Collaborative Research: HumIT: Student IT Services to Support Open Source Software for Humanity

软件工程(34)Humit正在探索学生可以为人道主义开源软件(OSS)提供信息技术(IT)基础设施服务的方法。Humit正在为学生提供丰富而引人入胜的教育体验，同时增加人道主义开放源码软件的社会效益。开源软件是合作开发的，并免费提供给任何想要它的人。人道主义开放源码软件将信息技术应用于医疗保健、经济发展和教育等领域的人道主义需求。但开放源码软件的潜力受到IT支持需求的限制。鉴于人道主义开放源码软件的开发者往往是志愿者，提供良好的支持是一个困难的问题。计算机学位课程的学生是一种尚未开发的资源，可以帮助解决这个问题，同时也可以促进学生自己的教育。Humit正在创造一种新型的IT教育实践。这种方法可以通过让学生直接接触大型应用系统的IT问题来改善学生的学习。此外，Humit正在为学生提供使用计算机对社会产生积极影响的第一手体验，这可能会扩大IT职业对女性的吸引力。由于开放源码项目的分布式性质和人道主义IT需求的范围，Humit方法可以扩展到许多机构。最后，Humit正在通过推进人道主义OSS，同时培养出更有专业能力的计算机毕业生，为社会创造直接利益。

Software Engineering (34)HumIT is exploring ways that students can provide information technology (IT) infrastructure services for humanitarian open source software (OSS). HumIT is giving students rich and engaging educational experiences while increasing the social benefit of humanitarian OSS. Open source software is developed collaboratively and provided free to anyone who wants it. Humanitarian OSS applies IT to humanitarian needs in areas such as health care, economic development, and education. But the potential of OSS is limited by the need for IT support. Given that the developers of humanitarian OSS are often volunteers, providing good support is a difficult problem. Students in computing degree programs are an untapped resource that can help address this problem while also advancing the students' own education. HumIT is creating a new type of practicum in IT education. This approach can improve student learning by directly engaging students with IT issues of large-scale application systems. In addition, HumIT is giving students a first-hand experience in using computing to have a positive impact on society, which may broaden the appeal of IT careers to women. The HumIT approach can be extended across many institutions due to the distributed nature of open source projects and the scope of humanitarian IT needs. Finally, HumIT is creating direct benefit to society by advancing humanitarian OSS while producing more professionally-capable computing graduates.