Cullen,
I think the ideas page sums it up pretty well. Matrix factorizations,
sparse matrices and general polish and bug fixing are the main goals I
had in mind, though we're definitely open to any other ideas you may
have. As someone with a strong math background, you could add a lot of
value by helping us figure out what features are worth adding in
addition to just implementing the features that have been previously
suggested.
Unfortunately, though, SciD uses template metaprogramming very heavily.
If you're not comfortable with template metaprogramming in either C++
or D (you imply that you have no experience with either language) then
you'd need to get up to speed very quickly. The project will have
almost zero chance of success if you don't master templates. If this
sounds too difficult, we still encourage you to submit a proposal for
another project that doesn't use templates or other advanced, D-specific
features so heavily.
--David Simcha
