FOSS @ Amrita

FOSS @ Amrita

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The FOSS @ Amrita club in Amritapuri campus is the oldest technical club in the campus.

FOSS stands for Free and Open Source Software. As the name indicates the source code of these software are available for anyone to see and modify. One of the best ways to learn coding is to read code written by experts in the field. The club helps students to develop skills to make them excellent problem solvers and a better human being.

Foss @ Amrita is open for anyone who is willing to learn and work hands-on. After spending a few years in the club students either get international internships or fully funded masters program or excellent jobs which pay 40% higher than regular jobs. Students from this club represent Amrita University in International level by giving talks in international FOSS conferences. Students also get excellent mentoring from the very strong alumni community all over the world.

Students start of with basics of problem solving and coding. In a few years, they gain skills such as ability to code fluently and debug large code base, easily read thousands of lines of code, contribute code into an existing large code base with more than million lines of code, communicate effectively via email and internet relay chats, usage of version control systems, making effective presentations, giving talks and taking training sessions, writing effective resumes, building social media profile and many more.

Over the years the club has improved the effectiveness of the internal training and currently students are able to get into Google’s Summer of Code (GSoC) from the very first year itself. In 2016 Foss club was the 10th in the world in terms of number of students getting into GSoC

The club focuses on holistic development of its members. In addition to spending time in the lab, the students also take part in activities such as sports, gardening, outing and many more. Moreover, students are exposed to talks by experts on various fields to develop a broad mindset.

FOSS @ Amrita has always been a pioneer and trend setter in Amrita University. Over the years the club had many firsts in Amritapuri campus.

The students from foss club were the first from Amrita to

• Win a national level championship (Sun Code For Freedom , 2007)
• Get fully funded scholarships to attend international conference (JavaOne in 2007)
• Send students to Europe for Masters ( VU University , 2009)
• Send students for student exchange programs (2009)
• Send students for fully funded internships abroad (New Zealand in 2011 and US in 2012)
• Send students for summer school abroad (Tel Aviv University, 2013)
• Send students to CERN for internships (2014)
• Get a fully funded Dual Masters Program with KTH (2015)

And many more.

Today, the club has many special interest groups such as Web Application Development, Mobile application development, Systems, Algorithmic problem solving and many more.