Award for the best open source university project
2023
Release your final degree project or master's thesis and participate!
Until October 6
Presentation
The Prize for the best free university work has as its objective the promotion and the approach of Galician university students to free software, increasing the knowledge they have about this type of technologies and consequently opening the doors to new ones quality employment opportunities related to the technologies of information and communication.
Any student in the University System can apply for this award Galician who has defended his End of Career Project, Work Degree or University Master’s Thesis, with a grade minimum of 5.0, in one of the calls of the academic year 2022-2023, which meets the criteria defined in the basis of the award.
Deadline and registration requirements
Students interested in participating in this award must follow the steps outlined in the award rules before the deadline (October 6).
Origin of the award
This award was created in 2007 by the Galician company Igalia, after identifying a significant lack of professionals with a high degree of specialisation in this area, which decided to contribute to palliate this shortage by launching this award.
Since the 2011-2012 academic year, this award has been part of Amtega’s Open Source Software Action Plan, with the cooperation and support of the different agents of the Galician open source software ecosystem within the global and integrating strategy of all the actions of this Action Plan.
Since the 2012-2013 academic year, the Open Source Software Office of the CIXUG has been in charge of organising the award, given its integration in the Galician University System and the fact that its recipients are university students, which allows to increase the approach to students.
Terms and Conditions
The Open Source Software Office (OSL) of the Consorcio CIXUG, in collaboration with the Agencia para la Modernización Tecnológica de Galicia (AMTEGA) announces a new edition of the Prize for the best open source university work, which will be based on the following participation criteria.
Objectives
The Consorcio CIXUG announces this award as part of the lines of action to improve and promote the mechanisms for training and dissemination of Open Source Software in the university community.
The aim of this prize is to promote and bring Galician university students closer to open source software, in order to increase their knowledge of this type of technology, and consequently create new possibilities for quality employment related to information and communication technologies. Apart from the ethical issues and the exchange of knowledge related to open source software, this is a growing area of work.
With this initiative, the CIXUG’s OSL wants to continue rewarding the work being done by Galician university students and at the same time highlight the work they do during their Degree Final Project or Undergraduate Final Project.
Amtega and OSL have thus continued since 2012 the initiative promoted by the company Igalia in previous editions since 2007 with the aim of giving the prize a new boost.
Participants
Any student enrolled in one of the engineering or technical engineering degrees, bachelor’s or master’s degrees of the Galician University System, who has presented and defended his Bachelor’s Thesis or Master’s Thesis with a minimum grade of 5.0, can participate in the prize. in one of the calls for the academic year 2022-2023, either ordinary or extraordinary, as long as the project was evaluated before the deadline.
In addition, to participate in this prize, the work must meet the following requirements:
- It is made with a open implementation of any programming language.
- Software developed during the course must have a open source licence among those recognised as such by the Free Software Foundation or the Open Source Initiative.
- Source code of the university thesis should be available in a public repository for downloading and study.
Projects that fulfils the prerequisites and are realised using open hardware are also eligible for participation.
Registration
The registration period to participate in the award ends on October 6, 2023.
The following steps are required to submit an entry for the award and must be completed before the deadline:
- Fill out the registration form.
- Deliver a report (maximum 10 pages) explaining the specific aspects of the Open Source Software and public activity of the project. You can use this script to complete it, and submit it on the registration form itself, or by email before the registration deadline.
Awards
The Prize for the best open university paper will have an initial overall financial award of 1,500 euros. In addition, if the jury deems it appropriate, a second prize could also be awarded.
It is foreseen that this initial financial endowment can be increased up to a maximum of 750€ more, in collaboration with other agents of the open source software ecosystem in the university environment; in any case, the global amount will be distributed in such a way that the amount corresponding to the best Project doubles the amount corresponding to the second prize.
The prize may be declined if, according to the jury, none of the projects submitted meets the minimum quality required.
Jury and evaluation criteria
The award jury will be composed of:
- Xunta de Galicia (2 people): Representative of AMTEGA or person delegated to him and Head of the Open Software Coordination Office or person delegated to him.
- Galician universities (3 people): the directors/deans of the three IT schools/faculties, or the person to whom they delegate.
- GPUL Association (1 person): President of the GPUL Association or a person delegated to him.
To reach its decision, the jury will take the following aspects into account:
- Level of public work activity. Continued publication of the work will be valued, either using the mailing lists of an existing project, public source code repositories or any other web media, such as personal blogs; collaboration with other free software projects, community building, etc.
- Proper use of a open source licence: the correct choice of an open source licence and its subsequent application to the project’s code will be assessed.
- Project quality: design and implementation.
It must be remembered that this award is not just about rewarding a technically good project, but a good open source software project.
Resolution of the award
After the deadline for the submission of applications, the jury will make an initial assessment of the projects received, and may, depending on the number of participants, make a selection of the finalists who will attend the awards ceremony.
The award ceremony will predictably take place during the afternoon of Friday, October 20, where the finalists will have to make a short presentation to the jury of the work done on their project, with special emphasis on the aspects of their project related to Free Software , of the achievements achieved, of the future prospects.
The jury will have the opportunity to ask each of the finalists the questions they deem appropriate after their presentations. Based on this, the jury will deliberate and issue its decision regarding the awarding of the prize.
The jury’s decision will be final. The fact of presenting the nomination for the award implies the express acceptance of these bases.
The place and time of this event will be announced in advance through the e-mail of the participants.
Registration form
In order to participate in the 2023 edition of the Prize for the best free university work, it is necessary to fill in the following form. Optionally, you can send the report with the summary of the work presented.
By submitting the registration form, you expressly accept the Rules governing this award.
