Hi Trevor (cc shogun-list, please always include them in such emails) welcome to Shogun! Your background is totally suited to that project, so make sure to apply. Start with a small patch, as mentioned on our "getting involved" guide and the ideas page. There are tons of small improvements to start with -- then move to something that is closer to your planned project.
We value initiative a lot, so feel free to come up with your own improvements. But again, start with something simple. On a side note: The fundamental project is likely to receive a lot of applications. Also have a look on the other projects we offer and consider having a fallback option. 2016-03-02 0:20 GMT+00:00 Trevor Ballard <[email protected]>: > Hello Heiko, > > > My name is Trevor Ballard and I'm a computer science undergraduate at the > University of Central Florida. I see that you're mentoring the GSoC project > of redesigning and improving Shogun's "usual suspect" ML algorithms. This > opportunity sounds perfect for me, and I would love to help Shogun > transition from just being a huge ML library to being a huge *and fast* ML > library. > > > I'm currently working in the Data Systems lab at UCF, where I spend most > of my time working on front-end web stuff or proofreading department papers > (most of which involve ML or computer vision). I plan to focus my PhD on > machine learning in one form or another because I find it extremely > interesting, and my time in the lab (surrounded by incredibly smart ML and > CV researchers) has given me a good grasp of the topic. I'm working my way > through CalTech's ML course, as well, to give me truly solid footing in the > territory. > > > I think redoing Shogun's more basic ML algorithms would really solidify my > understanding of ML's fundamentals and would be a truly incredible way to > get a start in the field. I'm a huge sucker for clean, efficient, > functional coding, too, so taking an ok implementation to a problem and > reiterating on it until it's amazing is an absolute blast for me. > > > Sorry to write a novel, I'm just excited about the opportunity, and really > look forward to hearing back from you about it. If you haven't already got > another candidate you're pretty sure about, I'd like to talk to you further > on what I'd be doing and how I could get ready for it. > > > Thanks! > > Trevor Ballard > > [email protected] > > > (P.S. the email on your github account is spelled incorrectly. You're > missing the 'h' in "Strathmann".) >
