I’m Apurva, a student beginning early preparation for GSoC 2026 and exploring opportunities to contribute to INCF-associated projects. I’d appreciate some guidance on how new contributors usually get started which INCF repositories are currently active, what types of beginner-friendly issues are good first contributions, and any general advice you might have for someone starting out.
My background is in Electronics Engineering with a minor in AI/ML, and I primarily work with Python. I’m keen to learn through hands-on open-source contributions and gradually become involved with the community.
Looking forward to learning from the community.
Thank You.
Hello everyone, and thank you for initiating this discussion.
I’m Pragati, a Computer Science undergraduate with experience in Python and machine learning. I’m currently exploring the NWBWidgets repository and setting up the development environment to better understand the widget architecture and how it integrates with PyNWB.
I’ve previously contributed a documentation PR to the CSA repository and am looking forward to contributing more actively to the NWB ecosystem as I prepare for GSoC 2026.
I would appreciate any suggestions on beginner-friendly issues or areas where contributions are most needed.
Thank you for this helpful discussion. My name is Harshitha Arava, and I am a pre-final year student preparing to apply for GSoC 2026. I have experience in Python and working with large language models (LLMs).
I’m particularly interested in contributing to INCF-related projects where LLMs or NLP techniques could support neuroscience research workflows, such as improving documentation, metadata validation, data standard compliance, or developer tooling.
I’m currently exploring INCF-affiliated GitHub repositories and would appreciate guidance on active projects, beginner-friendly issues, or areas where LLM-based or Python-driven contributions could be useful.
Looking forward to learning from the community and contributing.
Thank you!
Update: I’ve made my first code contribution to NWBWidgets!
I fixed a FutureWarning in the infer_categorical_columns function by converting lists to numpy arrays before calling pd.unique(). This eliminates distracting warnings during test execution and ensures compatibility with future pandas versions.
I’d appreciate any feedback or review from mentors and the community. I’m continuing to explore the codebase and looking for more opportunities to contribute.
I’m Priti Gupta, a final-year Computer Science student from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. My background is in full-stack engineering and AI-driven systems, and I’m preparing seriously to contribute to INCF projects for GSoC 2026.
I was previously involved with amFOSS, where I learned how open-source communities function, how to work with maintainers, and how to ship clean, reviewable contributions rather than one-time patches. That experience is what motivated me to participate more deeply in research-oriented open ecosystems.
What excites me about INCF is the impact of building standards, reproducible infrastructure, and interoperable tools that directly support neuroscience research at a global scale.
I’m currently exploring the repositories and setting up development environments to understand the architecture and contribution flow. I would love recommendations on good first issues or modules where contributors are actively needed. I’m happy to start small, build familiarity, and contribute consistently.
Looking forward to learning from everyone here and becoming a long-term contributor.
My name is Fares Shaaban, and I am interested in applying for Project 13.2 (Implementation of SWC to NeuroML converter).
To ensure I understood the core challenge, I spent this week studying argparse module and the SWC file format and writing a standalone Python script to parse it and generate basic NeuroML.
My Next Step: I realize the actual implementation within PyNeuroML will be much more robust. I am currently reading through the existing codebase to understand the project structure.
Could anyone point me to the specific modules or files in PyNeuroML that handle current format conversions? I want to make sure I am studying the right part of the architecture.
Hi everyone,
I’m Ritesh Thakur, a Computer Science student with a strong interest in systems programming and backend development. I have solid foundations in Data Structures and Algorithms, and I’m proficient in C++, C, Python, and JavaScript. I’ve worked on real-world projects using Node.js, React, MongoDB, REST APIs, Docker, and Git. I’m excited to contribute, collaborate, and learn from this community while working on meaningful open-source improvements.
I’m Alex. I am a recent graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering. During my studies, I focused on Python development, frontend technologies, and UI/UX design for software applications. I have also worked with a startup where I contributed to building web-based solutions and developing user-centric technologies. I’m interested in contributing to INCF projects and would love to get involved with the community.