A replica of the NeXT machine used by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990 to develop and run the first WWW server, multimedia browser and web editor. This became one of CERN's first open-source projects.

Measuring Open-Source Impact with Software Heritage

We have an exciting opening for a student for 12 months, starting still in 2024: tracing CERN's impact on open source together with the Software Heritage organization. Together with our experts from CERN's Scientific Information Service and other members of the Open Source Program Office, you will discover how to measure CERN's contributions in the world of open-source software. We don't expect you to be an expert when you start, but we would love to go on this journey together! If you are a bachelor or master student, before the master graduation, then please consider contacting ospo-team@cern.ch.

As part of their work at CERN, physicists, engineers, and computer scientists take part in thousands of open-source software projects. Some of these projects are originating at CERN, many are not maintained at CERN. But how much does CERN give back to society through open-source - can we measure this? Software Heritage maintains a database of virtually all open-source software in the world. We will analyze this archive to find CERN's traces, from decades ago until today. We will discover how to do this together, including all the questions we would want to ask! Tracking, measuring, and evaluating the impact of CERN contributions on the open-source ecosystem are essential to provide CERN management and funding agencies with an indication of the returns to society.

We are looking for a student in Computer Science or similar fields, with some experience in data analytics, be it with Python, C++, Julia, or even Rust.

Please send your CV here!