are free of cost however few charge a nominal fee of PKR 10,000 + for every month. In U.S. such Bootcamp costs around $15,000, however we are offering it for free. The only requirement is passing our entry test. We also provide pickup – drop transportation to students...... .The first batch graduated recently, and we are looking to outsource the talent in the U.S. These developers are ready to be interviewed by interested clients". 

Skills Taught at Typical Coding Bootcamp. Source: DICE

Those accepted for the Xloopdigital bootcamp are given a stipend of Rs. 10,000 a month and offered other benefits such as free transport and outpatient medical reimbursements during training.  Upon successful completion of the bootcamp, Xloop offers a 2-year guaranteed employment to all trainees with highly competitive salary and benefits. 

What is coding boot camp?  It is a technical training program designed to teach the programming skills that employers are currently looking for. Technology is constantly changing. It is important for those looking for work in the tech industry to continue to learn and update their skills. Coding boot camps offer short, intensive training courses to help employees and job candidates to meet the needs of employers. They fill the gaps in skillsets of new college graduates to enhance their employability. 

Not all boot camps are alike. It is important to do due diligence before signing up for a boot camp. Some of the questions that come to mind when choosing a boot camp are: 1. How long is the program and how much does it cost? 2. What is its job placement record? 3. Is there a verifiable estimate of the average earnings of its graduates? 4. What is unique about the boot camp you are considering signing up for? How does it compare with other tech bootcamps? 

Let me conclude by quoting Nate Swanner's sound advice on selecting bootcamps: "Remember, there’s no timeline for starting your journey, and nothing saying you must attend a bootcamp to learn tech. What matters is your drive and enthusiasm: two things you just can’t learn in a bootcamp". 

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Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel

PakAlumni: Pakistani Social Network

[Riaz Haq]

Pakistan earned US$ 1,523.280 million by providing different Information Technology (IT) services to various countries during the first seven months of the current fiscal year 2022-23.

https://www.nation.com.pk/21-Mar-2023/pakistan-earns-dollar-1-523-m...

This shows a growth of 2.38 percent as compared to US$ 1,487.865 million earned through the provision of services during the corresponding months of the fiscal year 2021-22, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported.

During July-January (2022-23), the export of computer services grew by 2.87 percent as it surged from US$ 1,191.575 million last fiscal year to US$ 1,225.730 million this year.

Among the computer services, the exports of software consultancy services witnessed an increase of 5.57 percent, from US$ 430.309 million to US$ 454.283 million while the exports of hardware consultancy services also rose by 158.07 percent from US$ 1.357 million to US$ 3.502 million.

The export and import of computer software-related services surged by 11.89 percent, from US$ 312.484 million to US$ 349.635 million whereas the exports of repair and maintenance services increased to US$ 1.594 million from US$ 0.770 million.

[Riaz Haq]

The Algorithm PK has partnered with The Tech Academy, USA, to bring their affordable and high-quality coding bootcamps to Pakistan, providing a unique opportunity for individuals to learn the skills they need to succeed in the tech industry, stated a press release.

https://www.brecorder.com/news/40232645/the-algorithm-pk-the-tech-a...

The global job market is rapidly evolving, and the tech industry is at the forefront of this transformation. With an increasing demand for tech talent, the need for skilled developers has never been more pressing.

The Algorithm PK is an innovative Educational Technology organization that trains Pakistan’s youth and workforce in world-class technology education and essential soft skills, helping them become competent, well-rounded individuals who can achieve their career goals and become an invaluable asset to any team.

The Tech Academy, USA has a proven track record of success, having trained thousands of developers across the globe. Job placement rates over 80% and graduates of their programs have landed jobs at top companies around the world such as Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Deloitte, Nintendo, Disney and many more with average starting salaries between USD $50,000 to $60,000 per annum.

These bootcamps are designed for the beginner and provide students with a comprehensive technology education that covers everything from coding languages and frameworks to project management and job placement training to help graduates find employment after completing their program.

The Algorithm PK takes it a step further by delivering an Essential Soft Skills Line-up that covers communication, workplace ethics and values, and study skills line-up along with the coding bootcamp to ensure Pakistani youth and workforce are ready to compete in the global tech market.

By providing affordable and high-quality coding bootcamps, individuals who previously may not have had the opportunity to learn these skills can now do so. With a curriculum that covers the most in-demand coding languages and skills, individuals can develop the skills they need to secure high-paying jobs in the tech industry.

The Algorithm PK CEO, Dr Humaira, brings a unique perspective to the tech industry with her background as a medical doctor and expertise in education, teacher training, and faculty training.

Asfandiyar Khan, the Director of Operations and Strategic Partnerships, brings seven years of experience in the game and tech industry.

