Welcome​

Creating things is my passion. For most of my life, that meant art. I’d pour hours and hours into improving my drawings and characters. However, after taking an Electronics Class in high school, I found a new path for my desire to create. Now, I’m a full time Mechatronics Engineering student at NIU expected to graduate in Spring 2027, a member of my university’s Robotics Club, and looking to build a career where I can fully use my love of creation and innovation. Whenever I’m free, you’ll either find me drawing, or trying to learn something new.

I’m currently looking into learning or teaching myself more career relevant skills, such as:

• SolidWorks
• MatLab
• Arduino
• Microsoft Access

Art is still prevalent in my life. As a hobby I’m used to, it’s one of the easiest ways for me to create. However, I’ve become interested in learning other creative avenues, including:

• Game development (specifically, Godot)
• Comic Writing
• 2D & 3D Animation
• Music Composition

I’m currently seeking a summer internship in mechatronics engineering where I can use my creativity, and learn something new. Know any opportunities or want to reach out? Feel free to connect! Let’s create something amazing.

BP01 - Discovering Open Source

What is Open Source?

Open Source is a term used to describe software that has had its code made publically available and accessible. This allows for:

• Users of the software get transparency and know exactly whats going on behind the scenes of the programs they’re using
• Developers from outside the original team have the opportunity to contribute and continue/enhance development
• Aspiring developers can use this publicly viewable source code for reference in their own projects to see how someone else accomplished a certain task
• The creation of deviations of a project with certain modifications that may not be wanted in the original, but others find use in
• Projects being further maintained after the original devleopers abandon a project via third party developers.

  What Surprised Me?

  I learned some software I use is open source that I wasn’t expecting to be! For example - The Android operating system is open source, as well as the Windows Terminal and Calculator. I was also surprised to find that many larger corporations have numerous open source projects. Typically, I expect larger companies to be more protective of their work. Which leads into the next part of the prompt…

  Which Well-Known Companies and Projects Use Open Source?

  Google

  • Android
  • Chromium (for browsers)
    • Some other browsers that use this (besides Chrome) include Brave, Arc, and OperaGX
  • ChromiumOS (for Chromebooks)

    Microsoft

• Visual Studio Code
• Power Toys
• Windows Terminal
• Windows Calculator

  Apple

• Swift (programming language for software development)
• Password Management Resources

And more!

Why does it Matter?

Larger companies making their software open source allows for developers outside the original team to make contributions and modifications. It also allows for developers to build upon the software in their own ways for their own projects, so they can make something without building something potentially daunting from scratch

Here’s some cool projects that are open source:

• Godot - a game engine for 2D or 3D games. Some people also use it to make more general purpose software
• Blender - Powerful 3D modeling/animating software, as well as a video editor
• Blockbench - a lighter lowpoly 3D modeling software, more commonly used in the minecraft modding niche (though some artists can make some really cool stuff with it outside of minecraft)
• Krita - a digital illustration software with some animation functionality. Basically free photoshop for digital artists. I used to use this, its pretty good!
• OpenToonz - A 2D animation software. Studio Ghibli uses a customized version of this in their workflow
• GIMP - an image manipulator
• BeepBox - Music making software that operates in your browser. The song is saved in the url.
  • Has lots of forks, such as JummBox, PaandorasBox, and UltraBox

BP02 - GitHub and Markdown

Prompt:

“What I learned about Markdown and Git, and how they help me contribute to open source and improve professionally. Have you use them before? What surprised you about Markdown or Git?”

What have I learned about Markdown and Git?

Markdown is super simple. Its used in a lot of places I didn’t originally realize, such as Discord, and Microsoft Teams. Its very helpful for versatile formatting that simply raw text cannot accomplish. Git is a software for managing the development of programs. GitHub is built on Git, and runs in the cloud. Git is also made by the same person who made Linux, Linus Torvalds.

How do they help me contribute to open source?

Markdown helps clearly communicate ideas. This can be in the form of documentation for how to use a software, or in discussions when evaluating new potential features and progress for a project. Git is important to understand the background of what an open source project is doing. It is also important to understand what the standard procedure is for contributing to collaborative developments that use Git, so as to not interrupt the work from other devs.

How do they help me improve professionally?

