(imatge del web del Dept. Química de la Universitat de York)
Gràcies a en Marcel Swart he pogut llegir l’article de Nature Chemistry Digital skills in chemical education (versió al ChemRXiv). Començo per una frase rellevant que esmenta les competències d’un graduat modern en química. Fins ara les habilitats digitals s’han referit a la programació, i sobretot al camp de la química teòrica/física. Però ja no és així:
Chemical industry and research are facing a phase shift, with a substantial drive towards automation and digitisation. Specialist skills like programming, statistics, data handling, and visualisation will soon become indispensable. New skills relating to artificial intelligence, such as prompt engineering, could quickly be added to the list. This shift poses a need for graduates with a digital skillset and the ability to apply it to their specialist domain.
És curiós el que diu: potser els estudiants escullen química per no trobar-s’hi gaire matemàtiques:
Students struggle to remain mo- tivated in learning skills unless proven relevant to their degree as a whole [36]. Furthermore, digital skills are seldom used in pre-university chemistry or advertised as integral to chemistry degrees. As such, students may choose a degree in chemistry, hoping to avoid a more mathematical or computational science. This anxiety can limit the rigour with which important computing concepts are taught.
I en definitiva
The next generation of chemists needs digital skills to remain competitive in academia and industry. This is driven by the growth of computation, data science, and machine learning across the chemical sciences. Chemistry training must evolve to provide this training holistically, and we hope to build an international network of aca- demics interested in training chemists with these digital skills.