Re: GCC GSoC 2024: Call for project ideas and mentors

[Martin Jambor <mjambor@suse.cz>]

Hello,

this is just a reminder that the organization application period of GSoC
2024 closes on Tuesday February 6th (6pm UTC).  We have already applied
but that is when we are expected to have our project idea list basically
ready.  So please review old ideas and if you have a new one and/or
would like to be a mentor, please speak up.

Thanks,

Martin


On Mon, Jan 15 2024, Martin Jambor wrote:
[...]
> ======================== The most important bit: ========================
>
> I would like to ask all (moderately) seasoned GCC contributors to
> consider mentoring a contributor this year and ideally also come up with
> a project that they would like to lead.  I'm collecting proposal on our
> wiki page https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/SummerOfCode - feel free to add yours
> to the top list there.  Or, if you are unsure, post your offer and
> project idea as a reply here to the mailing list.
>
> Additionally, if you have added an idea to the list in the recent years,
> please review it whether it is still up-to-date or needs adjusting or
> should be removed altogether.
>
> =========================================================================
>
> At this point, we need to collect list of project ideas.  Eventually,
> each listed project idea should have:
>
>   a) a project title,
>   b) more detailed description of the project (2-5 sentences),
>   c) expected outcomes (we do have a catch-almost-all formulation that
>      outcome is generally patches at the bottom of the list on the
>      wiki),
>   d) skills required/preferred,
>   e) project size - whether it is expected to take approximately 350,
>      175 or just 90 hours (the last option in new in 2024, see below),
>   f) difficulty (easy, hard or medium, but we don't really have easy
>      projects), and
>   g) expected mentors.
>
> Project ideas that come without an offer to also mentor them are always
> fun to discuss, by all means feel free to reply to this email with yours
> and I will attempt to find a mentor, but please be aware that we can
> only use the suggestion it if we actually find one or ideally two.
>
> Everybody in the GCC community is invited to go over
> https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/SummerOfCode and remove any outdated or
> otherwise bad project suggestions and help improve viable ones.
>
> Finally, please continue helping (prospective) students figure stuff out
> about GCC like you have always done in the past.
>
> As far as I know, GSoC 2024 should be quite similar to the last year,
> the most important parameters probably are these:
>
>   - Contributors (formerly students) must either be full-time students
>     or be "beginners to open source."
>
>   - There are now three project sizes: roughly 90 hors (small), roughly
>     175 hours (medium-sized) and roughly 350 hours (large) of work in
>     total.  The small option is new this year but because our projects
>     usually have a lengthy learning period, I think we will usually want
>     to stick to the medium and large variants.
>
>   - Timing should be pretty much as flexible as last year.  The
>     recommended "standard" duration is 12 weeks but depending on
>     contributor's and mentor's needs and circumstances, projects can
>     take anywhere between 10 and 22 weeks.  There will be one mid-term
>     and one final evaluation.
>
> For further details you can see:
>
>   - The announcement of GSoC 2024:
>     https://opensource.googleblog.com/2023/11/google-summer-of-code-2024-celebrating-20th-year.html
>
>   - GSoC rules:
>     https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/rules
>
>   - The detailed GSoC 2024 timeline:
>     https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/timeline
>
>   - Elaborate project idea guidelines:
>     https://google.github.io/gsocguides/mentor/defining-a-project-ideas-list
>
> Thank you very much for your participation and help.  Let's hope we
> attract some great contributors again this year.
>
> Martin