GSoC: Ready, Set, Open Source

As has been the precedent, students from our institute got selected for the prestigious Google Summer of Code 2019. Vox congratulates the selected students on their well-deserved success. The number of selections from our institute continues to be impressive, as has been the trend over the past three installments of the program

GSoC is a global program by Google for university students to learn about and get involved in open source. It is a unique program where students are paired with a mentor to introduce them to the open source community and provide guidance while they work on a real-world open source project during their summer break.  Projects cover a wide range of fields including Cloud, Operating Systems, Graphics, Medicine, Programming Languages, Robotics, Science, Security and many more.

There is a lot of buzz surrounding the program, but this buzz is not translated into selections as a lot of students do not complete the application process due to issues like lack of information or starting late. We talked to the Coordinator of Programming Club, Mr. Yugesh Kothari, who got selected for GSoC’18. He gave valuable bits of advice for the prospective students and shares useful insights about the application process.

The timeline of the program can be broken down in three phases: contribution, application and project work. Typically, Google releases a list of selected organizations sometime in mid to late February, which follows a month-long period where these selected organizations release their list of project ideas and mentors for each project. Students start to interact with the mentors to understand the project, make code contributions and interact with the community., concluding the first phase.

The second phase has the all-important drafting of proposals where candidates outline their understanding of the project, suggest a plan of action and a tentative timeline highlighting how they plan to execute the project over three months. The proposal holds a significant weight in shortlisting candidates, along with their interactions with the mentor, their dedication to contribute, their availability and their code contributions.

Once the application phase is over, the selected organizations work with Google to decide on the number of slots each organization should get. Every organization is allocated some spots which they assign to projects they deem necessary. Based on the contribution, organizations then shortlist students for the selected projects. The allocation is not as simple as it sounds.  Yugesh added, “There is a lot of subjectivity in the application process and a lot of luck involved. It may so happen that the project you applied for may not get selected at all. So even though you put in a proposal and were fit to work on it, you may not get selected.”

This allocation marks the beginning of the third phase which lasts the whole summer. Throughout the program, Google assumes a reviewal role for the companies and their needs.

We conclude with some pointers and tips to keep in mind while applying:

Don’t over-plan

At the very least you will learn something. Open Source is a testament of the fact that developers sitting across the globe writing code in their spare time can develop and maintain software such as Linux.

Start early

Even though you are not sure of this year’s organizations, you know all of last year’s stats. There’s a good chance those organizations will come again.

Talk to people

Both around you and in the organization. The Open Source community is built on these principles, and you will find that people are constructive and supportive.

Once the organization list and project ideas are out (mid to late Feb) the following can be a comprehensive checklist for your application:

#Pick organizations/project ideas you like.

#See if the mentor has listed some project tasks.

#Check the code base and see the bug tracker for issues.

#Setup software locally and try it out. Read the contributing.md file. Most organizations have dedicated pages for new contributors and also have new-comer-issues.

#Introduce yourself to the mentors and be in constant touch with them.

#Solve a few issues; 2-3 are good enough.

#Target at least 2 organizations parallelly.

#Write a proposal and get it reviewed by mentors. Your proposal:

          -Should reflect your understanding of the project

          -Should reflect your understanding of the technologies

You can visit the GitHub profiles of the selected organizations for greater insight into their specific domains of work and how they go about them.

Credits- Rishabh Ramola, Gaurang Sultania; Edited by- Yash Kuwade