User:Juanmanpr

Public application template

A: An introduction

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

I am Juanma, a very motivated and passionate computer vision and robotics master student at Universite de Bourgogne, France. I am currently finishing my first year, and I am always really excited about improving my skills and having new experiences.

• • Which languages do you speak?

I like to say I can speak Spanish, C/C++, English and Octave/Matlab scripting. I am currently working on adding French, and Python to that list.

• • What's your overall background?

Before I started my master program, I got a degree in Electronics Engineering in Colombia with a final project related to the use of Neural Network for erratic driving diagnosis, and worked for 2 years as development engineer (and leader of the Firmware team) at a local company, where my funniest tasks was a read/implement/test/validate loop in several topics, including embedded computer vision.

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

I am highly motivated and excited about starting to contribute to a big open source project like Octave, so what sounds better than spending a summer improving my programming skills, and adding my personal touch to a great project as Octave, which I use almost everyday? It doesn't sound that I can do it any better for this summer.

• • Please also describe your previous experience with the GSoC, if any. This is the first time I apply :)

• Why are you choosing Octave?

Octave had helped me a lot during my years of study, I should start giving back, and I want to do it well.

C: Contact

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

IRC nick: juanmanpr

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

Current time zone: UTC+2

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

And I feel more comfortable coding from 10:00 to 22:00, but I can really adapt to any calendar.

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.

I am electronic engineer from 2010 after finishing my final project, which it was a research project on driving analysis and erratic driving diagnosis. This project was entirely written in Matlab and it is able to simulate a 3D driving environment, extract features from interesting signals and diagnose erratic driving. This software was actually registered by the University in the Colombian national software registration office, and I appear as one of the main authors. In the mean time, I was doing also an internship at Gecelca (Colombian power generation plant), where I developed a remote signal analyzer using mainly Java.

After this, I started to work in a local electronic design and manufacturer company. I had the opportunity to start working as developer, with Assembly, C, and C++ as main languages for embedded products. One of main achievements as firmware designer was a software to determine sleepiness by using an infrared-CMOS sensor that was also mainly designed by me. This was a big project, since I really had to put hands-on the embedded Linux configuration (Angstrom and OpenEmbedded), and reading a lot of papers for face features tracking and implementing them. The experience acquired with this project have been priceless. I also was contributor of several projects mainly developed using C or C++, as part as the Research & Development team at the same company. I started using QT at this point, as I found it was very flexible, and it could easily be used for Linux.

Finally, at my master program I have been practicing a lot with QT/C++, Matlab/Octave and OpenGL, since the program have a huge amount of practical assessments.

• Please state the commits and patches you already contributed to Octave. I haven't been really involved with Octave development, and I am not an expert on Mercurial tools. But I can give my word that I am a quick-learner, and I am really motivated to start getting involved.

F: Feeling fine

• Please describe (in short) your experience with the following tools: We only use this question to determine where you need guidance, not for rating! We by no means expect you to be familiar with all of these and you'll won't necessarily need them while working with us.
  • IRC and mailing lists: IRC not that much, I feel fine with mailing list
  • Mercurial or other source code management systems Nop :(
  • Mediawiki or other wiki software Yes :)
  • make, gcc, gdb or other development tools Yes, cmake, etc.
• What will make you actively stay in our community after this GSoC is over? You can also tell us after applications close and we'll happily try to fulfill :-)

O: Only out of interest

• Did you ever hear about Octave before? Yes, of course.
  • If so, when and where? How far have you been involved already? I have been using it since a long time ago, when I didn't have a Unix-Matlab copy available for my computer at the University, and I googled Open source + Matlab. :)
  • If not, where would you expect or advise us to do advertising?
• What was the first question concerning Octave you could not find an answer to rather quickly? '

P: Prerequisites

• Please state the operating system you work with. Different Linux based distros such as Ubuntu and OpenSUSE. Windows at the University.
  • If you have access to more than one, please state them and the conditions under which you are granted this access.
• Please estimate an average time per day you will be able to (if separated) access
  • an internet connection 24 hrs
  • a computer 24 hrs
  • a computer with your progressing work on 24 hrs
• Please describe the degree up to which you can install new software on computers you have access to. Total

S: Self-assessment

• Please describe how useful criticism looks from your point of view as committing student. Criticism is an important tool to improve the work is being done.
• How autonomous are you when developing? I am pretty autonomous, and I am used to focus on a goal and do whatever is on my hand before asking for help. But when assistant or help become necessary, I don't hesitate to ask for it.
  • Do you like to discuss changes intensively and not start coding until you know what you want to do? Before coding I need at least a clear goal to reach. So I first divide my tasks in goals. Depending on the work I have to do, I can set this goals individually, or discussing with the team in charge.
  • 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? Actually, yes. If I have a particular problem which I think I can solve, I write the code and test it. I don't consider doing this is actually throwing away work. Testing/Validating and Correcting is usually the normal work cycle of a programmer

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.
  • If you apply for a task you have added yourself instead, please describe this task, its scope and people you already talked to concerning it. What field of tasks did you miss on the list?
• 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"). Optionally include two or three milestones you expect.