Ryan Curtin
Dr. Ryan Curtin is an independent researcher and open-source software developer, leading the development and maintenance of several packages in the C++ scientific software ecosystem. During his Ph.D. at Georgia Tech he focused on the formalization of dual-tree algorithms, a class of geometric branch-and-bound algorithms that can be used to solve subproblems relevant to machine learning techniques. These algorithms underlie the efficient mlpack C++ machine learning library, which he has
led since 2010. In his free time, he races go-karts, so he never escapes from trying to go fast in one way or another.
Session
In Fall 2025, the UConn School of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Manufacturing Engineering launched Open Source Experiences, an elective course developed in partnership with six NumFOCUS-supported projects (napari, BiocPy, Blosc, MNE-Python, mlpack, JuliaHub). The course embedded students directly into active open source communities, where they contributed to the codebases, collaborated with project maintainers, and learned about community-driven open source software development. In this talk, we will share the lessons learned from piloting this collaboration model, and how these experiences benefit students, open source and open science communities, and educators alike. Attendees will take away actionable insights for integrating open source contributions into their own classrooms and programs.