Guidelines for Summer Students

Carlos Maltzahn, Stephanie Lieggi
Jan 1, 0001

How to apply to the be a contributor to OSRE (inc GSoC and SoR programs)

  1. Take a look at the current year’s project ideas and refer to the timeline for exact dates.
  2. Between late February and mid March, select projects of interest, contact mentor(s), and tell them your motivation and provide them with your relevant background/experience. You are strongly encouraged to apply to no more than two projects.
  3. Join the slack channel for contributor applicants. A link will be provided once channel is open. Note that we will only review proposals of contributors who have also joined our slack channel by the deadline stated on the timeline. Use this time to also get to know the project to which you are applying and the members of the project community. You are highly encouraged to ask questions.
  4. Be prepared to provide mentors with some examples of your technical knowledge as an initial step. For instance, mentors may ask you to carry out a technical test or show work you have done in the past to assess your knowledge. This is an important step for ensuring you are proposing something that is beneficial to you, the mentor and the community. We have opportunities for contributors with a wide range of skill levels, so do not worry about “passing” the test - just show what your skill levels are and areas you are interested to grow in.
  5. Once you and the mentor have established your level of proficiency and how it fits within project ideas, you will collaborate on writing the proposal. Note – be wary of overreliance on AI tools for your proposal writing. Mentors need to see your work in order to judge if you are a good fit and will be successful in your project. The mentors will:
    • Guide you through project software
    • Discuss project objectives and how to achieve them.
    • Provide pointers to documentation, reference research. Note that the mentor feedback period will typically run from early March to early April.
  6. Keep track of that year’s project deadlines. Proposal must be turned in our time and include:
    • A detailed plan of work with an estimate of the time needed (typically 175 or 375 hours in total). See below for a suggested template.
    • Well defined tasks and their objectives, list of deliverables
    • Note: any committments that could impact the amount of time you can spend on the project.
    • Submit via the GSoC portal
  7. Mentors will provide a ranked list of proposals to Org Admins. Results are made public in early May.

IMPORTANT REQUIREMENT FOR ALL ACCEPTED PROPOSALS

Summer contributors will be required to provide short bi-weekly status updates. These will help the mentors and the Org Admins see that your project is on track. They are also meant to provide a basis for blog posts to be completed by the contributors and highlighted by the organization admins.

Mentors and Org Admins expect summer contributors to act professionally and respect the mentor’s time and efforts. As with any professional setting, it is the responsibility of the contributor/student to inform their mentor if they will be taking any vacations or if they have any other obligation that conflicts with the proposed workplan. Not informing the mentor of these conflicts can result in removal from the program.

Contributors will be expected to attend all-hands and other group meetings throughout the program. These meetings will be via zoom and held at various times of day to allow participation for a wide range of time zones.

Do not hesitate to contact Org Admins for further questions.

Suggested proposal template

In your proposal, be specific and make sure your mentor can see evidence that you will be able to succeed at your project.
  1. Proposal title - Should give an indication of what your proposal is expecting to accomplish
  2. Name of project mentor(s)
  3. Introduction
    • Define the problem you are trying to solve
    • Provide background about the current state of the problem
    • Descrbe you solution
  4. Project goals
    • Project objectives: What do you expect to get from this project? How will the community benefit?
    • Expected deliverables: What do you think the results will be from this proposal?
    • Future work based on project (if applicable)
  5. Implementation plan
    • Project methodology: How will you work to meet your objectives? How will you interact with the mentor and other members of the relevant open source community?
    • Describe the project’s technical elements
    • Describe any challenges and proposed solutions
  6. Project timeline
    • Project plan and deliverables schedule.
    • Total number of hours expected to need for project and number of weeks to complete.
    • IMPORTANT – the timeline must specify any time conflicts that you anticipate during the program (ie conflicts due to travel, school, other activities.)
  7. Biographical information
    • Relevant experience and educational background
    • If student, include current major and any relevant course work
    • Technical interests and strengths
    • Contact information:
      • Required: your full name, email address, current affiliation (for instance, which school are you currently attending), github handle;
      • Optional: relevant blog or website URL; Linkedin profile; other social media links.