Student Awards
OSPO Open Source Software Prizes
The GW University OSPO is awarding a minimum of $4000 in prizes annually for two contests beginning in 2024.
Award Deadline extended to November 1st 2024!
The goal of this award program is to encourage students to create and engage with open source software communities and learn skills to develop software collaboratively. The students’ efforts will improve research reproducibility as well as helping students prepare for careers in research and industry.
- Open Source Project Awards - separate tracks for undergraduates and graduate students each with 1st and 2nd place awards.
- Individual Contributor Awards - four $150 awards for at least one meaningful contribution to a public open source project.
1. Open Source Project Awards
Competition for creating Open Source Software (OSS) projects and learning to develop software collaboratively.
Prizes
| Tracks | Undergraduates | Graduate Students |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Prize | $800 | $800 |
| 2nd Prize | $500 | $500 |
| 3rd Prize | $250 | $250 |
All winning team members will receive the following:
- GW OSPO Open Source Project Challenge Award certificate, signed by the GW OSPO Director
- Opportunity to present your project at the GW OSPO RISE Open conference and a ticket to the conference for each team member
Everyone who enters will receive:
- GW OSPO Open Source Project Challenge certificate, signed by the GW OSPO Director
- All participants may also submit their GWOpenStory sharing their experience with the GW OSPO Individual Contributor Challenge for a chance to be featured in the OSPO blog.
Application Guidance
Entries will be reviewed by a committee composed of GW faculty and staff. Projects can be registered anytime, but they must be public (not private) to be judged. Please ensure that no private or secure data will be exposed before making your project public. Projects must be registered and made public by Nov 1st, 2024 and judging will be completed by Dec 1st. Awards will be announced at our first annual GW Open Source Conference held on March 24,25 2025 at the GW Student Center.
To apply, Register Open Source Projects.
Award Criteria
Criteria - judging based on 4 categories evaluated with equal weight
- 25% - Reproducibility - care taken to ensure the project is easily and accurately reproducible
- 25% - Impact - Meaningful and interesting project
- 25% - Adherence to open-source and software development best practices
- 25% - Collaboration - inclusivity, cross discipline, demonstrative community building
2. Individual Contributor Awards
Lottery encouraging individual contributions to OSS projects
Prizes
Six $150 awards drawn at random from all entrants that submit an application form successfully demonstrating at least one meaningful contribution to a public open source project.
Everyone who enters will receive:
- GW OSPO contributor certificate, signed by the GW OSPO Director
- GW OSPO RISE Open conference ticket
- All participants may also submit their GWOpenStory sharing their experience with the GW OSPO Individual Contributor Challenge for a chance to be featured in the OSPO blog.
Application Guidance
Entries will be reviewed by a committee composed of GW faculty and staff. Open-source contributions must be completed and corresponding contributor application forms must be submitted by Nov 1st, 2024. Verification that all entries are valid contributions will be completed by Dec 1st. Verified entries will be included in the lottery and the six winners will be drawn at random during an award ceremony as part of our first annual GW Open Source Conference held on March 24,25 2025 at the GW Student Center.
To apply, fill out the OSPO Individual Contributor Application Form.
Award Criteria
Complete applications will be evaluated and must meet a minimum threshold to be entered in the lottery:
- Must include at least one meaningful contribution of code or documentation addressing existing issues and accepted by the maintainer of an existing active Project
- The project you contribute to may be a GW or external project, but our evaluation committee will verify that the contributions are beneficial and not trivial
Please take care to understand that project maintainers can be extremely busy, so to be a good open source contributor, follow the codes of conduct and contribution guidelines and focus on tackling existing issues that align with your abilities.