At a Glance:
- Involved in open source since: 2019
- Works for: IBM
- Eclipse Foundation contributor since: 2019
- Involved in: Eclipse AQAvit, Eclipse Adoptium, Eclipse Temurin, Eclipse OpenJ9, Eclipse OMR
- Committer to: A project lead for Eclipse AQAvit
- Eclipse Foundation committer since: 2021
Can you tell us a bit about your background as a developer and with open source?
I joined the IBM Runtimes team after obtaining my PhD degree from the University of Ottawa in 2019. As with many projects in the software world, significant parts of the products we were producing were based on open source. In particular, the team was closely involved with the Eclipse OpenJ9, OMR, Eclipse Adoptium, and AQAvit projects. So, it was only natural that I would get started working with open source as well.
It was an interesting experience for me. My education had focused on conducting research, and now I was transitioning to developing open source projects. Research is mainly focused on building a functional proof-of-concept to prove an innovative idea. But an open source project also needs to consider the various requirements and configurations of developers and companies involved in it. In this way, working on an open source project also provides good opportunities to learn how the project is being used by the industry, rather than simply how it works in a vacuum.
How did that lead to your involvement with the Eclipse Foundation?
Since our IBM Runtimes team is actively contributing to Eclipse Foundation open source projects, it was a natural opportunity for me to get involved, and I passionately participate in these projects.
In addition, I’ve also gotten involved as a mentor, including for the Eclipse Foundation Semesters of Code program and the upcoming Eclipse Foundation Google Summer of Code program. It feels great to see new contributors getting involved in open source, creating their first pull requests, and demoing their projects to various audiences.
I also attend and present/co-present talks at EclipseCon (currently OCX) and the Adoptium Summit. This is a great opportunity for us to share our projects, attend talks and sessions, and communicate with other presenters to learn about their projects.
How have you found that experience, working in open source and as a committer at the Eclipse Foundation?
I really enjoy the experience of working in open source and as a committer at the Eclipse Foundation. Open source projects offer me a great opportunity to communicate with developers from similar industries to learn their use cases, work together with them to enhance functions to suit their requirements, and bring new features and ideas into the projects.
The Eclipse Foundation itself also provides a friendly and efficient atmosphere for committers, as well as an excellent opportunity to grow your network and meet like-minded people. The EclipseCon and Adoptium Summit events were well organised and promoted communications among developers to expand the impact of the open source world. The Semesters of Code program also offered an excellent way for me to improve my mentoring skills, and was a great opportunity for me to share in the happiness of the accomplishments of new contributors.
What have been the highlights of being a committer thus far for you?
One of the highlights of being a committer for me is that after mentoring several students from the Outreachy program to complete some new features in Eclipse AQAvit projects, our whole team, all mentors and students, presented the work together at EclipseCon. Not only because we made contributions to Eclipse AQAvit but also because we had the opportunity to demonstrate our work, and more importantly, there was a lot of learning and fun throughout the journey for all of us.
Any advice for someone considering getting more involved with open source or becoming a committer?
The open source door is always open. Whenever you are interested in an open source project, you can simply join the issue discussions and express your interest in the project. Or try participating in an open source program like Semesters of Code. Committers in these programs will guide you through how to make your first contribution, step by step, taking you all the way from small fixes to big features, and then into understanding overall project direction and roadmaps.
In short, have fun in the open source world!