📋 This page is the OSPP Mentor Guide. Please read and understand this guide carefully.

📑Participating in the event means you have agreed to the OSPP Mentor Participation Agreement.

🚨Note: Mentors are not allowed to participate in the event as student developers. If this situation is discovered during the event, the organizing committee will cancel their eligibility and will not issue bonuses or certificates for either role.

If you have any questions, please contact the organizing committee: org@summer-ospp.ac.cn.

1. What is OSPP

☀️ Introduction to the Open Source Promotion Plan

The Open Source Promotion Plan （OSPP）is a summer program organized by the Open Source Software Supply Chain Promotion Plan of the Institute of Software Chinese Academy of Sciences （ISCAS) in 2020. It aims to encourage university students to actively participate in the development and maintenance of open source software, cultivate and discover more outstanding developers, promote the vigorous development of excellent open source software communities, and assist in the construction of open source software supply chains

Officially launched in 2020, the program is now in its 7th edition.

In collaboration with leading open source organizations, the program offers development tasks centered on the evolution and maintenance of critical open source software projects and is open to university students worldwide. Students may apply for projects based on their interests and, upon selection, contribute under the guidance of project maintainers (organization mentors). Depending on project scope and delivery outcomes, participants who successfully complete their projects will receive remuneration and a certificate of completion.

Since its launch in 2020, OSPP has focused on improving the resilience and reliability of the open source software supply chain and addressing critical gaps across the ecosystem. Over the past six years, the program has engaged 288 open source organizations, which collectively published 3,487 project tasks. A total of 12,257 students from 1,026 universities worldwide participated in the program and successfully delivered solutions to 2,794 real-world project challenges. These outcomes have been incorporated into upstream releases and adopted in production environments. Through continuous collaboration, the initiative has gradually established a sustainable ecosystem in which industry contributes to open source communities, communities cultivate talent, and talent continuously empowers industry.

Starting in 2026, the Open Source Software Supply Chain Promotion Plan officially enters its 2.0 era—embracing the AI era with foundational software as its technical foundation and RISC-V as its ecosystem focus.

Driven by real-world requirements and hands-on engineering practice, OSPP is committed to cultivating urgently needed talent in foundational software. The program places strategic emphasis on RISC-V ecosystem development, with focus areas including operating systems, compilers, toolchains, databases, virtualization platforms, and artificial intelligence. By reinforcing open collaboration and technical innovation, the initiative continues to accelerate the maturity and long-term growth of the RISC-V ecosystem.

📍 Event Schedule

2. How to Become a Mentor

• Project mentors should be active developers in the community🧑‍💻, generally Maintainers, Committers, or Contributors related to the project.

• Mentors are recommended from within the community. When the community contact person adds project and mentor information to the system, an invitation email 📧 will be sent to the mentor, who can click the link in the email to log in to the system for identity verification.

• Mentors with existing accounts can log in with their original account and complete identity verification🪪.

• Each mentor can guide at most 2 projects.

• Mentors must log in to the mentor system and complete identity verification after the community liaison submits project information.

• 🚨 Mentors cannot participate in the event as student developers. If this situation is discovered during the event, the organizing committee will cancel their eligibility and will not issue bonuses or certificates for either role.

3. Mentor Responsibilities and Participation Process

*All processes will be operated in the system

📖 Project Types

Open Source Promotion Plan 2026 includes two project categories: Classic Track and Pioneer Program (invitation only).

Under the Classic Track, OSPP 2026 organizing committee only supports projects related to core foundational software and the RISC-V ecosystem.

Projects outside these focus areas may be independently sponsored by participating organizations, which will assume responsibility for project completion remuneration. These are classified as Organization-Sponsored Projects.

🔎 Preparing Project Details

Classic Track

Project details are prepared by mentors and submitted through the organization account by the organization contact.

Projects should be clearly scoped, well documented, and appropriately challenging to help students understand requirements and prepare strong proposals.

• Project Title
  The title should clearly and concisely reflect the technical focus and intended objectives.

• Project Description
  Include project background, existing progress, current limitations, expected improvements, and target deliverables.

• Project Difficulty Level
  Define difficulty based on requirements, project scope, technical complexity, estimated workload, and resource constraints.

• Technical Domain and Programming Language

• Expected Deliverables
  Define measurable outcomes, including expected deliverables and acceptance criteria.

• Technical Requirements
  Specify requirements such as programming languages, technology stack, development experience, or relevant competencies.

• Project Repository
  Provide an existing project repository maintained by the organization rather than creating an empty repository.

• Development Timeline
  Project duration ranges from 1 to 3 months.

• Estimated Workload
  Provide estimated development hours based on project complexity, deliverables, and expected student capability.

• Project Notes (Learning Resources)
  Provide supporting materials such as books, papers, blog posts, repositories, issue links, or technical documentation.

📖 Difficulty Levels

• Basic Level - RMB 3,500 (pre-tax)

• Advanced Level - RMB 5,000 (pre-tax)

Pioneer Program (Click to visit)

Participating communities publish Open Tracks.

• Invited communities publish 1–3 broad but clearly defined directions based on current technical priorities.

• Students engage with the community, identify specific problems under the published direction, and prepare a concise proposal.

• Students submit proposals directly through community-designated contact channels.

Communities organize Pitch Sessions.

• Communities periodically review submitted proposals through live discussions and provide immediate selection decisions.

After proposal confirmation:

• Mentors and students jointly refine requirements, scope, and deliverables.

• A formal project definition is generated following the same project specification requirements described above.

• The community submits the project through the system and designates the student account for formal application submission.

