First off: Well done for wanting to contribute!
I'd say the first step is to spend some significant time in reading and understanding the code of the project you want to contribute on. Not only on how it implements a certain algorithm, but also on how the project uses templates, inheritence and coding conventions (as these may change from project to project). Since you already know the basics, this will teach you the application of these techniques in the real world, and how they are used in this project.
If you want some more in-depth background reading which may guide you in understanding the techniques used in the project, i'd suggest "Design Patterns" by Gamma, Helm, Johnson, and Vlissides http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_pattern_(computer_science)

Sorry for my late reply.
It is a university in the Netherlands.
I tried to double-check, but i can't find the exact rules anymore.

I do remember it specifically, because i wanted to put code written during my master's thesis online but had to ask permission from the university.
I guess you can compare it to doing graduation work within a company, the company owns the work the student does. The same i guess holds for the university.

Data Center Overlords?

> Regardless, in this case it's his code and he has the right to do whatever he wants with it.

This is probably not the case. At my University they own the rights to all code that is written as part of the educational program, not the students.

I recommend the masters, a higher degree will make it easier to switch jobs later in your career

Yes, moving outside the pure math may be a good idea. I've learned the most math when i finally understood what it could be used for. A practical side helps. For me, "Multiple View Geometry", by Hartley and Zisserman falls in this category. Well written, and uses nice mathematical tools to a very practical problem: 3d reconstruction in computer vision.

So, any fans of the SF/Fantasy genre out there who can say why Otherland? Why not Steven Erikson's Malazan Empire? Robert Jordan's Wheel of (too much) time, Tolkien, or Terry Pratchett for that matter? What makes Otherland more suitable than the others?