diff --git a/content/academia/jenkins-warnings-ng-maintainer-spotlight.md b/content/academia/jenkins-warnings-ng-maintainer-spotlight.md index d425ffe9..47ed00a0 100644 --- a/content/academia/jenkins-warnings-ng-maintainer-spotlight.md +++ b/content/academia/jenkins-warnings-ng-maintainer-spotlight.md @@ -25,13 +25,13 @@ The plugin's functionality is also available as standalone actions for GitHub an The project was initially created to visualise code quality within an industry team. It later expanded through community contributions and was adapted for teaching and grading purposes. -Photo_1 +Photo_1 ## How does this project connect to your academic work? It is used for grading student projects and teaching software engineering practices. -Photo_3 +Photo_3 ## Who contributes to the project? @@ -45,7 +45,7 @@ Students contribute tests and features as part of their thesis work. Since they It is used in software engineering and testing courses. Students use the plugin to grade their projects and provide feedback on their code. -Photo_2 +Photo_2 ## What impact has this project had on your students? diff --git a/content/academia/jplag-maintainer-spotlight.md b/content/academia/jplag-maintainer-spotlight.md index 797d7ce3..7ba5b3ed 100644 --- a/content/academia/jplag-maintainer-spotlight.md +++ b/content/academia/jplag-maintainer-spotlight.md @@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ JPlag is a powerful, open-source plagiarism detection tool for source code, desi JPlag supports more than 15 programming languages. The input code is processed entirely locally, ensuring GDPR–compliance. [Demo available here](https://demo.jplag.de/) -Screenshot of JPlag Main View +Screenshot of JPlag Main View ## What inspired you to start this project? @@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ JPlag was originally developed in 1996 at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology to a It serves both as a research subject and as a practical tool used in teaching. -screenshot JPlag Code View +screenshot JPlag Code View ## Who contributes to the project? @@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ Students gain real-world open-source experience and develop stronger software en JPlag is used in academic institutions around the world. We know of more than 300 universities that use it to uphold academic integrity in their courses. JPlag has more than 50,000 downloads, is widely cited in research publications and integrated into multiple educational platforms. -Screenshot JPlag Cluster View +Screenshot JPlag Cluster View ## What does it take to maintain the project? diff --git a/content/academia/precice-maintainer-spotlight.md b/content/academia/precice-maintainer-spotlight.md index 8243398f..4a089ab0 100644 --- a/content/academia/precice-maintainer-spotlight.md +++ b/content/academia/precice-maintainer-spotlight.md @@ -14,6 +14,10 @@ description: "A coupling library and ecosystem for general partitioned multi-phy ## What is preCICE, and what does it help people do? + +precice-overview + + preCICE is a coupling library and ecosystem for general partitioned multi-physics and multi-scale simulations, including surface and volume coupling. "Partitioned" means that preCICE couples existing programs or solvers capable of simulating a subpart of the complete physics involved in a simulation. This approach provides the flexibility needed to maintain a reasonable time-to-solution for complex coupled problems. The software offers convenient methods for transient equation coupling, communication, and data mapping. diff --git a/content/academia/swatplus-maintainer-spotlight.md b/content/academia/swatplus-maintainer-spotlight.md index ba9d1c48..2e24b41e 100644 --- a/content/academia/swatplus-maintainer-spotlight.md +++ b/content/academia/swatplus-maintainer-spotlight.md @@ -14,6 +14,9 @@ description: "An open-source hydrological model that simulates water quality and ## What is SWAT+, and what does it help people do? +poster_board + + This project focuses on the collaborative development of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool Plus (SWAT+) on GitHub. SWAT+ is an open-source hydrological model that simulates water quality and quantity, co-developed by the USDA Agricultural Research Service, Texas A&M AgriLife Research, Colorado State University, and other contributing institutions worldwide. We use GitHub to foster a community-driven process-based model, enabling researchers and developers to contribute through issues, pull requests, and shared documentation. This effort aims to enhance SWAT+'s capabilities for assessing soil erosion, non-point source pollution, and watershed management under changing land use and climate scenarios. @@ -72,6 +75,9 @@ Because community adoption is so widespread, SWAT+ serves as a primary vehicle f We organize at least one international conference annually for the global SWAT community. This year's conference will be held in Thessaloniki, Greece, bringing together developers and users to share the latest innovations in the field. +swat-conf-map-2025-10-19 + + ## What does it take to maintain the project? Maintaining the SWAT+ GitHub repository is a continuous effort that balances core code stability with community-driven