User:Sudeepam: Difference between revisions

:-I learn Machine Learning through online resources such as open research papers, blogs and MOOCs since my college does not offer a course on this subject till the final year.

:-Knowledge of Algorithms is something that I have learned through practice and repeated attempts to optimize code since the time I started coding. I will be taking a formal course on this subject in my next semester.

:-The projects that I have been or will be doing as part of my major have a good part that they will be mentored and judged by a professor who will have a deep understanding of that subject to which the project is related. The bad part will be that the projects will restrict me to use the concepts that I have been taught. Similarly, in self undertaken projects, I have a flexibility to use whatever I want but then there will be no one to oversee the project.

:-My main reason to participate in the GSoC is directly related to this. A mentor will be available to oversee my project and as long as it is optimal, (which I ensure it will be), I will have an opportunity to approach a problem, the way 'I' would like to. The tools I'd be allowed to use (like the version control system) will probably be limited but that is a fair thing.

:-In addition to that I will have a great opportunity to contribute to the Open source community and learn how professional development work is carried out.

:-When I took up the course on 'Basics of signals and systems' as a part of my college coursework about an year ago, I was required to use MATLAB for coding assignments. I never wanted to use MATLAB under a student's license as this would have landed me in a very uncomfortable situation when I no longer would have been a student. That was when, the open source enthusiast within me told me to go for GNU Octave. Since then, I have been using Octave as one of my primary languages, I use it for Signal processing and Machine Learning as do some of my peers.

:-GNU Octave is a software that has become an integrated part of my academic life. It would be an honour for me to be able to contribute to a software that is so important for me. As a GSoC student, I will be able to entirely dedicate my time in contributing to Octave. Hopefully I will end up making some noteworthy contributions. Then I would genuinely be able to brag to my peers who use Octave, that a small part of the software that they are using has been written by me.