Rust Edu

Announcing the 2026 Rust-Edu Refresh and CFP

Mordecai Etukudo — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A New Chapter for Rust-Edu

We are making a fresh start on Rust-Edu https://rust-edu.org.

Founded several years ago, Rust-Edu was created with a clear mission: to promote Rust education globally, with a strong focus on bringing Rust into academia. Thanks to an early and generous contribution from FutureWei, the initiative was able to take its first steps toward that vision.

Since then, Rust-Edu has supported the development of educational content and curricula, collaborated with educators and communities, and helped spread awareness of Rust within academic circles. Along the way, we’ve also contributed directly to teaching and learning efforts within the ecosystem.

However, like many grassroots initiatives, sustaining momentum hasn’t been easy. Building and maintaining a consistent, long-term team has proven challenging; eventually Rust-Edu became a largely solo effort. But things are changing.

Recently, Mordecai Etukudo of Rust Africa and I have been working closely together to revitalize Rust-Edu. Mordecai's energy, organizational experience, and commitment to community growth have brought new life to Rust-Edu efforts. Together, we’re focused on rebuilding the organization into a more structured, collaborative, and impactful initiative.

Where You Come In

This next phase of Rust-Edu is not something we want to build alone: we want to build it with you.

We’re looking for individuals who are passionate about Rust education, particularly in academic environments, and who are excited to contribute their time, ideas, and experience. Whether you're an educator, developer, student, or community builder, there’s a place for you here.

Please join us on our Rust-Edu Zulip chat. Visit the CFP chat channel where we'll figure this out together.

In addition, we are forming a Rust-Edu Organizing Committee a group of committed contributors who will help guide and lead our upcoming initiatives. This will involve regular collaboration, planning, and execution of programs that push Rust education forward. If this sounds like something you want to be a part of, please do fill out our application form.

Apply here

Looking Ahead

We’re optimistic about what lies ahead.

With the right people, shared vision, and consistent effort, we believe Rust-Edu can play a meaningful role in shaping how Rust is taught and adopted in universities around the world.

Campus Tour: Rust Africa

Mordecai Etukudo — Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Rust Africa Campus Tour: Empowering the Next Generation

Over the past few months, Rust Africa has been on an ambitious journey: taking the Rust programming language directly to campuses across the continent. The Rust Africa Campus Tour is more than a series of visits — it’s a movement to empower the next generation of African developers with tools, skills, and community centered around Rust.

Why a Campus Tour?

Campuses are the breeding ground for tomorrow’s software engineers, innovators, and open-source contributors. The Rust Africa Campus Tour was born from the belief that exposure to modern, powerful, and safe programming languages like Rust can unlock new levels of creativity and capability among African students

What Happens on the Tour?

Each stop on the tour includes a carefully curated mix of interactive workshops, technical talks, live coding sessions, and community building activities. Students are introduced to:

The fundamentals of the Rust programming language
How Rust compares with other languages like C++
Real-world applications of Rust (web, embedded systems, blockchain, etc.)
Open source contribution and Rust community involvement

Where We've Been

THE BUIDL

The BUIDL is a technical hub at the forefront of accelerating Rust education in Northern Nigeria, particularly in Kaduna. With a strong focus on open-source contributions and embedded systems, they have embraced Rust as a foundational skill for building safe and high-performance applications in resource-constrained environments.

Rust Africa, through its close collaboration with Rust Nigeria, has played a pivotal role in amplifying BUIDL's initiatives. Together, we've supported their weekly Rust classes, community meetups, and hands-on workshops that empower learners to apply Rust in areas such as embedded systems, systems programming, and real-world problem-solving. Our shared mission is to bridge the knowledge gap by equipping students and early developers with practical Rust expertise that opens doors to modern, reliable, and scalable technology development.

University of Benin (UNIBEN)

Our partnership with the department of Computer Engineering at the University of Benin has enabled us to birth a strong Rust developer community within the school.

Since our initial engagement in 2024, Rust Africa has worked hand in hand with Rust Nigeria to introduce students to Rust through study groups, and department-backed workshops.

A major milestone in this collaboration was the introduction of Rust Nigeria internships for UNIBEN students. These internships provided hands-on experience with real-world Rust projects, mentorship from industry professionals, and a deeper understanding of Rust’s practical applications in software engineering. This initiative gave students direct exposure to the ecosystem while nurturing their growth into confident, job-ready Rust developers. By integrating Rust into embedded systems projects and training sessions, students are now exploring the power of Rust in low-level programming, IoT development, and real-time systems. We look forward to seeing what this rapidly growing hub becomes in the future.

Jacky Felly Nafack Hightech University Institute (JFN HUI)

Through Rust Cameroon's lead efforts, we were able to sponsor and facilitate a 48 hour hackfest in Douala, Cameroon. The team introduced Rust to a diverse audience of students, developers, and tech enthusiasts at Jacky Felly Nafack Hightech University Institute. As part of the Rust Africa Tour, this event marked a significant moment in expanding Rust’s presence in Central Africa. The reception was overwhelmingly positive and participants were excited to learn about Rust for the first time, especially its focus on safety, performance, and reliability. Many attendees had never used a low-level language before, but were captivated by how Rust offers safety without sacrificing speed. Other workshops and presentations showcased how to build and set up secure digital solutions for small and medium-sized businesses in Cameroon. The event highlighted the growing appetite for Rust across Africa and showcased how Rust Africa is playing a crucial role in bridging knowledge gaps, empowering local communities, and inspiring the next generation of Rustaceans.