innovation. Sustaining the project requires: @@ -96,6 +102,8 @@ We face a chronic shortage of personnel and funds with the niche qualifications ## How do you ensure the project remains sustainable over time? +total-articles-in-swat-l + We actively pursue dual-purpose research grants that fund both high-level model application and the underlying engine development. By integrating SWAT+ into university coursework and involving student research assistants, we cultivate the next generation of developers. This creates a steady talent funnel of users who transition into contributors. @@ -177,3 +185,6 @@ My team and I are actively exploring these research directions; however, as with While the model carries a 45-year legacy of scientific development, our journey on GitHub is just beginning. We are currently in the process of transforming decades of world-class hydrological research into a modern, transparent, and community-driven ecosystem. It is a privilege to steward such a significant legacy project into the era of Open Science. We are excited to see how the global community will continue to build upon this foundation to solve the environmental challenges of the next 45 years. Thank you for providing a platform that recognises the value of both scientific rigour and open-source collaboration. + +headshot of Natalja Čerkasova + diff --git a/content/academia/wordplay-maintainer-spotlight.md b/content/academia/wordplay-maintainer-spotlight.md index 8b6bee6a..2829a227 100644 --- a/content/academia/wordplay-maintainer-spotlight.md +++ b/content/academia/wordplay-maintainer-spotlight.md @@ -12,31 +12,47 @@ badges: ["Academic Maintainer", "Professor"] description: "An educational programming language designed for young adolescents and their teachers, embracing global, multilingual, ability-diverse, and neurodiverse communities." --- -## What is Wordplay? +## What is Wordplay, and what does it help people do? Wordplay is an educational programming language designed for young adolescents and their teachers. It starts from the reality that the world is global, multilingual, ability-diverse, and neurodiverse, and strives to embrace and celebrate these differences in its design, as well as in the media it enables youth to create and explore. -It is a teacher- and student-led project, with contributions from more than 300 K–12 and college students, spanning design, development, localisation, verification, content curation, and governance. +It is a teacher- and student-led project, with contributions from more than 300 K–12 and college students, spanning design, development, localization, verification, content curation, and governance. -## What inspired this project? +## What inspired you to start this project? -I started this project during my 2022/23 sabbatical to examine a single question: what would educational programming languages look like if they were designed for everyone, instead of just white, Western, non-disabled, neurotypical, English-fluent men? +I started this project during my 2022/23 sabbatical to examine this question: what would educational programming languages look like if they were designed for everyone, instead of just white, Western, non-disabled, neurotypical, English-fluent men? -As a mixed-race, transgender, multilingual scholar who has never fully resonated with the visions of computing that emerged from elite, male-dominated institutions in the US and UK, I wanted to pursue a different vision — one that centres disability, gender, racial, linguistic, and educational justice, rather than the capitalist, extractive values of efficiency and profit. +As a mixed-race, transgender, multilingual scholar who has never fully resonated with the visions of computing that emerged from elite, male-dominated institutions in the US and UK, I wanted to pursue a different vision. This vision centers disability, gender, racial, linguistic, and educational justice, rather than the capitalist, extractive values of efficiency and profit. -## How the project connects to academic work +## How does this project connect to your academic work? -Wordplay is one of my core, long-term research projects, expected to continue for 10–20 years. It will be published at the ACM CHI 2025 conference in Yokohama, Japan. +It is one of my core, long-term research projects, and I expect it to continue for 10–20 years. -As a community-engaged project, the focus is on partnership rather than scale. The team works closely with a middle school technology teacher in Bellevue, Washington, whose students are multilingual, immigrants, neurodiverse, and gender diverse. These students help shape the platform and co-design curricula in response to their identities, interests, and visions of computing. They are not only users of the platform, but also contributors to it. +## Who contributes to the project? -## Who contributes to Wordplay? +Middle and high school students, college students, middle and high school teachers, faculty, postdocs, PhD students, software developers, and disability advocates all contribute to the project. -Middle and high school students, college students, teachers, faculty, postdocs, PhD students, software developers, and disability advocates all contribute to the project. Students contribute to all