The PyaR website can be found here.
What is the Python and Research (PyaR) program?
The Python and Research (PyaR) program is a free online Python programming tutorial is offered a few times each year. This is the basic ‘learn-the-swim-strokes’ experience appropriate for high school students through graduate student educators, including those with zero previous computer programming experience. It involves 6 hours of synchronous Zoom/Slack-based mentoring sessions led by Raja GuhaThakurta (UCSC) and his research students.
PyaR (Python and Research) started as an in-person tutorial that was named RM4 Astro, at the time. It was launched by Claire Dorman and Raja GuhaThakurta (UCSC PhD student and faculty, respectively) at Castilleja School in Palo Alto, CA in Spring 2013. The tutorial was based on Python coding and astrophysics research. PyaR was launched as online tutorial in November 2018. The initiative has since expanded to include an astrophysics-free version of the PyaR tutorial and to include other programming languages and science subjects (e.g., the ReComBio initiative is based on the R programming language and computational biology). The initiative has since expanded to include an astrophysics-free version of the PyaR tutorial and to include other programming languages and science subjects (e.g., the ReComBio initiative is based on the R programming language and computational biology).
More than 1500 students from around the globe have participated in this program since November 2018. There have been participants from two dozen countries including several countries in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Middle East, and South Asia.
The next time the PyaR program will be offered November 2023.