Tribhuvan University (TU) is a public university located in Kirtipur, Kathmandu, Nepal. Established in 1959, TU is the oldest of the twelve universities in Nepal. A huge number of students, approximately 290,833 from all over Nepal and abroad, makes it the biggest university in Nepal and 19th biggest in the world. Read More

Tribhuvan University Website :
http://www.tribhuvan-university.edu.np

Meeting The Faculty

(Divon Lan, Product Manager, Next Wave Emerging Countries with TU faculty)

We met TU Engineering and Computer science (IOST) faculty.

1. Overall engineering activity at TU Info:
http://www.tribhuvan-university.edu.np/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=175&Itemid=258

TU engineering Website: http://www.ioe.edu.np/ 

2. Institute of Science and Technology (IOST):
http://www.tribhuvan-university.edu.np/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=174&Itemid=259

TU Engineering and Institute of Science and Technology (IOST) faculties are very positive about Google’s visit to Nepal. We talked about possibilities of Internships at Google, Google - University relationships.

Resources for University – Google In Education

http://google.com/edu – Course materials, resources for University.
University all over the world use these resource as reference materials in classes.

http://youtube.com/edu – Videos lectures for varieties of interest.
For Universities with particular research interest, youtube edu video platform can be a place for global audience. Professors working on unique/focused content can contribute. Whereas, faculties can use those video lectures for teaching.

Interaction program with engineering / computer science students from Tribhuvan University IOE

Participants : ~80
Engineering Students from IOE Pulchowk Campus, TU Affiliated Engineering Colleges

The students of engineering and computer science were very curious to know more about possibilities of working at Google. They were eager to know more about Google as a company and also Google as a helping hand for emerging countries like ours. We discussed about possibilities of opening Google Office in Nepal. Student’s of 3rd & 4th year seemed to be more interested in Android development too.

Google is actively collaborating with universities and students around the world. Applying for jobs & internships at Google is open globally. More info on Google’s students programs can be viewed at : Google Students

During the informal Q/A session at TU, along with students asking questions to Divon and he replying those queries as official Google response we from Kathmandu GTUG have circulated quick feedback form to the students. We got 50 filled responses.

(Bhupal Sapkota, talking about Kathmandu GTUG before event)

Participants:

This chart reflects the current involvement of women in engineering and computer science education in the country. We will need a whole another research on why female participation in Information and Communication Technology education/profession in Nepal is low but one thing is sure we are missing the other half talent in our technical advancement.

University students are more aware of Open Source technologies in Nepal. Free and Open Source Community (FOSS) – Nepal has been contributing actively to create awareness amongst students about open source technologies since more than last five-six years.

On our question “What are Google Technologies that interest you ?”, most responded their familiarity with Google DATA APIs, Android, Adsense & Google Apps.

Do you have any question to Google ? Divon answers.

One of the main focus of the interaction program was answering as many questions as possible the participants have about Google.

We tried to collect questions and answers as well in the form of informal report.
Thanks to Aayush Shrestha, Pulchowk Campus, IOE, TU for helping us report this session. You can find him in Google+ here.

Aayush reported:

QnA Session with Divon Lan, Product Manager Emerging Markets, Google. Conducted by GTUG-Kathmandu at Institute Of Engineering, Pulchowk Campus, Tribhuwan University on 19th Jan, 2012.

1. Can you tell us the outline of your first visit to Nepal?

This is my first visit to Nepal (well, first official visit) and I am planning to meet people from Universities; the officials as well as the students, and interact with them like I’m doing now. Besides that, I am looking forward to meet people from software companies that are well known in Nepalese market and talk to them about the Nepalese market and the potential it holds. Also I’m planning to meet some government officials and organizations working in the field of IT.

So basically, there are two areas that I’m planning to cover in this visit.
  i. IT
  ii.Academic

The first area regards the Nepalese market and the current status of Nepal in the field of IT. And in the second area, I will be interacting with young students and developers in Kathmandu.

2. Who is handler the events of Google in Nepal?

I am currently working on emerging South-Asian markets, which includes countries like India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Philippines and so on. There are individual groups in all these countries, including Nepal, that organize individual programs in their respective areas. We have GTUG-Kathmandu in here. There are other users’ groups in other countries that play the same role. 