aspects, including design, development, verification, localisation, content creation, governance, workflow, strategic direction, and fundraising. +## How are students involved in the project? -In the past three years, the project has impacted the skills, knowledge, and commitments to justice of more than 400 student contributors. Many share that they had never previously considered who is excluded from computer science because programming languages are not designed for everyone. They often describe not being able to "unsee" how computing is designed for a small subset of humanity, and express a desire for more opportunities to reshape it. +Students contribute to all aspects of the project, including design, development, verification, localization, content creation, governance, workflow, strategic direction, and fundraising. -## What it takes to maintain the project +## How is the project used in teaching or coursework? + +As a community-engaged project, our goal is not currently scale, but partnership. We work closely with a middle school technology teacher in Bellevue, Washington, whose students are multilingual, immigrants, neurodiverse, and gender diverse. + +These students help shape the platform and co-design curricula in response to their identities, interests, and visions of computing. They are not only users of the platform, but also contributors to it. + +## What impact has this project had on your students? + +In the past three years, the project has impacted the skills, knowledge, and commitments to justice of more than 400 student contributors. Many share that they had never previously considered who is excluded from computer science because programming languages are not designed for everyone. + +They often describe not being able to "unsee" how computing is designed for a small subset of humanity, and express a desire for more opportunities to reshape it, as Wordplay is attempting to do in middle school classrooms. + +## What impact has the project had beyond the classroom or research? + +The platform is live and actively used in middle school classrooms. It will be published at the ACM CHI 2025 conference in Yokohama, Japan, and has already had contributions from more than 400 student and teacher contributors. + +## What does it take to maintain the project? I serve as the project facilitator and lead developer. Middle school students and their teachers identify defects, enhancements, and strategic directions, which define the milestones and priorities for the project. @@ -44,30 +60,56 @@ Undergraduates work on these priorities in partnership with students and teacher Because contributors are often low-skill and high-turnover, the team structure relies on my stable role as a tenured professor to maintain institutional knowledge, project management, and fundraising. The project currently has no dedicated funding, and given the broader political climate, there is limited expectation of future support. -## Biggest challenges in an academic setting +## What have been the biggest challenges in maintaining the project, especially in an academic setting? -Student learning and turnover are the biggest barriers to progress. While teaching students to a level where they can make meaningful contributions is rewarding, onboarding them alongside their other coursework — and with limited resources to compensate their time — often results in eight weeks of teaching for only two weeks of project contributions. +Student learning and turnover are the biggest barriers to progress. While I greatly enjoy teaching students to a level where they can make meaningful contributions, onboarding them alongside their other coursework, and with limited resources to compensate their time, often results in eight weeks of teaching for only two weeks of project contributions. As a result, most development work falls to me, often on weekends, since faculty life is too fragmented to allow for the sustained focus that engineering progress requires. -## Ensuring long-term sustainability +## How do you ensure the project remains sustainable over time? + +We pursue several strategies to support sustainability, including seeking student funding from the NSF, although this is becoming increasingly limited. We also seek unrestricted gift funding to remain agile and responsive to student and teacher needs, rather than funder priorities. + +Additionally, I negotiate with my Dean to ensure that maintaining the project is recognised as part of my teaching and research responsibilities, alongside other academic duties. + +## How do you engage with your community? + +Our primary community consists of local middle school teachers. We meet with them weekly, gather their needs, visit classrooms, and involve students in design prioritisation. + +Due to COPPA regulations, youth under 13 cannot participate directly in our Discord server, so we engage with teachers there, who represent student needs. + +## Have you taken part in any open source programs or events? + +We have not. + +## What would you love to achieve by showcasing your project? + +I would like the field of computer science, and software more broadly, to recognise that the systems we have are not designed for everyone, but they could be. Wordplay is one