A new Open Source Software Development Center is open at University of Belgrade, Serbia. It centers around using Java & NetBeans as open source projects to learn from and contribute to. Assistant Professor Zoran Sevarac says that not only does the center allow him to teach software development using open source projects, but also "we are improving our University courses based on the experience we get from working on open source code." 

Some of the projects underway are a NetBeans UML plugin; Neuroph (a Java neural network framework, with a NetBeans Platform-based UI); a NetBeans DOAP Plugin; WorkieTalkie (NetBeans chat plugin); and 2D and 3D visualization plugins for NetBeans.

University of Belgrade also has an official university course about open source development, where students learn to use development tools, work in teams, participate in open source projects and learn from real world software development projects.

Students, teachers, and researchers at the University of Belgrade, and any member of the open source community are welcome to come to learn software development from successful open source projects. For more information, you can contact Zoran Sevarac (@neuroph on Twitter).