Dear all,
INCF will apply to be a mentor organization in Google Summer of Code for the 12th time running.
We are calling for open source software development project ideas with some sort of neuro connection - fixes or extensions to big/broadly applicable or small/niche tools used by neuroscience researchers, efforts and initiatives in the broad field of computational neuroscience. If your project supports or implements INCF endorsed standards or best practices, we especially encourage you to apply. We are also looking for mentors who are willing to take on student-proposed projects that fit their interests.
As you may have seen earlier this year, Google has announced some changes to the GSoC program for 2022:
- Candidate eligibility will widen, the only requirement is that candidates are newcomers to open source (instead of “GSoC student”, the official term Google uses is now “GSoC contributor”).
- The project effort can be half-time or full-time - 175 or 350 hours. Everyone submitting at least two project ideas will be asked to include both half-time and full-time projects.
- Project end dates can be extended (but not moved earlier), at the discretion of the org admin. To keep the administration manageable, we will only accept projects initially planned for a 12 week duration. Extensions during the program period will be made on a case-by-case basis.
Also, the usual reminder: there is no guarantee that INCF will be accepted as a mentoring organization this year; Google announces the accepted organizations sometime in March. Please be clear with this in your communication with students.
The timeline will be similar to the years before, but the dates are not yet set. We expect applications to open early February and close two weeks later (with accepted organizations announced a couple of weeks later). We aim to have a live Project Ideas list from mid January.
Important: Interested mentors need to contact us (malin@incf.org with CC to gsoc@incf.org) early with a declaration of interest and a short summary of the intended project(s), latest January 15. Full project descriptions need to be submitted by January 25.
Submission instructions
Each submission should come by email to malin@incf.org with CC to gsoc@incf.org, and contain:
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An informative title with relevant keywords (good-to-have: name of tool/project, name of programming language(s) or tools used)
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A project description including a brief general intro, motivation, aims, scope and skills/skill level needed. Please make sure to clearly state
- the planned effort (175 or 350 hours)
- the intended skill level (beginner, novice, intermediate, advanced)
- the list of pre-requisite skills the contributor will need to have
- 2-5 tech keywords (Python, C++, Java, SQL, REST, CUDA, …)
For submissions with two or more project ideas, please include at least one project of each size (175 or 350 hours).
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At least one lead mentor + one named co-mentor/backup mentor who would be able and willing to back the main mentor up in mentoring in case something unforeseen happens. There can be more than one, as long as you are internally clear on who does what.
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Any planned longer absences during the lead up/student interaction period (February - April) or the project period (May - August), and the plan for covering them.
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Format: your choice - txt, doc, docx, pdf or a link to a webpage with the full description(s). Anything that can be copied and pasted.
Please note: Project ideas will be posted on Neurostars after the ideas list goes live, and prospective mentors are expected to join the forum and be available for questions from students during the run up to the announcement (late Jan - early March) and the student interactions period (March-April). This can be handled mostly by email, if you prefer, once you have set your NeuroStars account up.