Syracuse University

Syracuse University#

General Description#

The Syracuse University Open Source Project Office (SU-OSPO) works collaboratively across disciplines at a university-wide level, bringing together subject expertise and foundational technologies in open-source software. The SU-OSPO promotes the use of open-source software in the university community, supports the professional development of faculty and students engaged in open-source projects, leverages the University’s investment in technology transfer and open publishing, helps faculty and students transition their existing projects to open source, and works with the University’s Research Computing group to guide researchers towards existing open-source solutions.

Core Objectives#

  • Support, nurture, share, and grow the use of open-source software within the Syracuse University community and the wider network of academic OSPOs.

  • Enable communication between researchers across departments and disciplines on open-source best practices, tools, and methods.

  • Educate the university – in the form of seminars, workshops, and online materials – on how to develop and use open-source software, and how to make their research open and accessible.

  • Advocate for faculty and their research groups to get more recognition for their open-source contributions, by making open-source contributions one of the criteria considered in faculty promotion and retention.

  • Build connections with the wider open source community, and provide outreach to the Syracuse region.

Primary Contacts#

Other Context#

The SU-OSPO was created in 2023 with seed money from a Sloan Foundation grant. The PIs of the grant were Duncan Brown (VP of Research), David Seaman (Dean of Libraries), Eric Sedore (interm VP of IT and CIO), and Alex Nitz (Associate Professor of Physics). Collin Capano (Research Associate Professor of Physics) was hired as the first director in winter 2023. William Gearty was hired as the OSPO postdoc in September 2024. The office works closely with Syracuse University Research Computing, the Office of Research, and the School of Information Studies to coordinate and direct open source efforts at the University.

In addition to the activities listed above, the OSPO funds student open-source projects as a part of our OSS Development Program.

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