Award for the best open source university project
2024
Release your final degree project or master's thesis and participate!
Until September 13
Presentation
The Award for the best open source university project aims to promote and bring Galician university students closer to open source software, increasing their knowledge about this type of technologies and consequently opening the doors to new possibilities of quality employment related to information and communication technologies
Any student from the Galician University System who has defended their End of Career Project, Degree Project or Master’s Thesis, with a minimum grade of 5.0, in any of the calls of the academic year 2023-2024, and who meets the criteria defined in the award’s terms and conditions, can opt for this award.
Deadline and registration requirements
Students interested in participating in this award must follow the steps indicated in the award rules before the deadline (13 September).
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 any of the engineering or technical engineering degrees or undergraduate degrees of the Galician University System, who has presented and defended their Final Degree Project or Final Undergraduate Project with a minimum mark of 5.0, in any of the calls of the academic year 2023-2024, either ordinary or extraordinary, may participate in the award, provided that 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 13 September 2024.
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 award for the best open source university paper will have a financial award of €1,500 for the winning paper.
As a novelty, from this year onwards, the second prize has been renamed as «Premio Especial Alejo Pacín Jul», with an endowment of €750. This award aims to remember our colleague and friend, who passed away in the year 2023 Alejo, among many things in his life, was a open source software activist with GPUL, a open source software translator in the Trasno Project, and a tireless computer engineer His facet as a bagpiper motivated the project that led him to win the Award for the Best Open Soource University Project in the year 2018.
The award may be declared void if none of the entries, in the opinion of the jury, meet the necessary minimum quality.
Jury and evaluation criteria
The award jury will be composed of:
- Xunta de Galicia (2 people): Representative of AMTEGA or person delegated by them and Head of the Open Source Software Coordination Office or person delegated by them.
- Galician universities (3 people): the directors/deans of the three computer science schools/faculties, or the person they delegate
- GPUL Association (1 person): President of the GPUL association or person they delegate.
The jury, when making their decision, will take into account the following aspects:
- The level of public activity of the work will be valued: the continuous publication of the work will be assessed, whether using the mailing lists of an existing project, public source code repositories or any other web medium, such as personal blogs; collaboration with other open source software projects, community creation, etc.
- The appropriate use of a free license will be valued: the correct choice of a open source license 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 is expected to take place on the afternoon of Friday 20 September, where the finalists will have to make a short presentation to the jury of the project, with special emphasis on the aspects of their project related to Open Source Software, their achievements and future prospects.
The jury will have the opportunity to ask each of the finalists the questions they deem appropriate after their presentations. On this basis, 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 candidature for the prize implies the express acceptance of these rules.
The place and time of this event will be announced in advance by e-mail to the participants.
Registration form
In order to participate in the 2024 edition of the Prize for the best open university project, 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.