3. How can we participate in development projects of Google?

There are two ways you can do that. First is: you get good grades, get a good resume, get higher education from well-known universities and then you can apply for a job at Google as a developer.

The second way is to participate in our events and our programs, know more people and make yourself known to people. And eventually, you become someone and whenever we need, you will be the first person we go to.

So, these are the two ways you can be at Google.

4.Where can I find support for my projects involving Google technologies?

Right now, Google itself does not have any support group or support department that will help you with your development projects. And one of the reasons for that is, the Google developers are pretty buys all the time. So they don’t really have enough time to go through your questions and your mails and answer all of them. So, No… Google, for now does not have anything like that.

5. Are Google+ and Google Chat now integrated?

Yes, Google chat has been integrated to Google+ now. That means, the chat in Google+ and Google Chat are not different but the same.

6. Is there any way to directly contact with developers at Google and ask them for support?

Umm.. No! Google does not have any kind of support department. And the developers are very busy to go through your emails and questions and reply them all. You can join independent forums and development groups on the internet if you need any support. But there is currently no way to directly contact Google developers.

7. Is there a possibility for Google to organize workshops and/or seminars and bring in developers from Google in those events?

Yes, why not? We have a wonderful team of GTUG-Kathmandu. You can ask them to organize these workshops and barcamps. But I think developers of Nepal are capable enough to provide you with these helps. You can ask the GTUG members to provide these platforms for you. I can’t guarantee you for now that developers from Google will join you in these programs, but there is a possibility. But I cant be sure.

8.How does Google earn money?

You see, Google is a big product and people from all over use it. So, we put in their advertisements and information on our products for which they are willing to pay us a lot of amount. For every time someone clicks on that link, we charge money from them.
And there’s something called AdSense. If you own a site or a blog, we let you put these advertisements on your site. But these time, we give a big amount of money from these companies to you and keep a little to ourselves. Of course, we do not just let anyone put these ads, we first make sure that your blog and your articles are to a certain standard of quality, we make sure that your components are genuine.

9.  What does it take to be an entrepreneur in our field?

Some of us want to be programmers and code all the time. But there are also some of us who believe in doing something new while you’re at it. So, if you’re planning to start your own business or a software company, all you need is a little courage and dedication. Of course, you need to know your work first. You can’t do anything if you don’t know what is it that you’re supposed to do. So, it is really important that you are good at something. Then all you need to do is find people and friends that share the same interest as you do and start your company.

 

Do you have any question to Google ? : Feedback Form

With just one hour interaction program hope students were able to get answers to their question. We have more questions collected via feedback form which we hope will be answered in next official Google visits.

1) Google Nepali transliteration lacks few symbols, why ?? How Google is looking forward in involving developers from countries like Nepal ?

2) How can I a computer engineer from Kathmandu get to work for a company like Google ? Any specific criteria ?

3) Why Google is very strict to its members & other people?

4) I have heard that US government is trying to pass bill against the Open Source software movement. They are also trying to put ban on social networking sites and blogs. Is it a threat to the Google ? How Google will be affected by it ?

5) What are the sources of Google's earnings? Only Adds? How much Google earns in one year? Is it possible to be an staff of Google ? How?

6) Is there a anyway to do intern in Google? If yes, then please inform us. Our project group is interested to do.

7) Can we get n internship or training program in Google ?

8) What factors do Google look upon while giving rank to a webpage? How can I increase my PR value of my site?

9) Where are Google servers located ?

10) Where to visit to get information about ongoing Google developments & projects? What are the ongoing projects particularly focused on Nepalese diaspora?

11) Why there is no support for devanagari fonts on android & even Nepali language translation?

12) How can we make a handsome amount of money from ad sense?

13) Why is G+ not so friendly as Facebook? Hope you guys can improve G+, being a user of regular Google service,it would be nice to see G+ competing with Facebook.

14) How does Google search differs from Yahoo, Bing and so on? When ranking a website, what are the factors that Google look upon (like: backlinking, speed of site, tags)?

15) Why don't we have updated maps of Nepal in Google maps? Is it that Nepal is developing country or Google wants Nepalese representative to do that.

16) What new Google Technology are you planning to launch?

17) How to participate to Google Labs?

18) How can we become a part of Google?

19) I am interested to do internship in Google ,if Google helps me?

