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Join Our Developer Community

Overview​

Open Source with SLU offers valuable opportunities for contributors across all experience levels and career stages. Experienced developers can leverage their skills to make meaningful impacts on research and community projects while building an impressive portfolio of diverse open-source contributions spanning web, mobile, IoT, and AI/ML domains. Current students gain hands-on experience with real-world software development practices, professional Git workflows, and collaborative coding that directly complements their academic learning and enhances their job prospects. Prospective students can demonstrate their coding abilities and passion for technology through tangible contributions, creating a compelling application portfolio that showcases both technical skills and community involvement.

The program also benefits career changers seeking to build a professional development portfolio, researchers and academics who want to contribute to tools that advance open science, and community-minded individuals who value using their technical skills for social good. All contributors gain access to a supportive community through the Slack workspace, receive mentorship from experienced maintainers, and can progress from occasional contributions to official team membership after five contributions. Whether you're looking to learn new technologies, build professional networks, demonstrate your capabilities, or simply contribute to meaningful projects that support research and community organizations, Open Source with SLU provides a structured yet flexible pathway to achieve those goals while making a real difference.

We welcome the participation of anyone interested in contributing to the projects in our portfolio. You can work on open issues, create a new issue, or provide feedback on other team members work. Join the Open Source with SLU Slack workspace, find a project you are interested in, and start making contributions.

Opportunities​

  • Use the software
  • Make contributions
  • Get recognition

Getting Started​

Getting started is easy. It starts when you join our Slack workspace for community support and project discussions. Next, browse the project portfolio to find something that matches your interests and skills. Then follow contributor guidelines for the project to make your first pull request. If you have any questions, connect with the project maintainers. They can help guide your initial contributions and answer questions about the product and tech stack

The conversations about all of our software happens in the Open Source with SLU Slack workspace.

  • Create an account
  • Install the desktop client
  • Install the mobile clients
  • Introduce yourself in the #welcome channel
  • Join the channel for the projects you are interested in. Note that all project channels start with #project_
  • Get involved in the conversation!

Learning & Growth​

Contributors gain valuable experience with professional development workflows, including Git, GitHub, testing, and code review processes that are essential in modern software development. The program offers opportunities to learn new technologies and frameworks through hands-on work on diverse projects, while receiving mentorship and feedback from experienced developers and project maintainers. This environment helps develop both technical skills and collaborative soft skills that are essential for successful software development careers.

Use the Software​

Explore our diverse portfolio of research tools, mobile apps, web applications, IoT libraries, and AI/ML utilities that are freely available to the community. You can test existing projects and provide valuable user feedback to help improve functionality, request new features, or report bugs to help guide development priorities. By using these tools, you're accessing free, open-source software that supports academic research and community needs while also helping to shape their future development.

Software is made to be used. It makes us very happy when anyone uses our software. If you are using any software developed by Open Source with SLU as part of your research, community, or commercial activity, please let us know. We invite bug reports, feature requests, and any feedback you have on our work.

You can e-mail oss@slu.edu, open an Issue on the project, or send the development team a message in their Slack channel.

Become a Contributor​

Contributors can work on open issues across projects spanning web development, mobile apps, IoT libraries, and machine learning tools, or create new issues when they identify bugs or potential improvements. The process involves submitting code contributions through pull requests with guidance and mentorship from experienced maintainers. You'll also have opportunities to participate in code reviews and collaborate with other contributors through our GitHub workflows and active Slack workspace, creating a supportive environment for learning and growth.

Getting Started Contributing Code​

The success of our projects depends on active involvement. All of our work is tracked in GitHub Issues. Check out the list of existing Issues on one of the project at https://github.com/oss-slu. Get involved by opening a Pull Request (PR) . The PR will be merged when the Pull Request includes a link to a merged ticket from a project in the portfolio that they made contribution to, and the PR has been approved by the current tech lead on that project.

You can get started in a jiffy:

  • Join our Slack workspace.
  • Identify an Open Source with SLU project.
  • Find an Issue in the project repo that looks doable
  • Fork the project repository, and make a branch
  • You are on your way, just stay in touch to keep your work moving forward.

