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