example of that possibility. + +I hope to inspire others to either support Wordplay or to create their own projects that reimagine computing in ways that engage and include everyone. + +## Do you use AI tools in your day to day work on this project? If so, how? + +We do use some AI-assisted development tools, but only with extreme caution: most of our contributors are inexperienced software developers, and are not yet capable of using AI with intention. That's required some scaffolding and even higher levels of scrutiny on pull requests. We also use many machine translation tools to generate draft translations of user interface, documentation, and programming language text, but we rely on volunteers to audit and refine it. + +## Do you implement AI into your classroom or coursework (if applicable)? If so, what does that look like in practice? -Several strategies support sustainability: seeking student funding from the NSF (though this is becoming increasingly limited), seeking unrestricted gift funding to remain agile and responsive to student and teacher needs, and negotiating with the Dean to ensure that maintaining the project is recognised as part of teaching and research responsibilities. +For classes where AI technologies are relevant to the discipline, we do (e.g., software engineering, design). But more often, AI is a subject of critical inquiry, where we complicate industry claims about value with broader systems accounts of sustainability, theft, and concentration of power. -Community engagement centres on local middle school teachers. The team meets with them weekly, gathers their needs, visits classrooms, and involves students in design prioritisation. Due to COPPA regulations, youth under 13 cannot participate directly in the project's Discord server, so teachers are engaged there as representatives of student needs. +## Has AI changed how you maintain or manage your project? -## AI tools and the project +AI, overall, has made it harder to manage our project, as it has made it easier for students and contributors to share low quality work. That has increased the amount of labor in quality control. -The team uses some AI-assisted development tools, but only with extreme caution: most contributors are inexperienced software developers and are not yet capable of using AI with intention. This has required additional scaffolding and higher levels of scrutiny on pull requests. +## Have you experimented with AI driven or automated workflows in your project? What has that looked like? -Machine translation tools are used to generate draft translations of user interface text, documentation, and programming language content, with volunteers auditing and refining the output. This is the one area where semi-automation has proven genuinely useful — it is very hard to find multilingual contributors across all supported languages, and a lower-quality translation is better than none at all. +The one use case we've found for semi-automation is in machine translation. It's very hard to find multilingual contributors across all of the languages we want to support, and so offering lower quality translations is better than offering none at all. We have not invested in automating other workflows, because that would intercede on the relationships that we try to build as a community; when a contributor submits an issue, we want to talk to them about it, and don't want to delegate that to a machine. -Overall, AI has made the project harder to manage. It has made it easier for students and contributors to share low-quality work, increasing the labour involved in quality control. Several communication errors have also arisen from contributors using AI to generate comments in GitHub issues, where the polished English produced by AI is often more confusing than the natural, unpolished writing that more clearly conveys intent. +## How do you see your contributors using AI when working on your project? -For coursework, AI is a subject of critical inquiry as much as a tool — complicating industry claims about value with broader systemic accounts of sustainability, theft, and concentration of power. +Many of our contributors have used it to generate comments in GitHub issues. That has led to several communication errors, as the polished English that many English learners write is often more confusing than the broken English that more clearly indicates their intent. -## Open source journey +## Is there anything else you'd like to share about your project or open source journey? At a time when colleges and universities are under pressure, and many marginalised groups are being dismissed or excluded, it is critical to push back and insist that everyone deserves to participate fully in society. -Highlighting this project is an opportunity to amplify that idea and to support a vision of computing that is inclusive, rather than one that continues to prioritise profit over people. I hope to inspire others to either support Wordplay or to create their own projects that reimagine computing in ways that engage and include everyone. +Highlighting this project is an opportunity to amplify that idea and to support a vision of computing that is inclusive, rather than one that continues to prioritise profit over people.