SymPy is a Google Summer of Code 2011 Mentoring Organization

I am proud to announce that SymPy has been accepted as a mentoring organization for Google Summer of Code 2011. This is great news for the project. Although we have participated in the past under the umbrella of the Python Software Foundation and Portland State University mentoring organizations, this is the first time that we have been accepted as a mentoring organization. Out of 417 organizations that applied to Google, 175 were accepted, 50 of which were new.

In case you don't know, Google Summer of Code is a program run by Google every year where they pay college students all around the world to write code for open source projects. Each student has a mentor assigned to him/her, who helps the student get started with interacting with open source (most students who are accepted have never participated in open source before).

So now that were are accepted, students are open to applications. The actual application period opens on March 28, and closes on April 8 (see the program timeline).

To students:

If you are interested in applying, please write the to mailing list and introduce yourself. The program is open to anyone worldwide who is 18 years of age or older who is enrolled in a higher education institution (this includes undergraduate and graduate). If you are interested in applying, here is what you should do (if you have not already):

- As I said above, write to the list and introduce yourself. You might also join our IRC channel, which is #sympy on freenode.

- Start thinking about what you want to apply to do. See our ideas page. However, we are open to ideas that are not on that page. Anything that fits in a computer algebra system would fit in SymPy. If you have an idea not on that page, please discuss it on our mailing list, so we can see if it has not already be implemented, and if it is fitting for SymPy and for a project. I recommend you apply to do something that you are interested in personally.

- We require for any student to be accepted that he/she submit at least one patch to SymPy, which gets reviewed and pushed in. See issues labeled EasyToFix in our issue tracker for some easy to fix issues that are a good place to start. Don't worry if you do not know how to send in a patch or use git. We will help you (that is the whole point of the program). Just ask on the mailing list, on the issue page, or on IRC.

- You should start thinking about your application. See our application template (it will also be at our page on the Google site). If you like, you can start a page on our wiki to write your proposal. If you do this, we will help you edit it (though understand that we will not help you write it). Remember that we want you to get accepted just as much as you do, so you can help improve SymPy!

To SymPy developers:

- We need people who are willing to mentor students. If you are willing to mentor, please add your name to the bottom of the ideas page.

- Please edit the ideas page to improve formatting and add new ideas.

Good luck to all students who plan on applying!