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Red Hat Honors Instructors Who Champion Open Source Education

Eight instructors recognized for incorporating open source into their academic work

RALEIGH, N.C. - —

Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today recognized eight higher education instructors for their continuing efforts to incorporate open source philosophies, methods and tools into their academic work.

“As more organizations use and develop open source technology, the need for graduates skilled in open source grows. Red Hat is proud to recognize educators who embrace the open source way and are committed to teaching the next generation about the potential of a career in open source. These educators are helping to pave the way for their students’ success and for other instructors who can benefit from the resources they create.”

Gina Likins

university outreach, Open Source and Standards, Red Hat

For the second year, Red Hat is honoring the work of higher education instructors who are committed to teaching the open source development process to their students. The majority of honorees are past participants in Professor’s Open Source Software Experience (POSSE). Launched by Red Hat in 2009, POSSE is a cultural immersion in the tools and practices of open source communities, designed for instructors looking for ways to bring their students into active participation in those communities. These workshops are made possible through National Science Foundation grants awarded to Drexel University, Nassau Community College and Western New England University, and by Teaching Open Source, a member project of the Software Freedom Conservancy. Corporations such as Red Hat and Google provide support through Teaching Open Source and their participation in POSSE workshops, which are co-taught by members of the academic and open source communities.

The instructors who are honored have demonstrated their commitment to teaching open source through a range of contributions, including: creating open source programs and courses at their institution; contributing materials to the growing open source curriculum base; or speaking about teaching open source at conferences like the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing and the SIGCSE (Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education) Technical Symposium.

This year’s list of instructors leading the way in teaching open source are:

  • Aria Chernik, lecturing fellow, Social Science Research Institute, and director, Open Source Pedagogy, Research and Innovation (OSPRI), Duke University

  • Joshua Dehlinger, assistant/associate professor, Department of Computer and Information Sciences, Towson University

  • Robert Duvall, lecturer, Department of Computer Science, Duke University

  • Joshua Pearce, professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering; professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and advisor, Open Source Hardware Enterprise, Michigan Technological University

  • Alan Rea, professor, business information systems, Haworth College of Business, Western Michigan University

  • Wes Turner, senior lecturer, computer science, School of Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

  • Stewart Weiss, associate professor, Department of Computer Science, Hunter College of the City University of New York

  • Sabine Wojcieszak, lecturer, University of Applied Science Kiel

The efforts of these instructors both to integrate open source into their classrooms and to grow a community of like-minded educators are making a difference in the lives of students and making the world a more open and collaborative place.

Supporting Quote
Gina Likins, university outreach, Open Source and Standards, Red Hat
“As more organizations use and develop open source technology, the need for graduates skilled in open source grows. Red Hat is proud to recognize educators who embrace the open source way and are committed to teaching the next generation about the potential of a career in open source. These educators are helping to pave the way for their students’ success and for other instructors who can benefit from the resources they create.”

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