Ane one day workshop on Free and Open Source Software has been conducted at PSR Engineering College, Sevalpatti, Sivakasi,Tamilnadu. I was invited to give an introduction to Python in the workshop. Mr. Chidambaresan an alumni of the PSR Engineering college picked me for the workshop. I reached Sattur by morning 4.30 and Chidambaresan picked me to a lodge for refreshments. By 7.30 A.M Chidambaresan and his friend arrived at lodge and we started to the college. On the way we picked Suthan HOD, MCA, Sivanthi Engineering College from Kovilpatti. After taking breakfast from Kovilpatti we headed towards the college. During the journy we discussed about FOSS and Engineering Syllabus, FOSS, ILUGC, and ILUGCBE and bit of politics too ;-) . We reached the college by 09.30 AM and we met the HOD, faculty members and Principal of the College. We had a nice discussion about students and their learning mentality, the necessity of motivating students to learn FOSS and contribute to FOSS. The college is located in a very nice and ambient village called Sevalpatti. Most of the students are from nearby villages or towns.

We started the workshop by 10.10 A.M. There was a small meeting which introduced Suthan and me to the students. after the introduction Suthan started his session on Introduction FOSS and FOSS Philosophy. He started the talk with nice examples and explained the concept of FOSS and its history. Even he explained it Tamil too, to reach the message up to the heart of the students. After the talk he gave a demo on how to install Ubuntu. The students came up with lots of doubts about on FOSS. After lunch we started the second session on Python programming. Jaganadh G (me) gave an interactive lecture on the basics of Python programming. The students were surprised to learn such a simple and powerful language. Then Chidambaresan gave a small and insperative talk on the necessity od students to learn and contribute to FOSS. After the Python session there was a valedictory function too. HOD and faculty members of the IT department was present in the function. HOD of IT department distributed certificates and Ubuntu CD to the participants. Some of the students came forward to give feedback on the workshop. This is the first time FOSS is being introduced in the college. Chidambaresan took the pain to make it happen in the college. We hope that some of the students will following the message of FOSSS.

The workshop ended by 4.00 PM and we returned to Sattur by car, hoping that FOSS will be flourishing at Sivkasi region.

Some snaps from the workshop

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