OSPOSIUM

Open Source Program Office Symposium, Incubator, and User Meeting
September 23—24, 2026

The University of Texas System Open Source Program Office (Texas-OSPO) will be hosting the Open Source Program Office Symposium, Incubator, and User Meeting (OSPOSIUM).

The OSPOSIUM will bring together a broad set of scientists, engineers, students, and researchers from across the UT system who use, or are interested in using, open source software to advance their research. This meeting will feature a series of talks and panels highlighting efforts to date and featuring opportunities to collaborate. The event will consist of a full day of presentations with a reception on Wednesday, September 23, followed by a student-focused event, “Open to Work” on Thursday, September 24. This meeting will immediately follow TACCSTER 2026, the two-day annual symposium for Texas-based users of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC).

This meeting is an opportunity to:

Hear about Texas-OSPO’s events and services
Listen to invited speakers from a range of disciplines
Participate in a friendly and conversational sessions with other open source software developers and researchers
Network with your fellow Texas-based researchers

For interested students, we will offer a limited number of stipends to attend both the OSPOSIUM and TACCSTER events.

The meeting will be in person at TACC on the J.J. Pickle Research Campus, part of The University of Texas at Austin.

Registration Closed

Registration closes September 9, 2026.

Location & Lodging

The OSPOSIUM will be held in the ACB building on the J.J. Pickle Research Campus (PRC) of The University of Texas at Austin.

10505 Exploration Way
Austin, TX, 78758

Visit TACC's Contact Us page for directions, travel options, and additional helpful information. Lodging recommendations can be found here (hotels on Domain Dr. close enough to walk).

Agenda

Day 1: Wednesday September 23, 2026

8:30am	Breakfast (TACC Lobby)
9:00am	Welcome Dr. Jennifer Schopf PI, University of Texas System Open Source Program Office (Texas-OSPO)
9:15am	The State of Open Source Software across UT System Moderator: Dr. Jennifer Schopf Panelists: Dr. Salamah Salamah UTEP-OSPO Director, Associate Vice President for Scientific Computing and AI, UT El Paso Gabe Cavazos UTD-OSPO Director, Assistant Vice President for Research Data and Information Systems, UT Dallas Dr. Jessica Abel UTSA-OSPO Director, UT San Antonio Dr. W. Joe Allen Lead, University of Texas System Research Cyberinfrastructure Initiative (UTRC)
10:15am	Break
10:45am	Open Source Software Researcher Success Stories Moderator: Gabe Cavazos Panelists: Dr. Masa Prodanovic Professor and Associate Department Chair, Petroleum Engineering, UT Austin Dr. Natalia Villanueva Rosales Associate Professor of Computer Science, UTEP Dr. Patrick Brandt Professor, Political Science, UT Dallas Dr. Peter Fox Director, Research Imaging Institute; Director, Radiological Science Graduate Program; Vice Chair for Research, Department of Radiology; Professor, Departments of Radiology, Neurology, Psychiatry and Physiology, UT San Antonio
11:45am	Lunch and TACC Tours Tour 1: 11:45-12:15 Tour 2: 12:45-1:15
1:15pm	Group Photo (TACC Lobby)
1:25pm	Open Source Software and Technology Transfer Moderator: Dr. Salamah Salamah Panelists: Jacob Croft Director of Licensing and Commercialization, UT El Paso Agapito Sustaita Senior Licensing Specialist and Attorney, UT Austin
2:15pm	Break
2:45pm	Student Led Initiatives in Open Source Software Moderator: Bianca Alvarez, UTEP Panelists: Abhiram Tadepalli President of Nebula Labs, UT Dallas Ray Castaneda President for FOSS, MSCS student, UT El Paso Anudeep Bonagiri Co-Founder & CEO, Cruze Maps, Rowdy Launch, UT San Antonio Manoj Kumar Finance Officer for ACM, UT Austin Kamsi Elele Longhorn Developers, UT Austin
4:00pm	Closing Keynote Dr. Josh Greenberg The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
5:00pm	Reception

Day 2: Thursday September 24, 2026 (Half Day) | Open to Work Event

8:00am	Breakfast (TACC Lobby)
8:30am	Welcome Gabe Cavazos Director, UT Dallas-OSPO Colleen Gleeson Associate Director Employer Integration, The Graduate Office of Career and Life Design Dr. Savneet Bains Program Manager for Industry Experiences, The Graduate Office of Career and Life Design
8:35am	Using Open Source Software in Your Industry Career Guneet Bedi Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Americas, Arduino
9:10am	Using Open Source Software in Your Academic Career Dr. Joe Stubbs Research Scientist, Cloud and Interactive Computing, Texas Advanced Computing Center
9:45am	Break
10:00am	Navigating Technical Interviews Joanne Marime Senior Technical Program Manager, Microsoft Namrata Sapra Senior Manager for Demand Planning, Microsoft
11:15am	Career Exploration and Job Searching Colleen Gleeson Associate Director Employer Integration, The Graduate Office of Career and Life Design
12:00pm	Networking and Lunch