In 2007, student researchers from the College of Engineering will be studying the use of open source software. The study will be under the supervision of Professor Joel West, and build upon his previous research on both open source software and the mobile phone industry.

The study is part of a two semester (quasi-thesis) project on the changing mobile handset value network in the U.S., Europe and Japan, considering the relationship between OS makers, chip makers, handset makers and cellular network providers. One of the key tasks of the project will be examining the role that embedded Linux is having on this value network.

The two student researchers are

• Germán Benitez
• Eduardo Sánchez

We are excited to be conducting this study on such dynamic example of open source software, and look forward to posting preliminary results from our study later this year.