In this version of our open supply information roundup, we check out NASA’s open supply mars rover, Rome’s newest open supply efforts, two new analysis initiatives, and extra.
NASA open sources design for a Martian rover
Do you wish to construct your personal Mars rover? Of course you do! And now you possibly can, due to NASA’s JPL Open Source Rover (OSR for brief).
The aim of OSR, which is a smaller model of the Curiosity rover, is “to encourage students, hobbyists, and enthusiasts to work on rover technology.” Anyone can grab the plans off GitHub and might “decide what controllers to use, to add USB cameras or solar panels, builders can also attach science payloads.” Better nonetheless, NASA says that “tech developed by builders of the rovers could be used on future missions on Earth and in space.” So get constructing!
Rome begins going open supply
In late 2017, the town of Rome introduced that it might begin putting in LibreOffice on its hundreds of workstations. That initiative is finally underway.
While the town’s IT workers put in LibreOffice on 14,000 workstations in April of this yr, they not too long ago started “making LibreOffice the only available suite of office productivity tools on its workstations.” The metropolis additionally has “112 staff members who are in favor of free and open source” who’re championing the change and who “encourage their colleagues to find out more by pointing them to a Moodle-based eLearning portal.”
New open supply analysis initiatives
It’s no secret that open supply software program is used throughout quite a few scientific disciplines. Two initiatives are demonstrating the pliability and utility of open supply in scientific analysis.
First up, the OpenSim project. OpenSim is a motion simulator which has not too long ago “been expanded and improved.” The enhancements to the software program, described as “a Swiss Army knife for the movement scientist,” will assist researchers develop “accurate models of muscle dynamics, joint kinematics, and assistive devices, which will aid in rehabilitation studies.”
Next, an open source 3D bioprinter developed on the University of Toronto. While most bioprinters may be prohibitively costly, the University of Toronto staff created theirs for about $three,000 (CAD). The printer can generate “branching, interconnected vessel systems of small, vein-like microvessels and larger macrovessels.” Scientists can then seed what the printer churns out with cells to supply extra complicated blood vessels.
Scotiabank makes a few of its software program open supply
In an uncharacteristic transfer for a big monetary establishment, Canada’s Scotiabank is sharing some “bank-developed applications with the open-source software community.”
The software program is a part of the Scotiabank’s Accelerator Pipeline toolchain, which helps “the bank’s application teams create new services more rapidly.” Available on GitHub, the software program “has cut the time required to prove that new services meet the bank’s stringent control objectives from one month to about an hour.”
In different information
Thanks, as all the time, to Opensource.com workers members and moderators for his or her assist this week. Make positive to take a look at our event calendar to see what’s occurring subsequent week in open supply.