GSoC Proposals: Level of Detail

[Luca Boasso]

Who is going to interview the students?
Will the mentor interested in the student be the interviewer or a
selected group of the community?

Luca

On 4/8/11, Fawzi Mohamed <fawzi at gmx.ch> wrote:
>
> On 8-apr-11, at 17:15, Andrei Alexandrescu wrote:
>
>> On 4/8/11 8:40 AM, dsimcha wrote:
>>> I've been looking over some of the GSoC proposals and I've noticed
>>> that
>>> most aren't very detailed. It seems most of the students have only a
>>> very rough idea of what they want to do and plan on filling in the
>>> details at the beginning of the project. I don't have experience with
>>> GSoC and I'm trying to understand whether this is a problem or is
>>> what's
>>> expected. How detailed are the proposals supposed to be?
>>
>> I emailed all student proposing a project the following. After the
>> email we got a lot of updates.
>>
>>
>> Andrei
>>
>> ============
>> Hello,
>>
>>
>> Apologies for the semi-automated email.
>>
>> You should know that the deadline is only a few hours away - on the
>> 8th April at 19:00 UTC. Be careful! That may mean a different time
>> at your location. Refer to this link:
>>
>> http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=4&day=8&year=2011&hour=19&min=0&sec=0&p1=0
>>
>> You should expect an interview during the application review period.
>> There is no need for special preparation. The interview consists of
>> a few simple questions and a couple of coding exercises. You should
>> have an Internet connection handy; the interview uses www.collabedit.com
>>  for writing code. Phone is fine, Skype is preferable.
>>
>> Below are a few tips regarding last-minute polishing of your
>> application.
>>
>> * Make sure you send our way a detailed overview of the project you
>> are embarking on. A good overview should clarify that you have a
>> good understanding of the problem domain and that you are capable of
>> carrying the task through.
>>
>> * Please mention your fluency in the D programming language.
>>
>> * Specify a plan for your project, with deadlines and deliverables.
>> Make sure it is something that you can realistically commit to.
>>
>> * Mention how much time you realistically expect to spend on the
>> project. If you plan to take a vacation or otherwise be unavailable
>> for some time, please specify.
>>
>> * Needless to say, it is in your best interest to be honest.
>>
>> * Mention in brief, if you can, alternative topics/projects you
>> might be working on. We have had quite a few overlapping
>> applications - there are five proposals for containers, for example.
>> We wouldn't want to let you compete and then choose the best
>> implementation, so we will allow only 1-2 applications on
>> containers. In case you are interested in containers, how
>> comfortable are you with advanced containers - Bloom filters, tries,
>> generalized suffix trees, skip lists...?
>>
>> * At the same time, don't spread yourself too thin. A too broad
>> application loses focus and enthusiasm for any one specific topic.
>>
>> * Include anything that you believe is relevant to the project(s) of
>> your choice: courses completed, grades, references, experience on
>> similar projects. Feel free to paste your resume. Don't forget we
>> start with knowing nothing about you.
>>
>> * Above all, be honest about everything. This program is at Google's
>> considerable expense, not to mention the time your mentors will
>> invest. Above everything, the best outcome of this for you is
>> establishing an excellent reputation with everybody involved.
>>
>>
>> Good luck!
>>
>> Andrei
>
> Excellent, I was thinking that an interview would be the best thing to
> evaluate the candidates.
>
> Fawzi
>