[Riaz Haq]

There's a fake news report going around claiming that Pakistanis performed very poorly (rank 1,336) in a Google Coding Competition compared with Indians (6th) and Bangladeshis (29th).

This is not supported by anything from Google.

The only report that comes even remotely close is "2022 Solution Challenge winners"

https://developers.google.com/community/gdsc-solution-challenge/win...

It shows that there is one Indian team (GetWage) in top 10.

It also shows two Pakistani teams (dyslexic and Saathi) and 13 Indian teams (Cosapa, Anxily, Pulse, Scrizzel, GetWage, Proctify, DeCarbonUs, Smart Agriot, Feed The Need, ConnectNHelp, vAldya, WildEye) in top 50.

There are no Bangladeshi teams listed among top 3, top 10 or top 50 winners.

[Riaz Haq]

There's a fake news report going around claiming that Pakistanis performed very poorly (rank 1,336) in a Google Coding Competition compared with Indians (6th) and Bangladeshis (29th).

This is not supported by anything from Google.

https://cphof.org/contest/gcj


In Google Code Jam 2022, there were no winners from South Asia among top 25.

In Google Code Jam 2021, there were no winners from South Asia among top 25.

In Google Code Jam 2020, there were no winners from South Asia among top 25.

In Google Code Jam 2019, there were no winners from South Asia among top 25.

In Google Code Jam 2019, there were no winners from South Asia among top 25.

In Google Code Jam 2019, there were no winners from South Asia among top 25.

In Google Code Jam 2018, there were no winners from South Asia among top 25.

[Riaz Haq]

Here's more from CodeForces.com

https://codeforces.com/ratings/countries

Country Ratings:

Rank Country Member Count Rating

1 China China 4556 (21275) 3463 (3510)
2 United States United States 569 (2716) 3274 (3317)
3 Japan Japan 415 (2478) 3215 (3269)

20 Indonesia Indonesia 226 (1233) 2522 (2608)
21 Romania Romania 237 (1361) 2521 (2622)
22 India India 15342 (54396) 2512 (2647)
22 Serbia Serbia 82 (394) 2512 (2657)

30 Brazil Brazil 339 (1823) 2385 (2527)
31 Argentina Argentina 81 (322) 2366 (2507)
32 Georgia Georgia 137 (625) 2337 (2402)
33 North Korea North Korea 18 (117) 2335 (2624)
34 Bangladesh Bangladesh 4807 (12386) 2328 (2387)

78 Slovenia Slovenia 10 (65) 1761 (2194)
79 Vatican Vatican 9 (28) 1749 (2126)
80 Pakistan Pakistan 116 (236) 1737 (1838)
81 Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia 73 (211) 1729 (2020)
82 Iceland Iceland 13 (43) 1709 (2103)
83 Turkmenistan Turkmenistan 38 (166) 1700 (2126)
84 Belgium Belgium 15 (101) 1644 (2227)

[Riaz Haq]

Ericsson launches Pakistan Graduate Program

https://www.lightreading.com/digital-divide/ericsson-launches-pakis...

STOCKHOLM – Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) has announced the launch of its graduate program in Pakistan to offer young talents world-class learning and career development opportunities. The Ericsson Pakistan Graduate Program is focused on nurturing Pakistan's technology leaders of tomorrow.

With experts from Ericsson training and supporting young Pakistani talent, the Ericsson Pakistan Graduate Program provides on-the-job, project-based, classroom training, and online learning in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and advanced technologies within the advanced connectivity era and as a contribution to the Digital Pakistan Policy.

The graduates are gaining valuable work experience, skills and knowledge that enable graduates to gain professional project-based knowledge, in a fast-changing ICT sector.

The young, curious, and innovative graduates are working alongside world-class industry expertise at Ericsson and are supporting the development of projects that are changing the world of communication in Pakistan and the region.

Read the full press release here.

Ericsson

-----------

Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) has announced the launch of its graduate program in Pakistan to offer young talents world-class learning and career development opportunities. The Ericsson Pakistan Graduate Program is focused on nurturing Pakistan’s technology leaders of tomorrow.

With experts from Ericsson training and supporting young Pakistani talent, the Ericsson Pakistan Graduate Program provides on-the-job, project-based, classroom training, and online learning in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and advanced technologies within the advanced connectivity era and as a contribution to the Digital Pakistan Policy.

The graduates are gaining valuable work experience, skills and knowledge that enable graduates to gain professional project-based knowledge, in a fast-changing ICT sector.

