CyberWVU to host first FOSSFEST

CyberWVU, a student organization at West Virginia University dedicated to growing the knowledge base in cyber security, will host the first free and opened sourced software festival on April 7-8. The event will be held at the Advanced Engineering Research Building on the Evansdale Campus.

Day one of FOSSFEST will teach students about DevOps, the combination of cultural philosophies, practices and tools that increases an organization’s ability to deliver applications and services at a fast pace. Industry professionals from Agile5, Cox Media and Realtor.com will be on site to deliver seminars and demonstrations on the software Ansible and Kubernetes. The day will be capped off with a moderated panel discussion on DevOps.

“I am ecstatic that CyberWVU is offering this event,” said Spencer Wagner, CyberWVU president and computer science and electrical engineering major from Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. “I am most excited to learn about the different software and how they work in real-world systems; something we don’t often experience in the classroom.”

On day two, participants will gain hands-on experience while learning about the Fedora Project, an open source project where 75 percent of the software is made up from community contributors. Students will spend the first half of the day learning about the project and similar programs before moving on to a bug squashing party, where they will work in groups to fix errors within the Fedora software.

“The Fedora bug squashing event will allow students and industry professionals to come together to make a large and noticeable contribution to a great open source operating system,” said Kurt Stetser, a computer science and computer engineering major from Frederick, Maryland. “I am excited that I will get to be a part of this opportunity.”

FOSSFEST is open to all students. The event is sponsored by Red Hat, the creator of the Fedora Project, who will be providing light refreshments throughout the event and lunch on day two.

“Students will benefit greatly from learning these technologies as they are heavily used in the industry,” said David Krovich, CyberWVU advisor and research associate in the Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. “There are many job opportunities that focus on these products and getting a hands on demonstration from professionals working in the field will provide invaluable insight to the attendees.”

Students interested in the event can email dmkrovich@mail.wvu.edu for more information. To view the itinerary and register for the event please visit: bit.ly/wvufossfest2017.

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