Tools​

If you are making changes to code you're going to need a variety of tools. On your computer your going to need a variety of local tools to create your local development environment. You will probably want to set up an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) on your workstation. There are lots of options available, and it can be a very personal choice. Many people in our community use VS Code for their IDE. You might want to check with the current members of the project team for their suggestions.

You will also need to know the basics about Git and GitHub. We recommend this video tutorial from freeCodeCamp.org, if you are not familiar with these tools.

GitHub​

All our projects are stored in public GitHub repositories. To make code contributions to our repositories, you will need to know the basics of GitHub. GitHub documentation

Git​

GitHub is a platform that has git at the core. All changes to our project source code are stored using git To make code contributions to our repositories. Git documentation

Join the OSS Organization​

Active contributors who make five or more contributions can join the oss-slu GitHub organization, gaining enhanced collaboration access and formal recognition of their involvement. Organization members enjoy streamlined code review processes, direct access to project repositories, and deeper integration with development teams.

To request membership, send a Slack message to the current Tech Lead of your project(s) with links to at least five resolved issues or merged pull requests. Applications are typically reviewed within two weeks, during the academic year. If you reach out during summer or winter breaks, it may take us a little longer to respond. Once approved, you'll gain write access to repositories and can take on greater responsibility in project development and community leadership.

Contributor Roles​

Software development requires wearing many hats. We recognize diverse contributions through specialized badges on our Contributors page. These roles reflect the cross-functional skills required to build effective software. Getting a contributor role badge requires nomination by the current Tech Lead.

Code Billiken​

Technical Contributors focus on the core development aspects of our projects. Bug fixers identify, diagnose, and resolve software defects, improving stability and user experience. Automated testing specialists create and maintain test suites, ensuring code quality and preventing regressions. Code review experts examine pull requests, provide constructive feedback, and help maintain coding standards across projects. Software engineering contributors architect solutions, optimize performance, and implement new features following best practices. ML/AI experts develop machine learning models, implement algorithms, and create intelligent features that enhance our research tools.

Quality Billiken​

Quality Contributors ensure our projects meet high standards through systematic testing, user experience evaluation, and quality assurance processes. They conduct manual testing, identify usability issues, validate functionality across different platforms, and help establish quality benchmarks that guide project development.

Designer Billiken​

Design Contributors shape the visual and interactive aspects of our projects. They create user interfaces, develop visual branding, design graphics and icons, conduct user experience research, create wireframes and prototypes, and ensure our tools are both functional and aesthetically appealing to researchers and end users.

Documentation Billiken​

Documentation Contributors make our projects accessible through clear, comprehensive written materials. They write installation guides, create tutorials and how-to articles, maintain API documentation, develop contributor guidelines, translate content for broader accessibility, and ensure that both users and developers can easily understand and use our software.

Release Billiken​

Release Contributors manage the technical aspects of getting software from development to users. They handle version control and tagging, manage deployment pipelines, coordinate release schedules, maintain distribution channels, monitor post-release performance, and ensure smooth transitions between software versions.

Community Billiken​

Community Builders foster engagement and growth within our contributor network. They facilitate discussions in Slack and GitHub, mentor new contributors, organize virtual events and meetings, connect projects with potential users and stakeholders, manage social media presence, and create an welcoming environment that encourages long-term participation in open-source development.

Opening Career Pathways​

These roles reflect that successful open-source projects need diverse skills beyond programming. We value all forms of meaningful contribution to our community and projects, and recognize that they can lead to interesting career opportunities. If you are interested in getting a badge but are not sure where to begin you can read our Roles Guidebooks or have a conversation with the current Tech Lead on a project.

Ready to turn your passion for technology into meaningful impact? Whether you're a seasoned developer looking to give back, a student eager to build real-world experience, or someone exploring a career change through open source contribution, our community offers a pathway that fits your goals and grows with your skills. From your first pull request to earning specialized contributor badges to joining our GitHub organization, every contribution matters and every contributor belongs. Join our growing community of developers, researchers, and community members who are building the future of open source tools—your next great project and professional connection are just a Slack message away.