20) How can Google be influential to a country where some of its parts don't have proper road system, let alone Internet facilities?

21) Why is G+ not so attractive? Is there any development in G-weather ?

22) Microsoft also came to our college and they focus on their product and today Google are here . You are also focusing on Google Product. We student are in confuse whom to  choose, How to decide?

23) Is kathmandu GTUG the only and just established attempt of Google to launch itself in Nepal? Because I came to know about this group just today.

-> For this question I would say as the community manager at Kathmandu GTUG, it is not an official Google wing or such at our country. We are a independent group of Google products and Google Developer Technology enthusiast who enjoy meeting up once in a while and carry out discussions focused on Google technologies, sometimes overall tech sector in the country. If you like Kathmandu GTUG’s past/present activities you are always welcomed to join us at our Google Group at http://ktmgtug.org/group

24) What do you think the recent need in the software market that we can perform in our college level project?

25) What i came to realize from this discussion is that Google gets a lots of suggestions & complaints from users. So, how exactly does Google manage all these queries and answers them? Are there dedicated personnel or is it AI?

 

Can we Nepalese Developers collaborate on Open Source project to give quality products to the community?

We had another question in the feedback form. We wanted to hear how students were willing to contribute to the overall Open Source software/web development scenario of the country. Below are the responses we got. Hope this will help Kathmandu GTUG and other communities actively working in Nepal find a more focused approach on bringing future events on Universities here.

I think yes. But we need to improve our standards. It would be great if any foreign companies and communities provide us seminars or formal courses of few months so that we can take initiatives.

It is great idea ! For that I think team must be formed among us and share ideas that one has.

Yes. We should work together.

Of course we can contribute to open source projects to make if more reliable. As Nepali software engineers also works in FOSS or other open source project which is more effective. They also did convert some OS in Nepali format (i.e language) which make that OS useful to those Nepalese who have problem with English or other languages.

Yes, Nepalese developers can collaborate on Open Source projects. The Nepalese youth today are tending to move to the open source and its growth rate is tremendous.

Yes, I think and I am much confident that we Nepalese developers can collaborate on open source to give quality product to the community. We can analyze our community well and help to develop the ideas which are important for the users.

Yes, we the aspirants have a lot of ides but lack platform. If you could possibly devise such platforms or opportunities ?

Of course Nepalese developers can collaborate  but what is lagging in here , I feel is the community where to share & collaborate.

Yes. It can be done by bringing programmers together. We need some workshop frequently and many programmers should be provided with and taught to use open source. Then they themselves will of course support open source.

I guess there are lots of open source software that need to be translated to Nepali, for instance. I am sure there is a lot that can be done for localization . Open Source is the need for software and applications that suit local needs.

Yes Nepalese developer surely can collaborate and contribute to open source project. All we need is a nice exposure to the real world. Some trainings and support to the developers will be appreciable.

Yes, because programming language is same for all.It can be done by organizing events to motivate Nepalese students to take part in open source projects.

Why not? let's gather , share our ideas, divide groups and work for that.

Yes, it is very much necessary to collaborate the developers. It can be done by conduction various programs in colleges, conduction seminars etc, and have group discussions.

Nepalese Developers are enthusiastic about the open source philosophy and the movement as well. So I think the open source world can benefit from Nepalese Developers. But there is a challenge of lack of awareness about the pathways and platforms.

Nowadays, Nepalese developers collaborate on open source project as FOSS community. We are also involved in FOSS community for bets.

Definitely, This can be achieved by providing training and organizing workshops in regular intervals, about open source projects. Encouraging students to take part in such activities.

Absolutely, Nepalese Developers are as skilled as the developers from other part of the world. They surely can collaborate on open source project to give quality product to the community, for this the developers should be given platform or access to work on these open source projects.

Quality products can be obtained if the developers are trained. So, if the developers like we Nepalese students could be trained with the Google experts,the project would go well.

Yes, I got no idea but I guess you can help in the development of e-governance

Yes, I think expanding the KtmGTUG by organizing more and more programs and establishing a Google office in Nepal can provide more good opportunities for Nepalese Developers to work with Google in open source project. I think that would even help IT to develop in Nepal even more by attracting lot of technical manpower in their home country.

Yes, we can involve in local community, share ideas, develop new projects and help or collaborate an open source projects.

