skip page navigation Oregon State University

Open Source at OSU

Students at Oregon State University are provided a number of opportunities to interact with open source software and communities. While the Open Source Lab provides direct ties into a number of open source projects, open source is also used in computer science courses, and there are multiple student groups which help to promote open source on campus.

Open Source Education Lab

The OSEL (not to be confused with the OSL) is a student organization on campus which helps organize events, create newsletters, and interact with people both on and off campus to advocate open source. The OSEL has members from various parts of campus including the Open Source Lab, the Linux Users Group, and the College of Engineering. More information about the OSEL is available at their website, http://osel.oregonstate.edu/.

Linux Users Group

OSU Linux Users Group StudentsThe OSU LUG meets weekly to discuss Linux and open source issues, talk about new technologies, and host speakers to introduce the group to various topics around Linux. The LUG puts on events such as "installfests" where LUG members help others to install Linux on their systems. Famous for antics such as the Firefox Crop Circle (Google Maps image), the LUG is an exciting student-run group to get involved with. Picture from http://photos.charkbot.com/

Open Source in the Curriculum

Open source is a growing part of the EECS program. A number of courses are developed around open source software. BeaverSource is an online community where OSU students, faculty, and staff can create development sites for open source projects and interact with each other through wikis, forums, blogs, and other common social networking technologies. The EECS department has also developed a small hardware device which runs Linux and provides students the opportunity to interact with both the hardware and software in a hands-on manner. Curriculum has been developed for courses throughout students' time at OSU including robotics, networking, operating systems, and computer graphics. More information about the learning device is available at the project website. There is also a special topics course specifically on open source software.