Two new people are to be elected to join the Board which consists of four elected members and two appointed representatives from the University of Oslo Library. The deadline for voting is December 13th, at 23.59.
Overview of candidates
Mohamed Abdelhalim
Head Engineer, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, UiO
Statement of interest: I would like to be part of the Carpentry organizing community to make sure Carpentry activities can benefit as many people as possible.
Qualifications: I have been a Carpentry instructor, participated in the Carpentry mentor program, and been a member of the Oslo Carpentry community for some years. I would like to focus on activities related to bioinformatics and genomics.
Carpentry contributions: I have experience as a bioinformatician and Carpentry instructor at the R and Python workshops. I would like to build a better Carpentry community in Oslo and at UiO, in particular to the benefit of biology and natural sciences students.
Laura Valencia
Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Biosciences (IBV), UiO
Statement of interest: I found the Carpentry because I wanted and needed to learn to code. With the biology field quickly becoming more and more interdisciplinary, I found my pure biologist background not good enough to work in the projects that interested me. It was hard enough for me to venture into coding alone. The Carpentry brought for me a community and a place that showed me that I (the biologist) could also learn, that coding is fun and achievable. Today, the fundamentals that the Carpentry gave me shaped my career in the direction I want. I wish to give back to the Carpentry and to share my experience as a frustrated beginner that found new opportunities thanks to the Carpentry
Qualifications: I have two master's degrees in science. I am used to working on different projects at the same time, prioritizing to achieve my goals. For my current Ph.D. project, I use the Unix shell daily and use R and Python programs. In 2018 I was an assistant to a teacher for the BIOS1100 course about programming in Python for biologists, which gave me experience about good teaching practices for coding.
Sparingly during the years 2017, 2018, and 2019, I have joined the workshops that once taught me, but as a helper. I have the perspective of how the Carpentry workshops are both as an attendee and as an assistant, which is useful to reflect on the activities to come.
Carpentry contributions: I have been a helper at some software Carpentry workshops at UiO, in 2017~2019, in the topics of R and Python programming. The latest years have been difficult, but I often follow up on what the Carpentry is doing.
Désirée Treichler
Researcher, Department of Geosciences, UiO
Statement of interest: I have been a helper and instructor for git and python for the Carpentries@UiO for several years now. Surprisingly, I again got a job at UiO for yet another few years - but that’s not the case for most of our community. The work of the Carpentries is extremely important to prepare our learners for whatever career, and I feel a duty to contribute to that. I experience the community at UiO as welcoming, motivating, and resourceful, and I would be happy to contribute to the board to ensure this continues that way!
Qualifications: I am a self-learned “programmer” - from Matlab coding struggles during my MSc now moving towards global-scale big data analysis of various geodata-stuff and -models. Most of our learners start just the same way. I have experience from serving in several other boards at UiO (department board, gender equality board, UiODoc), which may help to interconnect the Carpentries@UiO better with these groups/organizations.
Carpentry contributions: Before I joined the Carpentries at UiO I have been live-coding during geoscience data labs for several years. The best part about teaching coding is the extremely motivating collaboration with other instructors, helpers - and the learners (and geo-students), who can get very excited and start experimenting beyond the official task, or give feedback that they learned something useful that may change how they work and positively do research.
Raoul Wolf
Senior Advisor / Digital Developer, Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI)
Statement of interest: I have been a part of Carpentry@UiO (almost) since its very beginning and have been giving and participating in workshops ever since. I want to give back to the Carpentry@UiO community by joining the board. As someone that made the move from academia to the private sector, I want to enrich the already tremendous team by providing an additional perspective.
Qualifications: I have over five years of experience in giving Carpentry workshops, which generally have been well received. These workshops were mainly physical, except for one virtual workshop in 2021. I know the requirements of digital skills for both the academic sector and the private (research) sector. Furthermore, I have experience in growing and maintaining communities through my function as a Meetup organizer in Oslo (Oslo useR! Group).
Carpentry contributions: The "R for Reproducible Data Analysis" workshops, which have been successfully given for over five years, were co-developed by me and have inspired others to become active members of Carpentry@UiO.
Agata Bochynska
Senior Academic Librarian, Oslo University Library
Statement of interest: I have joined The Carpentries community earlier this year and from the start, I have believed in the mission and the goals of this organization. I would like to contribute more to the community and help out with the local coordination of Carpentry efforts at UiO.
Qualifications: I have experience in coordinating events, societies, and grassroots communities in academia, as well as teaching and advisory experience at diverse levels (from bachelors to senior researchers) and across disciplines, which could help give new insights into the future of Carpentry@UiO.
Carpentry contributions: I finished The Carpentries instructor training in Spring 2021 (with the focus on R language) and contributed as a helper to a couple of courses in the 2021 academic year, as well as contributed as an instructor to the R lesson in Data Carpentry course at UiO 22-23 November 2021.