📖 Difficulty Levels

• Basic Level

• Advanced Level

• Challenging Level

Corresponding completion remuneration:

• RMB 6,000 (pre-tax)

• RMB 8,000 (pre-tax)

• RMB 10,000 (pre-tax)

Logging into the System for Identity Verification

• Mentors are recommended from within the community. When the community contact adds mentor information to the system, an invitation email is sent to the mentor. They can click the link in the email to log in and verify their identity.

• Mentors must log in to the mentor system after the community contact submits project information to complete personal information. Projects without mentor identity verification cannot be published on the official website.

• Mentors with existing accounts can log in using their original account and complete identity verification.

💬 Student Applications (Rolling) and Review

• During the application phase, mentors are expected to: communicate with prospective students; answer project-related questions; provide high-level technical guidance; share relevant technical materials; assist students in refining project proposals.

• Mentors should review each application within one week of submission.

• Projects without applicants or selected candidates remain open for applications.

• Projects approved by mentors proceed to organizing committee review. Only students approved by both the mentor and the organizing committee are officially recognized as selected participants. Organizations and mentors must not pre-select students, privately guarantee selection outcomes, or require students to begin development before official acceptance.

• The quality of the project proposal is the primary evaluation criterion. Accepted proposals will be published together with the final selection list.

• Pioneer Program students are also required to submit formal proposals through the system.

📖 Application Review

• During the mentor application review stage, mentors must review all applications and select one project application through the system. Mentors may modify their choice in the system within this period.

• Projects that pass mentor review will enter the community review stage.

• The quality of the project application is the primary standard for evaluating student applications, and the project application will be published simultaneously with the list of selected students on the official website.

🧑‍💻 Project Development（Based on Project Timeline）

• Mentors guide students in using common community communication tools (email, IRC, mailing lists, etc.), community code management platforms, and other tools, helping students adhere to community norms and integrate into the community.

• During project development, maintain regular communication with students to monitor their progress, ensuring they complete the project as planned. It's recommended to communicate at least once or twice a week.

• There is no mid-term evaluation. The community and mentors can conduct phase evaluations of student outcomes independently. If during development it is found that the student's actual performance deviates significantly from the expectations, the mentor has the right to apply to the organizing committee to terminate the project. If a student cannot continue due to special circumstances, they must apply to the mentor, community, and committee to terminate the project.

• Remind students to complete development work, submit PRs/MRs, and fill in the PR/MR links and project final report in the system by September 30th.

❗️Important Notes

1. Can mentors pre-select students or have students start development early?

• 🙅‍♀️Project selection results can only be confirmed after review by mentors, the community, and the organizing committee. Prior to the official announcement by the committee, the selection status of students is uncertain. Therefore, mentors are not allowed to pre-select students, make promises privately, or require students to start development early. Any development and PR/MR submissions made before the announcement will not be recognized for final review.

2. Can mentors assist students with development?

• 🙂‍↔️ Mentors must not guide students in code development, help debug the project or submit PRs/MRs on behalf of the student.

✍️ Project Review by Mentors

• The period from October 1 to October 31 is for the final audit by mentors and also the phase for merging student PRs/MRs. Mentors should drive the acceptance of student contributions by the community.

• Mentors must review the final outcomes according to the project completion standards by October 31 and fill in mentor comments based on the review results template in the system.

Project Review Criteria

Mentors refer to the following aspects for project reivew, filling in mentor comments per the review results template, and submitting them in the system:

• The project needs to be submitted to the open-source community repository in the form of PR/MR and merged.

• All PR/MR must be completed by the student within the specified time. The git email used by the student for submissions in the community repository must match the email used during registration.

• Whether the project development progress and outcomes meet the planned proposal and objectives outlined in the project application.

• Evaluate whether the project output meets the goals and requirements of the project.

• List the contributions made to the community.

• Evaluate the running status of project outputs.

• Evaluate the completeness of the project-related documents.

• For R & D projects, whether the report provides the corresponding test verification results.

• Other aspects that the community and mentor believe need to be evaluated.

📍 Organizing Committee Final Review

• The organizing committee organizes expert reviewers to assess the project outputs and provides a final evaluation conclusion (pass or fail) based on the synthesis of mentor reviews.

• After the announcement of the final audit, mentors with approved projects can download, sign, and upload the signed version of the mentor participation agreement electronically scanned copy and fill in the bank details in the system.

5. Organizer Statement

1. The organizers hold no claims to intellectual property rights over student-developed outcomes during the event.

2. Intellectual property outcomes are determined by the community based on the community's development contribution guidelines with students (e.g., signing a Contributor License Agreement).

3. Privacy Rights:

• The organizing body will process personal information provided during registration and subsequent event interactions to manage the event (including verifying eligibility, participating in the event, and sending notifications related to the event).

• Non-personally identifiable information will be used in aggregate for statistical purposes; the activity participation names created during registration will be publicly displayed on related websites, documents, and materials, and will be shared with the organizers to facilitate communication, answering questions, and review processes. Student submissions and contact information (email and activity participation name) will be shared by the organizers to manage the event.

• The organizing body may publicly disclose your participation in the event and the event's outcomes, including the names and content of accepted projects and the code you generated during project work. The organizing body may display your information, including activity participation name, project summary, and final project materials, on related websites (including but not limited to the OSPP official website, WeChat official account, etc.).

4. During the event, participants can access, update, delete, and restrict the processing of their personal information in their project documents. If you wish to edit such information after the event concludes or oppose processing or exporting it, contact the organizing body through official contact channels (website, email, WeChat official account).