OSL 2.0 #
Open Science Labs (OSL) was born in 2015, when I was working at a transportation engineering lab. The idea was simple: help researchers bring open science into their daily work.
After a few months, life took me in other directions, and OSL went on pause.
In 2018, a few friends were looking for their first jobs in tech. I decided to reactivate OSL (back then called Open Data Science Labs) to support them with mentoring and internships, and to connect them to open source projects in research settings.
Through this initiative, my friends Sandro Loch and Elton Santana started contributing to a scientific project I had previously worked on: Alerta Dengue, led by professor Flavio Coelho. A few months later, both of them were hired.
That was the real beginning of OSL. It matched what moves me most: helping people grow while helping open source projects move forward.
Growing together #
From there, OSL started many kinds of activities: mentoring, open source incubation, internships, translations, webinars, and more.
We received support from wonderful people and friends like Francisco Palm, Mariangela Petrizzo, Ever Vino, Eunice Rodas, Luis Gago, Agustina Pesce, Sandro Loch, and many others.
New interns joined too, such as Luã Bida, Anaveliz Perez, and Yurely Camacho, who helped keep many internal projects moving. Later, Anaveliz also helped coordinate our activities related to Google Summer of Code (GSoC).
And speaking of GSoC, we are deeply grateful to Gagandeep Singh for his guidance and support over the years.
Our partners along the way #
OSL also received direct and indirect support from several partners, including: Alerta Dengue, The GRAPH Network, The GRAPH Courses, pyOpenSci, LiteRev, and IGDORE.
A big thank you to Olivia Keiser, Sara Botero, Flavio Coelho, Aziza, Erol Orel, and many others for the opportunities and trust.
We are also very grateful to the Python Software Foundation, which supported us with three grants to help maintain three affiliated projects: SciCookie, Makim, and ASTx.
These grants allowed us to hire amazing former interns like Anaveliz, Yurely, Abhijeet, and Ana Paula.
The game changer: Google Summer of Code #
A big turning point for our community was joining the Google Summer of Code program.
In the first two years, we joined GSoC under the umbrella of NumFOCUS, who opened the doors for us. Later, in 2025, OSL was accepted as an official GSoC Mentoring Organization.
GSoC put us “on the map” for newcomers, which has always been one of our main audiences. Many new people started reaching out to participate in GSoC with OSL. This was beautiful—but also challenging.
We were not fully prepared for such a large number of candidates. It was hard to manage, and we learned a lot in the process.
GSoC 2026 has not yet been announced, and we are already receiving messages from new candidates. This is one of the reasons we felt the need to pause, look at ourselves, and clarify our mission, motivation, and purpose.
We want to make these clear and public so that people join us because they connect with our values, not only because of GSoC. Otherwise, many might feel disappointed, since only a few can be selected each year.
You can read more about our mission, motivation, and purpose here. Below is a short summary.
Our core: Growth, Collaboration, Impact #
The three core values that represent our community are:
- Growth
- Collaboration
- Impact
We are building a community where anyone who shares these values has a space to:
- Learn and grow
- Contribute to real projects
- Create a positive impact in the world
We truly believe that open source is a powerful way to connect people who want experience with maintainers who need contributors.
Today, only a small fraction of students manage to work in the field they studied after finishing university. That's the gap OSL is trying to help fill.
We don't want followers, we want leaders #
The focus of OSL is not to create followers, but to help people become leaders.
We want people in our community who feel our projects as their projects, with the same love and passion that we put into them.
Of course, each person grows at their own pace. It can take time to understand the architecture, roadmap, and purpose of a project. It can also take time before you feel confident to contribute independently or receive an invitation to become a maintainer.
That's normal. Don't give up.
Keep moving forward. Ask for feedback. Use every step to grow.
As Jim Kwik says in his Super Brain course:
“Practice doesn't make perfect. Practice makes progress.”
Thank you 💚 #
Before closing, I want to say a special thank you to some amazing collaborators who have helped us more actively in different projects and initiatives: Sandro Loch, Ever Vino, Felipe Paes, Satarupa Deb, Yuvi Mittal, Aniket Kumar, Abhijeet, and all our interns, mentors, former steering council members, and partners.
Thank you all for being part of our lives and our journey. Together, we are building a welcoming place where people can grow, contribute, and make a real difference.
OSL 2.0 is not just a new phase of a project. It is a new chapter in a community of people who care.