Fwd: Re: Aw: Bioinformatics course in debian-med - feasibility?
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: Aw: Bioinformatics course in debian-med - feasibility?
Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 16:41:20 +0100
From: Tony Travis <tony.travis@abdn.ac.uk>
To: <debian-med@lists.debian.org>
On 21/10/13 14:42, Daniel Barker wrote:
> Dear Andreas, Michael and Steffen,
>
> Thank you all for your very helpful replies. I am now convinced a Debian
> package is feasible. I accept this will not the most useful thing for all
> users.
>
> Here are some further details. Any big problems at this stage, please let
> me know. We're going to seek funding, and I don't want to propose
> something impossible.
Hi, Daniel.
I think seeking funding to teach biologists to be self-sufficient in ICT
is a great idea. The Raspberry Pi is about encouraging people to think
for themselves instead of simply being trained to use Microsoft
products, and told there is no alternative by the IT department...
However, I think you should be clear that using the Raspberry Pi to
analyse NGS data is not really a practical proposition. Instead, I think
the Raspberry Pi can be presented as a teaching platform that can be
connected to other, more powerful, computers including new ideas such as
the Parallella system I hope to bring with me to Stonehaven:
http://www.adapteva.com
Indeed, the Raspberry Pi could be seen in much the same way as the USB
version of Bio-Linux: Not very practical for real work, but invaluable
for introducing people to bioinformatics. Where I see the advantage of
using the Raspberry Pi is that the institutionalised obfustication by
many IT departments surrounding what is/is not allowed can be avoided.
My only concern is that any descriptions about what bioinformatics the
Raspberry Pi can actually do are presented realistically. I think it's a
great idea and I'm looking forward to hearing you talk about it in
Stonehaven. I'm still waiting for my Parallella to be delivered ;-)
Bye,
Tony.
--
Dr. A.J.Travis, University of Aberdeen, Institute of Biological and
Environmental Sciences, Cruickshank Building, St. Machar Drive, Aberdeen
AB24 3UU, Scotland, UK. tel +44(0)1224 272700, fax +44 (0)1224 272 396
http://www.abdn.ac.uk, mailto:tony.travis@abdn.ac.uk, skype:ajtravis
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