Aamir Ahsan Khan, President and Country Manager of Ericsson Pakistan says: “Ericsson has been in Pakistan for 60 years and giving back to society is one of our strong pillars. The Ericsson Pakistan Graduate Program enhances the skills and knowledge of the young and bright graduates while empowering them as technology experts. The youth are the catalysts to the realization of the Digital Pakistan Policy and will lead Pakistan’s digital future in different areas like FinTech, Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, and more. The graduates have great potential, and we are looking forward to their success.”

The young, curious, and innovative graduates are working alongside world-class industry expertise at Ericsson and are supporting the development of projects that are changing the world of communication in Pakistan and the region.

Graduates interested in the program can visit https://www.ericsson.com/en/careers/student-young-professionals to know more about future opportunities that Ericsson offers young professionals.

[Riaz Haq]

Zong and Huawei have joined hands with Akhuwat – an interest-free microfinance organization with poverty alleviating interventions in microfinance, education, and more – to help promote digital education in Pakistan and introduce the less privileged students to the modern ways of learning.

https://propakistani.pk/2022/05/10/zong-partners-with-huawei-akhuwa...

Under the partnership, Zong in collaboration with Huawei will be donating 200 tablets to Akhuwat. Akhuwat provides education services to make digital education for the less privileged students accessible across Pakistan, including the far-flung areas of Sindh.

Through high-tech studio facilities, interactive content, highly qualified teachers, a team of academic and IT professionals, and the tablets donated, Akhuwat will be leading the mission of digitally imparting quality learning.

“As an organization that places a huge emphasis on the well-being of the underprivileged strata of the society, Zong 4G has always stepped forward to integrate them in the modern and digital society of today,” Zong 4G’s spokesperson said.

“With digitization being on top of our agenda, we’re pleased to have partnered with Akhuwat Foundation and are glad to have a chance to help Pakistan’s underprivileged youth get introduced to advanced ways of learning,” she added.

Deputy CEO Huawei Pakistan, Wuhan reiterated the sentiment, stating, “At the heart of the Huawei ethos is our belief in openness and knowledge-sharing. We are committed to supporting the development of an ICT talent ecosystem in Pakistan and very happy to aid Akhuwat Foundation, in collaboration with Zong 4G, in this endeavor.”

Huawei’s aim is to openly collaborate with the public and private sectors to create an ICT ecosystem that drives forward digital transformation. Zong believes that Akhuwat Foundation has all the means to establish and deliver a nationwide e-learning platform that will be free to access.

NJV Government School in Karachi is going to be the transmission center of this e-learning project. Classes will be conducted by highly qualified teachers and will be streamed live to students all over the country. Students who can’t afford such advanced learning will benefit greatly from this initiative.

The partnership initially targets 200 students belonging to the remote areas of Sindh, hosting online classes for grades VI to XII. Training on the usage of these devices and connecting with Akhuwat’s LMS (Learning Management System) will be provided to students/parents by Akhuwat.

Zong is leading the country’s ICT-powered digital transformation and is geared to digitize the educational landscape of Pakistan, especially in the wake of Covid-19 which brought the wide digital divide to light in Pakistan.

Zong’s support for Akhuwat Foundation in its mission of ending social inequality is just one instance of Zong’s commitment to Pakistan. Akhuwat believes that a hybrid style of quality education is the need of today in nurturing the students coming from less privileged backgrounds.

Exposing them to the technological tools of today’s learning environment gives these students a fighting chance to stand at par with everyone else and nurture them to be future leaders in their respective fields. The Huawei tablets will greatly facilitate NJV School’s objective to impart hybrid style Free of Cost Quality education to the students coming from rural areas of Sindh.

These tablets will greatly improve the students’ technological skills and enable them to access apps that promote learning along with research and the accessing of LMS, and, above all, prepare them for more technological advancements years down the road.

[Riaz Haq]

What is chat GPT used for?

As a large language model, ChatGPT is all about text. And that text includes—lucky for you! —code. It has the ability to write code snippets in popular programming languages such as JavaScript, Python, C#, PHP and Java. Or generate sample CSV input for a data science problem. Or create bash scripts or infrastructure-as-code templates in JSON or YAML. And a lot more.

https://www.pluralsight.com/blog/software-development/how-use-chatg....

[Riaz Haq]

What is prompt engineering and why every ChatGPT user should know about it

https://www.businesstoday.in/technology/news/story/what-is-prompt-e...

ChatGPT is a powerful generative AI model that can produce natural language texts on almost any topic, given a few words or sentences as input



What is a prompt?

A prompt is a text or code that you provide to ChatGPT as input, along with some optional parameters, such as temperature, top-p, frequency penalty, etc. A prompt can be as simple as a question or a sentence starter, or as complex as a template or a pattern. The quality of your prompt determines the quality of ChatGPT’s output.


What is prompt engineering?