PROMOTIC

PROMOTIC, an educational institution focused on producing industry-ready developers, is boldly championing Rust education in Francophone Africa. Backed by our partnership, they launched the PROMOTIC | Rust Developer Group; an initiative aimed at bringing together developers passionate about Rust, not only in Togo, but across Africa.This group serves as a platform for Sharing knowledge, Organizing workshops, Collaborating on open-source projects. Since becoming an associate member of the Rust Foundation, PROMOTIC has made relentless efforts to integrate Rust into their curriculum. They describe this partnership as a natural extension of a strategy focused on technological excellence.

“Adopting Rust in our curriculum reflects our commitment to training young people in the languages of tomorrow. This gives them a competitive edge in the job market.”
— DEGBE Komlan André, Senior Developer and Education Manager at PROMOTIC

“We have always sought to align our activities with the most advanced technologies. Rust, through its efficiency and security, allows us to meet the technical challenges of tomorrow.”
— Amza Oussey, Tech Advisor at PROMOTIC

Powered by Community and Collaboration

The Rust Africa Campus Tour wouldn’t be possible without the consistent support of individuals and community partners who believe in our mission. This initiative has been largely driven by the efforts of our project leads: Mordecai Etukudo and Enow Scott. Their commitment has helped turn vision into action — coordinating logistics, connecting with local groups, and ensuring each tour stop delivers real value.

Equally vital are the passionate local developer communities who work behind the scenes to organize events, mentor learners, and keep the momentum going. Each stop on this journey reflects community synergy. From educators and student clubs to open-source contributors and grassroots organizers. Rust Africa provides the spark, but it’s the collective effort that keeps the flame burning. We’re excited about what lies ahead, and we're ready to do even more.

What’s Next?

This is just the beginning.

In future tours, Rust Africa plans to expand the tour to tech hubs in:

Kenya
Ghana
Rwanda
South Africa

The goal is clear: to ensure that Rust has a home in every country and a tech ecosystem across Africa. But to do more, we need more. To deepen our impact, we must go beyond tours. We need:

Sustained mentorship
Access to hardware for embedded development
Funding for student-led Rust clubs
Internship pipelines
Institutional partnerships to formally adopt Rust into academic curricula

There is immense untapped talent on this continent. With the right support, we can equip thousands of students with the tools they need to build safe, performant, and globally relevant software all while growing Africa’s influence in open-source.

Get Involved

By introducing Rust to students and developers across the continent, we’re laying the foundation for a future where African Rustaceans are:

Building the tools of tomorrow
Contributing to open-source
Leading communities of their own.

The Rust Africa Campus Tour is a bold step towards a future where African developers are not just consumers of technology, but key contributors to global innovation — and Rust is a big part of that journey.

We’re actively looking for:

Academic institutions ready to host Rust events
Companies willing to provide technical mentorship or internships
Sponsors to fund travel, learning kits, and community resources
Volunteers and advocates to help spread the word

Join us — let’s build the future of Rust in Africa together.

For more information or to join our initiatives, contact us at:
📧 Email: contact@rustafrica.org

Announcement: Rust-Edu

Bart Massey — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Today we proudly and excitedly announce the formation of Rust-Edu, an organization dedicated to Rust education.

MISSION — We are committed to promote the adoption of Rust throughout the academic world. We believe that we can work with the Rust community to provide tools and educational support for students and faculty to learn and build in new and better ways. In doing so, we will drive the adoption of Rust as a key technology for years to come. While we are initially focused on college level learning, long term, we hope to broaden our scope.

GOALS — We have identified three types of initiative that we want to take on:

Create a Rust-based Curriculum — Our initial effort is focused on creating a modular turnkey Rust curriculum for college-level Computer Science courses. Starting with an Introductory Programming course, we want to build Rust-based modules and entire courses covering traditional Computer Science topics such as Operating Systems, Programming Languages, Embedded Development, and Networking.
Make Learning Rust Easier — We want to leverage the growing interest in building tools that make learning and mastering Rust easier. We believe that the notorious difficult learning curve of the language can be overcome with better tooling for education.
Make Rust More Developer Friendly — We want to provide feedback to the Rust Project itself, helping to make Rust a more learnable language for developers. We would like to identify places where we can help with syntax, tooling, documentation, exercises, and error messages.

WHO WE ARE — We are a group of academics and community members wanting to make progress and provide focus and support for Rust Education, in an environment that warmly welcomes all of those who wish to work and play in this grand endeavor.

GET INVOLVED — We are extraordinarily grateful to Futurewei, Inc for funding this initial work: if you want to contribute financially, please let us know. Also, if you are involved in Rust and academia, or would like to be, we would love to have your help. Please visit us at https://rust-edu.org or reach out by email at contact@rust-edu.org.