CERN/HSF - Google Summer of Code 2020
Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a program that allows students to contribute to development of open-source projects, mentored by participating organizations.
Particle physics is an exciting field where large collaborations of scientists collect and analyze petabytes of data from high-energy physics experiments, such as the Large Hadron Collider, hosted at the CERN laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. Some of the questions that we collectively ask are:
- what are the fundamental blocks that make up our Universe?
- what is the nature of dark matter and dark energy?
- what is the nature of the asymmetry between matter and antimatter?
- what was early Universe like?
To answer these questions, particle physicists build software to simulate and analyze what happens in particle physics detectors.
The CERN software for experiments (CERN EP-SFT) group has participated in the GSoC since 2011. Since 2017 the program has expanded to involve the high-energy physics community under the umbrella of the HEP Software Foundation.
If you are interested in the GSoC program, please start by having a look at our guidelines for students.
New projects for HSF GSoC in 2020 will be published in February. The application period will open in mid-March, but discussions about application ideas with mentors will take place the month before. You can monitor our website in order to get acquainted with the projects you are interested in and to be prepared for submitting an application. Meanwhile you may want to take a look at last year’s HSF GSoC projects since many of those may propose subjects also this year.
Students selected to participate in a project can earn up to a $6,000 stipend for their work over the summer.
For further information, feel free to contact the HSF GSoC admins at hsf-gsoc-admin@googlegroups.com.
Looking for projects outside of Physics?
The Google Summer of Code is a much larger program with multiple participants and participating organizations. Over the last 15 years GSoC has enabled more than 15,000 students from 109 countries to work with 686 open source projects and produce millions of lines of code since its inception in 2005. The goals of the program are to:
● Motivate students to begin participating in open source development.
● Provide students in Computer Science and related fields the opportunity to do work related to their academic pursuits.
● Give students exposure to real-world software development scenarios (e.g., testing, version control, software licensing, mailing-list etiquette, etc.).
● Create more open source code.
● Help open source projects bring in new developers.
Working online, successful student participants receive a stipend, enabling them to focus on their programming projects for three months. Volunteer mentors help students plan their time, answer questions and provide guidance on best practices, project-specific tools, and community norms.
Students receive an invaluable learning experience, an introduction to the global FOSS community and something that potential employers love to see on their resume!
The mentoring orgs which will gain new contributions & contributors along with recognition from Google and a higher profile for their project.
Student applications are open March 16 - March 31.
Find full details on requirements for participation, program rules, and general information at https://g.co/gsoc.