In most computer science courses, students learn to write and debug code — but don’t always experience firsthand the collaborative, fast-paced environments where real-world software is built. That’s especially true when it comes to open-source software, which is developed publicly by contributors from around the globe.
In 2024, faculty in the School of Computer Science set out to address this gap by creating a course that gave students the chance to contribute to real-world open-source projects. To make it happen, they partnered with CMU’s Open Source Programs Office (OSPO) — a unit that connects the university with the broader open-source community and helps integrate open-source practices into teaching, learning, and research.
Together, they designed a summer course, structured like an internship, that focused on giving students experience in the global open-source software community. 99-519: Collaborative Research Through Projects paired students with industry mentors to work on real, ongoing open-source projects. This allowed them to gain experience working in distributed teams, contributing code, and using collaboration tools commonly used in the tech industry — while also building new contacts with potential employers and developing soft skills in client communications, project management, and leadership.
Goal
- To give students hands-on experience working on open-source software projects — helping them develop both technical and collaborative skills they’ll need in real-world software development.
How We Helped
- As the central point of support and connection for open source at CMU, the OSPO introduced Stephen Walli, principal program manager in the Azure office of the CTO at Microsoft, and Michael Hilton, teaching professor and associate department head for education in the School of Computer Science’s Software and Societal Systems Department.
- The OSPO then provided support as Walli and Hilton redesigned one of Walli’s existing courses into a hands-on internship model focused on mentorship.
- Structured like a remote internship, the course paired students with mentors from major companies like Red Hat Linux as well as local Pittsburgh startups to work on real open-source projects. The OSPO also helped to make some of these connections within the open-source community, expanding the pool of mentors available to work with students.
Results
- The course was first held during the summer of 2024 and returned in summer 2025, expanding to include students at CMU’s Pittsburgh and Qatar campuses.
- Mentors from Red Hat Linux, Eclipse Foundation, and local Pittsburgh startups reported they would consider many of the student participants for internships or jobs upon graduation.
- As part of the project, the OSPO also created open-source training notebooks, which present a variety of topics that help students and faculty improve the quality of their open-source projects.
- The OSPO is now working on processes to expand the program to more campuses and students, beginning with CMU’s other campuses in Qatar and Rwanda.