---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Prabhu Ramachandran prabhu@aero.iitb.ac.in Date: Mon, May 4, 2009 at 3:51 PM Subject: [JOB] Project on FOSS adoption in Indian education

Hello,

Project positions are open at IIT Bombay for a new government funded project on adoption of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) in Indian science and engineering education. Applicants may email their resumes along with a one page writeup on why they think they are well suited for the project to:

admin.foss[at]iitb.ac.in

News, announcements and details regarding the project are available here:

http://www.aero.iitb.ac.in/~prabhu/Projects/FOSSEducation

Overview of the project -----------------------

The eventual goal is to replace the use of commercial tools in Indian science and engineering education at the college level. Towards this we are working on the following broad themes:

- Python for scientific computing. - Scilab (http://www.scilab.org, http://www.scilab.in). - Multimedia authoring tool suited for Indian languages with a LaTeX backend. - Other projects related to the above.

I will be personally involved with the "Python for scientific computing" component. This will broadly involve: - NumPy (http://numpy.scipy.org), - SciPy (http://www.scipy.org), - matplotlib (http://matplotlib.sf.net), - Sage (http://www.sagemath.org), - Mayavi (http://code.enthought.com/projects/mayavi), - ETS (http://code.enthought.com/projects), - SymPy (http://code.google.com/p/sympy), and various other packages of interest.

As part of the project you will have opportunity to work with the core developers of these major projects.

Requirements ------------

The positions are all for a maximum duration of 3 years. The initial appointment will be for a period of 1 year which will be extended based on performance.

- Project manager: 1 position - Technical writer: 1 position - Software Developers/content generators: - Python: 4 positions - Scilab: 3 positions - LaTeX: 2 positions

You will need to stay on campus or commute to IITB. Accommodation will be provided if available, otherwise HRA will be provided.

Qualifications ---------------

Project manager: - Good knowledge of programming and open source software community - People management - Communication - Organizational skills

Technical writer: - Excellent language and communication skills (spoken and written) - Familiarity with computers - Willingness to learn

Programmers/content generators: - Willingness to learn - Good programming skills - Passion for FOSS - Experience with FOSS - Good math and science skills

System administration and web development skills are also required so strong applications with those skills would also be considered. Experience with Python/Scilab/LaTeX is a plus. Experience with working on a FOSS project is a big plus.

Job description ---------------

As part of this project you will work towards creating material for adoption of the various existing FOSS tools in the science and engineering curriculum. This will involve generation of a significant amount of documentation in the form of tutorials, audio/video demonstrations, written material, and lectures. The material will often go towards augmenting existing courses. The project will involve working with several well known packages and improving them both in terms of documentation and code to add features or fix bugs.

We will be hosting several workshops, sprints and conferences where you will get to meet the developers of many important packages.

Remuneration -------------

The pay will be in the range Rs. 10000 to 30000 depending on the qualifications and experience. For extra-ordinary people the upper limit is flexible. Accommodation will be provided on campus if available.

Why you should apply --------------------

- You get paid to improve and write FOSS. - You get to do really meaningful work -- your work will influence generations of future students all over India and potentially elsewhere. - You get to work on some of the most important projects that will influence the future of science and engineering. - You get to meet and work with the authors of various important packages. - You will be at IIT Bombay and will have best of both worlds -- good pay and an academic environment.

Thanks. Prabhu Ramachandran http://www.aero.iitb.ac.in/~prabhu