Yes, with regular interactions and workshop seminar with groups like Google

Certainly, we might be able to collaborate but given the circumstances that we lack the technological education and knowledge regarding the rapidly developing technologies, it is a bit problematic. I'd love to see seminars & workshops regarding new technology. It'd be a lot helpful for us.

Yes we can,
1. Providing good, latest technological education.
2. Organizing seminars, competitions to bring all the developers together.

Of course, it is possible to develop the open source project bcoz human knowledge is for world. It can be done by providing required software , tools , knowledge to the programmer.

Of course we can . There are a few but good developers still working from Nepal . A little more opportunities for the people here would be really appreciable.

Any remarks or suggestions to Kathmandu GTUG?

Now this question comes to us – Kathmandu GTUG. Hope we would be able to follow up these questions and bring more events, workshops and such interactions to university students.

1) It would be great for us if Google provides courses of month or two about Google products. We need platforms for taking initiatives.

2) Workshops must be held often.

3) Can the Kathmandu GTUG answer our queries on technical projects related to Android ?

-> Yes, we are trying to collaborate with Android experts in Nepal. Please join Kathmandu GTUG Google group and throw your questions there.

4) I am very happy with program that launch today at my college and I expect such type of product in future also.

5) I have first heard about the organization. So I would like to attend further workshop from this organization.

-> Short answer to this would be to suggest to join Kathmandu GTUG Google group. We communicate all of our program, events and meetup via our Google group.

6) The visit to the colleges should be more frequent.
GTUG users must be extended and there should be communication between them.

7) How does KTM GTUG helps us, aspiring engineers, developers to achieve what we have set out for ?

8) What should we do to be a part of Kathmandu GTUG community?
Suggestion: It would be better if you conduct this kinds of programs frequently and the network of KtmGTUG  in colleges should also increase.

-> You are Kathmandu GTUG member when you join the Kathmandu GTUG Google Group, no formal process exists yet. However, it depends completely on you whether to play active role in the community or not.

Thanks for the suggestion. We do not volunteer to increase numbers of members at our community. But we are more focused on collaborating with active members for future programs and events. About the expansion, yes this will be the agenda for our next meet. However, we will not be expanding Kathmandu GTUG rather we will encourage establishment of independent and more focused new GTUG chapters throughout the country.

9) I think Kathmandu GTUG should make them known to all the IT students, organizing seminars like this so that IT students can find the options in future.

10) How can we join?

-> Join us at : http://ktmgtug.org/group

11) More Academic level programs!!

12) It is very good to have GTUG Kathmandu . It should conduct various programs for programmers like us regularly.

13) We'd like to organize workshop program in our college soon.What should we do for this?

14) Make GTUG more accessible to students like us.

15) Since, I've heard about Kathmandu GTUG for the 1st time, I don't think I can give some suggestions looking what they are doing or what they did. I just want them to organize different conference or seminars for IT enthusiasts helping them for their future. 

16) Do you conduct any training camps on Apps development?

17) Yes, I would love to see Kathmandu GTUG organizing various other programs.

18) I think this group should organize training programs for Nepalese to work for Google to develop Google in Nepal and should expand the members.

19) What about organizing the interactive workshop  in our college and discuss the recent development and the recent need in the development?

20) It would be good to assign interesting project to students.

21) It seems that Kathmandu GTUG have been involved in many activities but we were unaware of all these activities. So, I'd prefer if the flow of information between them and us.

-> Most of the before event activities are communicated via our Google Group. http://ktmgtug.org/group and most after event reports and blog post reside at http://ktmgtug.org/blog . You can join our Google Group and actively participate in future events. Also, there is an option to subscribe to our blog updates via email in our collaborative blog.

22) Is it possible to promote the Nepali products such as videos in Youtube, Nepali pages & all things related to Nepal?

-> Yes of course, the availability of active or passive local contents in internet is what has put hold in the growth of internet here in Nepal. The English speaking population has already got its share.

For more photos from the events

Google Interacts with faculty and students at Tribhuvan University January 18, 2012 (Kathmandu GTUG)

Photo Credits
Bhupal Sapkota, Bhuwan Pokharel - Kathmandu GTUG

Thanks all Kathmandu GTUG guys who actively supported us in the event.
-
Bhupal Sapkota
Community Manager
Kathmandu GTUG