=============
Introduction
=============

What
=============
StudiMY is an initiative by MARIMORE ENGINEERING SDN. BHD. (925539-H) with
help from `Xoxzo Inc <https://info.xoxzo.com/en/>`_ to create
and maintain a study curriculum and materials for the teaching of programming in a classrom
environment, guided by a mentor.

StudiMY materials focuses on the Python language and includes other software, libraries or
frameworks which are Python based.

Why
=============
In March 2014, when the 
`first mini PyCon (Python Conference) <https://sites.google.com/a/pycon.my/pycon-malaysia/mini-pycon-my-2014>`_ 
was held in Malaysia, we had around 70 people come to have fun and learn from each other.

Three years later in August 2017, when `PyCon APAC was held in Kuala
Lumpur <https://pycon.my/pycon-apac-2017-program-schedule/>`_ around 180 people
came, with nearly half of those coming from overseas, including Singapore. This
meant that the local Malaysian community as far as the conference was concerned did not
grow much since we started mini PyCon.

The percentage of new comers to the programming language that makes up the
attendees at these conference did not change much. We have been wondering on
why there is little uptake from the general public to get involved in Python.

At the same time one of the most requested item during each conference was a
tutorial about programming basics in Python.

Now, with the understanding that the
`new literacy for the future is programming
<https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/09/06/professor-writes-everyone-should-code-movement-re-coding>`_, the popularity and interest in Python as a first step to learning programming has
increased. 

Coupled this with the data that we collected from the public via our `mailing
list <https://studi.my/#enroll>`_ who are interested to learn Python, we now
know that a huge interest is because the perceived need to prepare for new jobs,
we know understand that there is a huge push factor to learn programming.

In hindsight, those requests for Python tutorials during the PyCons makes sense.

I know feel that although there are many reasons for the small uptake of interest
in the general public to our PyCon conferences, one of major hurdles might and may
still be the accesibility of getting your first step to understanding and using the
programming language.

Our Aim
=============================
Our aim is not to be your run-of-the-mill one stop shop to study programming.
We are community driven (anyone can choose to use or contribute to the curriculum and
materials in this project) and we focus on Python as a tool for you to learn
programming.

Our aim is to help students and ex-students to not only learn how to use Python, 
but to first transform them into engineers, capable of problem solving through understanding of the
Python ecosystem and engineering best practices, who are aware of the important role of
community to learning, and finally hopefully turn into a contributing part of that community
and help others learn to program.

.. topic:: Our Aim

   Is so that everyone can solve problems with Python


Of course, learning programming will certainly give you a skill set to move up your carrier
or to perhaps future-proof yourself, but we do not envision the students taking
our classes to just stop there.