Prompt engineering is the skill of designing and creating effective prompts that guide ChatGPT to produce the best possible output for your task. Prompt engineering involves understanding how ChatGPT works, what data it was trained on, what limitations it has, and how to leverage its strengths. Prompt engineering also requires creativity, experimentation, and evaluation.

Why is prompt engineering important?

Why should you care about prompt engineering? Because it can make a huge difference in your experience with ChatGPT and other AI models. With prompt engineering, you can:

Achieve better results: Prompt engineering can help you get more accurate, relevant, coherent, and diverse outputs from ChatGPT. For example, if you want ChatGPT to write an article about the benefits of adopting rescue pets, you can provide a detailed prompt that specifies the word limit, the tone, the focus points, and the structure of the article.

Save time and money: Prompt engineering can help you reduce the number of trials and errors you need to do to get a satisfactory output from ChatGPT. This can save you time and money, especially if you are using a paid service or API. For example, if you want ChatGPT to generate a table of 10 suggestions to improve a text, you can use a sequence prompt that provides ChatGPT with options and examples.


Explore new possibilities: Prompt engineering can help you discover new ways to use ChatGPT for various tasks and domains. You can use prompt engineering to create your own applications, such as question-answering systems, conversational AI agents, sentiment analysis tools, and more. You can also use prompt engineering to learn from ChatGPT itself by asking it for tips and tricks.

How can you learn prompt engineering?

There are many resources available online that can help you master this skill. You can start by reading some guides and tutorials on prompt engineering for ChatGPT or taking some courses and certifications on this topic. You can also learn by trying out different prompts on ChatGPT playgrounds or APIs, comparing the outputs, and tweaking the parameters until you get what you want.

[Riaz Haq]

Is becoming a ‘prompt engineer’ the way to save your job from AI?
With the rise of generative AI tools, a new role is suddenly in demand


https://www.ft.com/content/0deda1e7-4fbf-46bc-8eee-c2049d783259


When the World Economic Forum predicted a few years ago that artificial intelligence would cause seven million job losses, the great and the good of Davos were able to wring their hands about the human cost of progress while feeling certain that they would be left unscathed. Automation might, they believed, take out office drones and administrative roles but not management gurus or software engineers.

That comfy confidence has been shaken in recent months by a new wave of “generative AI” tools. Apps that can create pictures, video or prose good enough to pass as authentically human. At the moment one in particular has captivated Silicon Valley. Hailed as the smartest chatbot ever made, ChatGPT can generate high-school essays, software code or marketing strategies within seconds, all from a few words of a “prompt”. Social media timelines have been filling up with people trying out the technology. “This used to be my job,” tweeted one former Meta manager, after ChatGPT had churned out a plausible take on Instagram’s product road map.

ChatGPT’s results are not always reliable or accurate. Nonetheless, all of a sudden, AI has the creative classes and middle-management squarely in its sights. But fear not, Davos-goers. The WEF predicted that AI would not only kill jobs but create them. And one such role that has emerged with the rise of generative AI is the “prompt engineer”. 

This job description sees writing the prompts necessary to get the best responses from AIs as a skill all of its own. Wrangling ChatGPT requires a deeper understanding of how AI works — hence “engineer” — as well as domain expertise, be that coding, marketing or homework. An online marketplace called Promptbase has already sprung up, where prompt engineers can sell their carefully crafted instructions for image-generation tools such as Midjourney. For a couple of bucks, you can buy pre-written templates for “cute robotic animal pictures” and “3D game renders”. 

AI entrepreneur Colin Treseler, co-founder of Supernormal, is one of those looking to hire. “You have to find ways to talk to the model to get the correct output,” he says. The problem is there aren’t many people doing this job yet: I found only a handful on LinkedIn.


On first mention, prompt engineering sounds like a comforting bedtime story for knowledge workers, in which preparing for the future involves little more than messing about with ChatGPT and posting the results on Twitter. Lots of the tech elite have spent the last couple of weeks doing little else anyway. But Basil Safwat, design lead at AI start-up Adept, thinks I am being a bit too cynical. “There is genuinely a need for people who are slightly ahead in their understanding of this new material,” he says, which he says is still in its “raw state” today.

Indeed, the very notion of a prompt engineer reveals the biggest shortcoming of these new AIs: they aren’t quite smart enough yet for just anyone to be able to use them successfully. And things are moving fast. Safwat believes that soon the interfaces we use to access and manipulate these AIs will improve, in the process making prompt engineers redundant. Likening it to the evolution of the computer operating system from a text-driven command line to windows and touchscreens, he says: “I don’t think this stage will last for long.” 

Perhaps what prompt engineers really represent is a whole new class of employment disruption: jobs both created and then destroyed by AI.