Many projects I have been involved in used GitHub in some way, which is built on Git. Understanding Git allows me to better and more efficiently contribute to these projects. Markdown allows for professional, versitile, and effective formatting of ideas I want to communicate. This can be used to ensure important details are emphasized and making a given post appear more polished.

Have I used them before?

I’ve used Markdown in Discord and Microsoft Teams. Discord has its own modified version of Markdown. While many bits of Markdown are missing in Discord’s version of it, it does add some of its own features. For example, you can underline something by using underscores instead of HTML tags! The extent that I’ve used Git is only what we’ve done in class, and any time I’ve used it by messing with GitHub. This includes referencing a friend’s code for a minecraft mod, accessing downloads for open source projects, and messing with the GitHub Pages (for a since discarded repo).

What surprised me about Markdown or Git?

Git looks intimidating with the terminal, but really its still the same features. Instead of a visual GUI like with GitHub, information and tasks are accessed with their respective commands.

Markdown in Github is very, very versatile. I learned about new features like footnotes and alerts. Anything Markdown doesn’t directly cover can be supplemented with HTML!

BP03 - Repo Exploration

Prompt:

How I chose a repository to explore and what I found interesting about its structure, community, and contribution process

During today’s class, I chose to evaluate the repository for Aseprite, a popular pixel art and animation editor that I have a decent amount of experience with.

I decided to evaluate this repository since I was curious about how a project I use so often was maintained.

Some things I found interesting about the structure of Aseprite’s Repository:

• The Contribution and Code of Conduct sections were beside the README
• The 3 liscense distributions were listed in the README
• Its communities are linked to with Discord and their own site
• For contributing and engagine with the community, they have a Code of Conduct

While the issues and pull requests are actively closed, the developers don’t seem to be that responsive to issues in the comments.

With the table from this class’s activity, here’s how I would rate it:

Criteria	✅ Yes	⚠️ Partially	❌ No
1. Clear README – Includes project purpose, setup instructions, usage, and examples.	✅
2. CONTRIBUTING Guide Available – Explains how to contribute, coding standards, or where to start.	✅
3. License is Included – Specifies how the code can be used, modified, and shared.	✅
4. Beginner-Friendly Labels Exist – e.g., good first issue, help wanted, etc.	✅
5. Recent Activity – Commits, issues, or PRs active in the last 1–2 months.	✅
6. Maintainers Respond – Signs of regular interaction with contributors.			❌
7. Welcoming Community Tone – Issue threads and PRs show respectful, helpful communication.		⚠️
8. Match to Your Interests / Skills – Aligns with your learning goals or academic interests.		⚠️

BP04 - Explore Open Source Revealjs

Prompt:

“Reveal.js: My First Deep Dive into an Open Source Project” - After exploring Reveal.js, describe how it’s structured, what it’s for, and what you found interesting about the way the project is documented and maintained. Could you imagine yourself contributing to this? Why or why not?

What is Revealjs used for?

Reavealjs is a framework for making professional looking slideshows with HTML by Hakim. These can either be hosted locally, or on the cloud and act as websites.

Docmentation

Revealjs’s README seems to have a wiki linked for its doumentation. The linked installation guide is clear on what the basics are, while also pointing to the more advanced stuff if you want to. Right next to the README tab, they provide guidelines on contributing. In the provided file and linked to on the site, demonstrations are provided!

Maintenance

The labels for issues are pretty intuitive and beginner friendly. However, the issues made aren’t labeled with these. The most recent pull request was made a week ago, so its pretty active!

Could I imagine myself contributing to this?

No, as I am unsure what I could meaningfully contribute to. I know some basic HTML so I at most could add templates for others to use to be bundled. Beyond that, I do not know Javascript or anything relevant to Revealjs’s deveopment.

Overall…

Revealjs is a pretty cool project. Its cool to have a versatile tool available for free, and as something that can be a tool for potentially creating specific types of webpages.

BP05 - Open Source Licensing

Blog Prompt: “Ownership, Access, and Innovation: What I Learned About Licensing.”

• Reflect on something you learned about open source licenses (e.g., MIT vs GPL, what’s allowed, what’s restricted).
• How did the Tetris movie shape your understanding of software ownership and distribution?
• What surprised or intrigued you about NIU’s approach to IP, patents, and tech transfer?
• How do you think licensing empowers or complicates open innovation?

