Smith School Professor Receives $500,000 National Science Foundation Award

Katherine Stewart, an assistant professor in the Decision and Information Technologies Department at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, has received a $500,000 Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The award, which is for five years, will enable Stewart to examine factors that influence successful uses and applications of Open Source Software (OSS). The most commonly known OSS is Linux, the operating system that is considered a competitor to Microsoft's Windows.

"One benefit of this research will be identifying what contributes to the adoption of Open Source Software," says Stewart. "This information will help companies and organizations that are making decisions about investing their time and money in an OSS program."

Stewart will also study how organizations integrate OSS in their systems and why some organizations are more successful than others using OSS. She will look at the development process for OSS to see if it can be applied to non-software products and services. OSS development often depends on volunteers who work in teams and coordinate their activities without the oversight of one major organization. Also, what they produce is usually provided to others for free.

The NSF grant includes integrating OSS into Stewart's teaching activities and the curriculum at the Smith School.

"I hope that more students will graduate from the Smith School with a greater understanding of OSS and how to use it," says Stewart.

Although OSS has been around for decades its use by software developers, businesses, government, and academic researchers has increased over the past several years. SourceForge.net, a Web site dedicated to OSS development created five years ago, now has more than 795,000 registered users and 76,000 registered projects. Additionally, IBM, Dell, Netscape, and Oracle have publicly committed to supporting OSS.

The NSF CAREER Program recognizes and supports the early career development activities of teacher-scholars that are most likely to become the academic leaders of the 21st century. NSF selects CAREER awardees on the basis of creative, career development plans that effectively integrate research and education within their institution.