Apprenticeship periods at university, working on Ubuntu!

[Vincenzo Ciancia]

Hi all,

I am a Ph.D. student at university of Pisa, Italy. 

Here in Italy, undergraduate students need to do an apprenticeship
period to graduate. The goal of this period, which can last either 300
or 450 hours, depending on the student needs in terms of credits, is to
"specify, design, realize or test" a computer system or program. A
student can either take an "external" apprenticeship in a local company,
or an internal period at university, mentored by a teacher.

I think that it would be useful both to the student and the community if
there where internal apprenticeship projects aimed to improve ubuntu. In
particular, a student would learn how to work with free software, in an
open and widely distributed community. This is knowledge that raises its
value from day to day.

Refining and implmementing existing blueprints in ubuntu comes to mind
as a project. I am investigating the local regulations, which are
available, in italian only, here:

http://compass2.di.unipi.it/didattica/iap/DOC/regolamento%20tirocini%
20IAP.htm

but in the meantime I would like to check if there is some people at
ubuntu who is able to mentor a student from inside. The idea is to let
the student write from scratch or refine an existing blueprint, jointly
chosen by a person here (probably me) and the mentor at ubuntu, then to
discuss and approve the final version, then let the student implement
it. 

An important thing that I would like to ensure is that, if the blueprint
has been approved, and the implementation is satisfying, the new piece
of software IS included in the next release of ubuntu. This is needed,
in my opinion, to attract students to the project, and it is also due,
since students are obliged to work for free: at least let them see their
work being used by the community.

I have three topics in mind, that are likely easy enough for a student,
but low-priority enough that they still are lacking functionality in
ubuntu.

1) home user backup would need to be done on-the-fly and to be
integrated in ubuntu menus

2) DSL connection needs a good configuration tool, and integration in
network manager for those who have pay-per-time DSL connection (and
possibly roam to other DSL connections).

3) Ethernet needs (in my opinion) support in network manager for those
networks that do not have dhcp (say "create new ethernet connection with
name...") and for 802.1x ethernet support out-of-the-box (see LP bug
#82113).

Someone willing to mentor, or suggestions?

Thanks and bye

Vincenzo