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GSoC 2015 application: Difference between revisions
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questions are combined in this year's application
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Our first year in GSoC as an independent organization was 2014 and we had 3 participating students, who pursued work in approximate matrix factorization, efficient handling of sparse matrices, and finite element methods for solving partial differential equations. While there were some challenges related to mentor availability in one case, all 3 of the students passed and made contributions which have been incorporated into Octave. We also had one student enrolled under [http://sophia.estec.esa.int/socis/ ESA Summer of Code in Space (SoCiS)] who successfully improved Octave's ordinary differential equation solvers. | Our first year in GSoC as an independent organization was 2014 and we had 3 participating students, who pursued work in approximate matrix factorization, efficient handling of sparse matrices, and finite element methods for solving partial differential equations. While there were some challenges related to mentor availability in one case, all 3 of the students passed and made contributions which have been incorporated into Octave. We also had one student enrolled under [http://sophia.estec.esa.int/socis/ ESA Summer of Code in Space (SoCiS)] who successfully improved Octave's ordinary differential equation solvers. | ||
In addition, we also mentored GSoC and SoCiS students on the years 2011, 2012, and 2013 under the umbrella of the GNU project. In total, counting both GSoC and SoCiS, we have mentored a total of 16 students. | In addition, we also mentored GSoC and SoCiS students on the years 2011, 2012, and 2013 under the umbrella of the GNU project. In total, counting both GSoC and SoCiS, we have mentored a total of 16 students. Students working with us have made valuable contributions which are live and in our main source tree. These contributions improving Octave's usability and functionality in many different areas, from low-level instrument control and just-in-time compilation, to new algorithms for processing N dimensional images and least-squares spectral analysis. The Octave GUI started as GSoC project and its further refinement has been the major feature of the last Octave release. Several of the students continued their involvement with the project and the community, four have become core developers, and two have become mentors for new students. | ||
The challenges include managing very diverse problem domains and finding people who are competent in all of them. We have not had trouble keeping students interested, although we have seen lulls in their productive output at times, which were always thankfully remedied with a little prodding. | |||
Summarizing, we have previously mentored a total of 16 summer students, all of them having educational experiences which created useful code for the project and community. Because of this, we believe that Octave is a suitable organization for GSoC with the capability to mentor students and benefit from their contribution. | |||
=== If you chose "new" in the dropdown above, have you applied in the past? If so, for what year(s)? === | === If you chose "new" in the dropdown above, have you applied in the past? If so, for what year(s)? === | ||
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Google Summer of Code represents a unique opportunity to bring new perspectives to the Octave community. As a somewhat older project, we benefit from having new and younger contributors among our developers. We have been able to retain several GSoC participants as contributors to the Octave project and we hope to improve in the future by engaging more effectively with students during both the application and mentoring processes, setting clear standards for what is required for acceptance, and maintaining those standards throughout the project. | Google Summer of Code represents a unique opportunity to bring new perspectives to the Octave community. As a somewhat older project, we benefit from having new and younger contributors among our developers. We have been able to retain several GSoC participants as contributors to the Octave project and we hope to improve in the future by engaging more effectively with students during both the application and mentoring processes, setting clear standards for what is required for acceptance, and maintaining those standards throughout the project. | ||
=== What is the URL for your Ideas page? === | === What is the URL for your Ideas page? === | ||