Reflection on Open Source Licensing

During the past two weeks, we’ve been given several items in relation to open source licensing. One of the most interesting to me was Copyleft. I’ve only ever heard of Copyright, so the name sounded silly. Despite the naming, copyleft is really useful. It essentially allows anyone to use and modify the work, but with the condition that you also have to grant similar rights to the public in some way.

How did the Tetris Movie Shape my Understanding of Software Ownership & Distribution?

I found the movie somewhat hard to follow. However, what I could tell was that international software rights can get complicated. Alongside this, miscommunications can lead to a lot of confusion with who owns what. Software rights also can be categorized and seperated by device - in the movie, the right to Tetris for Video Games were sperate from Arcade rights and Computer rights.

What Surprised or Intrigued Me About NIU’s Approach to IP, Patents, and Tech Transfer?

I learned that either working for NIU or using a sufficient amount of NIU’s resources to innovate or invent something can potentially have NIU own the rights to whatever you make. However, using resources such as software or the provided internet doesn’t necessarily warrant this.

How Does Licensing Empower or Complicate Open Innovation?

There are many ways that liscensing can empower innovation:

• Licensing clearly outlines how a work can be used for other developers
• Licensing allows developers to protect their work and decide how they want it to be distributed or modified
• In the case of Copyleft, licensing can allow other developers to use a work, but forces them to “pass on the favor” and allow other developers to have the same ability with the modified work
• Public Domain licensing allows for developers to safely and freely modify a work however they choose

BP06 - Global Hack Week

Blog Prompt: “My experience participating in MLH Global Hack Week: what I learned, what I contributed, and who I connected with.” Write about: What you learned from participating in MLH Global Hack Week What contribution (or challenge) you made Who you connected with or learned from How this experience shaped your view of open source collaboration

What I learned?

For Global Hack Week, I joined the second livestream for Figma to Code: Learning Design with Figma Dev Mode. Figma is a tool I’ve been interested in for website designing and creation, and this livestream gave a simple and informative rundown of the basics. I also learned from the livestream that there is a student option for certain premium features. One of the features I was disappointed in not having access to was Figma’s generated code from the graphics you design, so I hope to later look into seeing if this is included.

Contribution/Challenge

For this workshop, we worked along with Ryan Lay from Major League Hacking in, at first, exploring the basic features, and then later trying to design vegetable themed trading cards in the canvas. I attempted to follow along in a Figma Design. I found the stream slightly hard to keep up with since they were going fast, along with the fact that Twitch doesn’t currently have an option to rewind livestreams. An archive of the stream is present on YouTube, so I hope to try again another time with following along with the basics.

I didn’t know before today how versatile and collaborative Figma can be, beyond knowing it was a tool for web design. The collaborative options can definitely help with open source when attempting to make a website with a community for a project. Figma is also decently beginner friendly, without needing to know how to code to use it. Later, I hope to use this to design and develop my own personal website and portfolio! I plan on applying to the student benefits as well, which will potentially make this development easier.

BP07 - Contribution and Communication in Open Source

Blog Prompt

What counts as a contribution in open source?

My thoughts on the value of code and non-code contributions.

How diagrams help clarify a workflows.

How communication and collaboration shape successful non code contributions.

What non code contribution opportunities did you find?

What counts as a contribution in open source?

In open source, a contribution is any addition made to a repo the contributer has access to. While this is generally thought of as code, there are other ways to contribute - including:

• Adding to documentation
• Providing translations for the software
• Providing assets

My thoughts on the value of code and non-code contributions.

Code is a crucial part of developing open source software. However, many projects do not rely purely on code to function. Translating a project provides accessibility to users who do not speak the language the project was originally in. Assets can make a software feel better to use. Adding to documentation is crucial in order for newcomers to understand how to use the software, and for long time users to understand niche or recently implemented features. None of these explicitly require code (or at minimum, soley rely on it), but are still important to the development and progression of many softwares.

How communication and collaboration shape successful non code contributions.

Effective communication ensures that when members go to make contributions, they distribute their efforts properly. If someone is already working on a given issue, you don’t want another contributer to waste time developing something that is already being worked on.

What non code contribution opportunities did you find?

A classmate owns a repo for a project called FuzzRGB. They earlier requested me to make a logo for the README, and this felt like a fitting non-code contribution for the project.