Open Source Program Office
Open Sourcing the Wisconsin Idea
The OSPO and WISCURDS programs are hosting a joint informational session for researchers who might want to mentor with the DSI! Both programs are mentorship opportunities for UW Madison students. Come to the informational session on Wednesday, March 18th 2026, from 12:00-1:00pm to figure out if one of these programs might be right for your project.
Mentoring undergraduate researchers offers faculty a meaningful opportunity to expand their team's capacity while contributing to student development at UW–Madison. Through programs like WISCURDS and OSPO, faculty mentors gain motivated research collaborators who bring fresh perspectives. The programs aim to enable mentors an opportunity to focus on defining scope and methods of the work by reducing the administrative friction associated with recruiting and selection of student researchers. WISCURDS and OSPO also support students with training specifically designed to ready them for high quality and highly productive mentor-mentee partnerships.
For faculty who are already mentoring undergraduates there is also an opportunity to more formalize that effort through WISCURDS or OSPO. Incorporating WISCURDS or OSPO in this way can provide structure, visibility, and institutional support including a cohort of peers for students, additional supports for presentation of your work at the Data Science Research Bazaar, the Undergraduate Symposium, and built-in onboarding process.
The OSPO Internship program is a semester-long mentorship, with the potential to extend the project across multiple semesters. Mentors will be matched with a single paid intern who can dedicate 10-15 hours per week on an open source project. More information about the OSPO Internship program can be found here.
The WISCURDS program is a semester-long research opportunity for undergraduate students. WISCURDS projects will be matched with a group of 4 student researchers (on the group track) or one student researcher (on the individual track). More information on the WISCURDS program can be found here.
All interested researchers are encouraged to attend the upcoming information session. You will learn the specifics of each program, whether your project might qualify, what it means to mentor, and how to apply. There will also be an opportunity during the session to ask questions regarding each program.