Looking back at the UMN episode

There is a program[1] at my alma mater that worked out pretty well (at least it was when I was there and for years after that, though the main profs behind it have since retired). The associated class had an assignment to engage with an existing project and contribute in some way (I chose Wesnoth and got a few patches in). Later, I went back after graduating to help out with a Linux kernel patch submission and even got one in myself (cleaning up a long-neglected network driver whitespace and `printk` usage pattern updates). I had been doing KDE and Fedora work already by that point, so I wasn't new to it, but I think it helped many at least interact with some communities out there.

I will say that this is by far focused on students rather than researchers, but professors are engaged with the program. I just don't know how relevant it is to their research.

[1]https://rcos.io/