Speakers
Description
A year ago, I attended Opportunity Open Source as a participant, inspired by the people building and maintaining open-source software. At that time, I had little experience contributing. Since then, I have spent the past year contributing to OpenPrinting, learning how maintainers review pull requests, how large codebases work, and what makes a contribution valuable.
During the same period, AI coding assistants have become a normal part of software development. They can explain unfamiliar code, suggest implementations, generate tests, and help developers become productive faster. However, they can also encourage low-quality contributions when used without understanding the project, its architecture, or its community guidelines.
This talk combines my personal journey into open source with practical lessons on responsible AI-assisted development. Through real examples from my contributions, I will demonstrate where AI genuinely accelerates learning and development, where it can mislead contributors, and how developers can transform AI-generated ideas into meaningful, reviewable pull requests.
The session is intended for students, first-time contributors, and developers interested in contributing to open source with the help of AI while respecting maintainers, project standards, and community values.
Attendees will leave with practical strategies for making better contributions, collaborating effectively with maintainers, and using AI as a learning partner rather than a shortcut.
Session author's bio
Ayush Singh is a Computer Science student and an active contributor to OpenPrinting. Over the past year, he has worked on open-source projects, collaborated with maintainers, and explored how AI can improve the contribution workflow without compromising software quality. He is passionate about helping students take their first steps into open source and sharing practical lessons from his own journey.
Any other info we should know?
Schedule on Aug 29 or 30
The audience will learn:
• How to start contributing to open source.
• Practical ways to use AI while contributing.
• Common reasons AI-generated pull requests are rejected.
• How maintainers evaluate contributions.
• Best practices for writing high-quality pull requests.
• Lessons from my first year contributing to OpenPrinting.
The talk is beginner-friendly with practical demonstrations and real examples rather than theory.
Special accommodations
No special accommodations required. Standard presentation setup (projector/display and microphone) is sufficient.
| Level of Difficulty | Beginner |
|---|---|
| In Person Attendance | In-person |
| Agree to Privacy Policy and Notice | I agree |
| Please confirm that there are included headshots of all speakers in their profiles | Yes |