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<!-- pubdate: 20210305 -->
<!-- author: Prof. Mihir Arjunwadkar -->
# Case Study: SCMS - Savitribai Phule Pune University Pune, India
The Department of Scientific Computing, Modeling & Simulation,
Savitribai Phule Pune University Pune, India, has a long history (more
than 20 years) of preferring Free software over proprietary software
in its academic programs. We presently offer two academic degree
programs, one in scientific computing, and the other in modeling &
simulation. Students from both the programs require substantial
interaction with computers and software at an advanced level.
Although markets are filled with non-free software targeted
specifically at such academic programs, our experience tells us that
their use can be easily avoided. Many high-quality Free Software tools
are available, and some of these are, in fact, better than their
proprietary counterparts. For example, we have been using E-learning
platform Moodle consistently since 2015 to manage courses, conduct
exams, and keep track of every single activity related to various
courses. All our computer labs and servers run on GNU/Linux based
operating systems. We encourage students and faculty to use Free
software tools like Python, Julia, etc., GNU octave or SciLab instead
of MATLAB, Mathics instead of Mathematica, R instead of
S-Plus/SAS/minitab/etc., GNU compilers instead of Intel compilers,
Signal instead of WhatsApp, OpenFOAM instead proprietary CFD tools,
etc. This is in addition to departmental services like ticketing
system (RT), mail client (RoundCube), Git server (Gitlab), etc.
The ongoing pandemic has seen a big surge for non-free software like
Zoom and Google meet: We find that freedom-respecting platforms like
Jitsi meet for video conferencing, SimpleScreenRecorder and Open
Broadcaster Software (OBS) for screen/video recording, etc., work
great. Recorded classes are in turn hosted on our Moodle or Nextcloud
servers instead of proprietary services like Dropbox, Google drive,
etc. This is possible because we maintain our own servers, and decent
connectivity/bandwidth is available (through the University) to host
these services.
The pandemic also gave us an opportunity to interact with and help
sister departments to adopt GNU/Linux, Moodle, and Free software in
general: The assurance of readily available local expertise in Free
software was enough for many to start considering a move to Free
software. Shrinking budgets thanks to the pandemic seem to be
providing a financial incentive.
We wholeheartedly encourage and recommend educational institutions,
students, teachers, administrators, and decision-makers to start using
freedom-respecting Free software tools. We will be happy to advise
(and assist, to whatever extent possible) educational institutions
which are considering adoption of Free Software.
(On a factual note, the department does not interfere with the
software preferences and decisions related to research funding brought
in by individual researchers.)
Prof. Mihir Arjunwadkar<br>
Head,<br>
Dept. of Scientific Computing, Modeling, and Simulation,<br>
Savitribai Phule Pune University,<br>
Ganeshkhind, Pune 411007<br>
Contact details:<br>
<office@scms.unipune.ac.in><br>
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