The OpenDaylight Project, a community-led and industry-supported open source platform to advance Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), today announced the availability of eight internships for students seeking real-world development experience from leading networking technologists while contributing to the industry's largest open source SDN and NFV platform.

The third annual OpenDaylight Internship Program reflects the growing demand for developers with expertise in SDN and NFV with over 260 jobs available from a range of companies including Comcast, Dell, Ericsson, Red Hat, and more. As the OpenDaylight community prepares for its fourth and fifth software releases in 2016, interns will work directly with code alongside world-class developers who are delivering the industry's de facto open source platform for SDN and NFV.

"The OpenDaylight internship program gives participants hands-on experience with some of the most cutting-edge concepts in the networking industry. Open source networking is growing by leaps and bounds and there is no better way to meet people and gain real world experience than as a developer on the open source OpenDaylight Project," said Neela Jacques, executive director, OpenDaylight. "More and more companies are seeking talent with expertise in OpenDaylight. This program provides an amazing opportunity for young developers looking to get ahead in the job market."

OpenDaylight interns will have the opportunity to build their knowledge of both traditional and emerging networking concepts as they work closely with OpenDaylight community mentors on projects such as SDN Proof-of-Concepts, Internet of Things (IoT) using Unified Secure Channel (USC), Longevity Test Framework for OpenDaylight, or on self-submitted projects. Eight internship opportunities are available through OpenDaylight directly for college students, who will work remotely and receive a stipend. The deadline to apply is January 29, 2016 and the program runs from May 23 to August 29, 2016. For details and to apply, please visit https://www.opendaylight.org/opendaylight-summer-internship-program.

In addition, a reimbursed trip to the OpenDaylight Summit in September 2016 is included with each internship as well as the opportunity to present their work during the Summit.