Open Source Technology Lab Offers Experiential Learning Opportunities to College Students

In the rapidly evolving landscape of technology, the demand for skilled IT professionals continues to soar. College students, armed with ambition and a thirst for knowledge, find themselves at the forefront of this digital revolution where softwarization has rapidly reshaped the conventional computing and networking paradigms. Recognizing the importance of staying ahead in the competitive job market, the Open Source Technology Lab (OSTL) has emerged, offering a gateway for students to enhance their skills and unlock exciting career prospects through experiential learning.

At OSTL, our students have been working closely with the engineering teams at Intel, Red Hat and Dell and learning the emerging hardware and software plantforms that are powering cloud computing, software defined networking, 5G VRAN workloads. They are trained on the latest multicore architecture with on-chip acceleration, as well as the container-based software technologies for flexibility and scalability. Interacting with the engineers from the leading companies, our students can bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge gained in classrooms and practical skills demanded by the industry. The students trained at OSTL are well equipped with the industry-relevant skills in cloud computing, programming and problem solving. They have been benefited with unique opportunities of networking and career advancement.

We are expanding the collaboration with the existing industiral members of OSTL in new areas such as machine learning for network traffic analysis, and looking to engage with new partners and recruit additional student interns.

Yan Luo
Professor, Director of OSTL
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Massachusetts Lowell