User:Sudeepam

A: An introduction

• Please describe yourself in three sentences, one of them regarding your current studies.

-My name is P Sudeepam. I like to code and make music.

-I am a second year student at Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India.

-I am pursuing a majors in Electronics and Communication Engineering.

• Which languages do you speak?

-I am comfortable with communicating in Hindi and English?

• What's your overall background?

-I have been coding since my 6th standard and as such, I have developed a working knowledge of how programming problems should be approached.

-My areas of interest include Machine Learning, Digital Signal processing, and Algorithms.

-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.

-Digital Signal Processing is one of the core subjects of my major. I have been learning that, and related subjects, such as 'Basics of Signals and Systems' for an year now.

-I have been coding for many years now, knowledge of Algorithms is something that I have gained through those years of practice and repeated attempts to optimize my code. I will be taking a formal course on this subject in my next semester.

• Why do you want to participate in the Google Summer of Code? What do you hope to gain by doing so?

-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 has a deep understanding of the subject to which my project will be related. The bad part will be that the projects will restrict me to use the concepts that I have been taught by the University. Similarly, in self undertaken projects, I always have the flexibility to use whatever I want but then there is no one available to oversee those projects.

-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'll make sure it is), I will have an opportunity to approach problems, 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 well acceptable.

-In addition to that, it will be a great opportunity to contribute to the Open Source community and most importantly, to learn how professional Software Development work is carried out.

• Please also describe your previous experience with the GSoC, if any.

-This is my first time applying for GSoC.

• Why are you choosing Octave?

-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 because I thought that this would land me in a very uncomfortable situation when I no longer would be 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 to me. As a GSoC student, I will be able to entirely dedicate my time in contributing to Octave and hopefully, I will end up making some noteworthy contributions that, not only are beneficial for the Octave community, but also make me feel like I did my duty to pay back to the software that has been helping me get through my academics.

-Also, if I end up making some noteworthy contributions, I would genuinely be able to brag to my peers who use Octave, that a small part of the software that they have been using has been written by me.

C: Contact

• Please state the (unique and identical where possible) nick you use on IRC and any other communication channel related to Octave.

-IRC Nickname: peesu

-Github: sudeepam97

-Gmail: sudeepam.pandey@gmail.com

• Which time zone do you live in? Will that change over GSoC duration?

-I live in UTC+05:30 timezone.

-No, the time zone will not change over GSoC duration.

• Please state the timeframe (in UTC+0) when you feel most comfortable working during GSoC. Where are your time buffers?

- Although my work schedule is flexible and I could work at any time of the day, If I were to give an exact time slot then, I'd say I'll work between 4:30pm - 9:30pm (UTC+0) and 6:30am - 11:30am (UTC+0)

E: Coding experience

This part is one of the more important ones in your application. You are allowed to be as verbose as you want, as long as you stay on topic ;-)

• Please describe your experience with C++, Octave or Matlab m-scripts, OpenGL and Qt.
• Please describe your experience with other programming languages.
• Please describe your experience with being in a development team. Do you have experience working with open source or free projects?
• Please describe the biggest project you have written code for and what you learned by doing so. Also, describe your role in that project over time.
• Please state the commits and patches you already contributed to Octave. This question (one of the most important parts by the way) is the only part of your application our wiki admins will edit for you even after the application deadline. Code sometimes speaks louder than many words do.

F: Feeling fine

• Please describe (in short) your experience with the following tools

• • IRC and mailing lists

-I only started using IRC after I decided to apply for GSoC. I hangout in the #Octave channel and personally I seem to understand how an IRC works. I am not much familiar with mailing lists but I'm sure I will get the hang of it in no time.

• • Mercurial or other source code management systems

-I am quite comfortable with git and while submitting patches to Octave-Forge I have understood how Mercurial works. I understand how patches are contributed in the Octave community.

• • Mediawiki or other wiki software

-I learned a little while writing this application, I've used it no more than while writing this application so I'm not sure if I know too little or 'just enough'.

• • make, gcc, gdb or other development tools

-I have used the gcc compiler, and I have used make while building Octave 4.2.1 from source. I have not used gdb before.

• What will make you actively stay in our community after this GSoC is over?

-I'm sure that there will always be problems related to my areas of interests (mentioned in the introduction) to work on. Those problems, and the fact that Octave is such an important piece of software for me will make me stay in the community even after GSoC.

O: Only out of interest

• Did you ever hear about Octave before?

• • If so, when and where? How far have you been involved already?

-Yes I have heard about Octave before. I heard about Octave about an year ago when my college coursework required me to code assignments in MATLAB but I decided to search for an open source alternative.

• • If not, where would you expect or advise us to do advertising?

-I have heard about Octave but I really would like to suggest the Octave community to advertise their software among college students like me who require to use MATLAB or a similar tool for their coursework. I am doing something like that already, owing to my love for open source and free software, I have been trying to persuade my teachers to make use of Octave on our college systems and ask the students to use Octave more.

• What was the first question concerning Octave you could not find an answer to rather quickly?

-I got most of my questions answered online or on the IRC channel itself. I haven't really encountered a situation when my question was not answered.

P: Prerequisites

• Please state the operating system you work with.

-I mostly work on Linux Mint. I have used Windows before and can work on that if required.

• Please estimate an average time per day you will be able to access

• • an internet connection

-Any time of the day (i.e. 24 hours/day)

• • a computer

-Any time of the day (i.e. 24 hours/day)

• • a computer with your progressing work on

-Any time of the day (i.e. 24 hours/day)

• Please describe the degree to which you can install new software on computers you have access to.

-I have root access on my PC so I can install every software to its fullest on it. I'll be using my personal computer for most of the work.

-If required, I can access the computers of my university which use Windows 10 but I won't have administrative privileges on those Desktops.

S: Self-assessment

• Please describe how useful criticism looks from your point of view as committing student.
• How autonomous are you when developing:
  • Do you like to discuss changes intensively and not start coding until you know what you want to do?
  • Do you like to code a proof of concept to 'see how it turns out', modifying that and taking the risk of having work thrown away if it doesn't match what the project or original proponent had in mind?

Y: Your task

• Did you select a task from our list of proposals and ideas?
  • If yes, what task did you choose? Please describe what part of it you especially want to focus on if you can already provide this information. Please also wiki-link the page for your elaborated proposal here.
• Please provide a rough estimated timeline for your work on the task. This should include the GSoC midterms and personal commitments like exams or vacation ("non-coding time"). If possible, include two or three milestones you expect.