DragonFly and Summer of Code 2013 projects announced

 

Here’s the accepted projects for DragonFly and Google Summer of Code 2013:

Like last year, we had more excellent proposals than we could accommodate with available slots and mentors.  We now enter the ‘community bonding’ period, so that students can get used to the DragonFly environment and make sure they have all the tools needed to perform work.  The work itself starts on June 17th.

Good luck to everyone involved!

Google Summer of Code: students, apply!

Now’s the time to put in your application for Summer of Code projects, if you’re a student.  The application period runs until May 3rd.  There’s already been some proposals on the mailing lists; now they can be put in officially.

I’ll point out the last link is from a returning GSoC student, and has a lot of detail; use that as an example if you’re thinking about your own application.

Summer of Code reminder for students: talk now

For anyone who is a student considering Google Summer of Code this year: this timeframe we’re in right now is listed by Google as time for “students discuss project ideas with mentoring organizations”.  This is the perfect time to find out what the people in an organization are like, and get early feedback on your project ideas.

Chances are, if you’re submitting a proposal for an idea from an org’s project list, you’re one of a number of students all trying for the same thing.  The best way to get accepted instead of any other applicant is to be the person they already know.

Summer of Code links for everyone

The DragonFly page on the Summer of Code site is set up.  If you are a potential mentor that I’ve talked to before, I’ve already sent you an email with details.  If you are a potential mentor I haven’t talked to, you can email me or send a request via the DragonFly page.  (Google has a new ‘connections’ method for signup this year.)

If you’re an interested student, take a look at the DragonFly Projects Page.  Keep in mind that your proposal does not have to be one of those ideas – new projects are always welcome, and often have the advantage of being unique instead of being one of several similar proposals.  (hint, hint)

DragonFly and GSoC 2012 wrapup

DragonFly had a successful Google Summer of Code even this year.  It marks our 5th time participating, 7th if you count  Google Code-In events.

Mihai Carabas worked on adding SMT/HT awareness to the DragonFly scheduler.   This project was very successful.  The original goal was just to take advantage of threading with the scheduler, but the benchmarks published by Mihai show in general a 5% speedup from these scheduler changes.  His work has already been committed.

Vishesh Yadav implemented an inotify interface in DragonFly.  inotify is an originally Linux-based system for monitoring files and directories for changes.  A specific use for this is an inotify-aware locate program, so that a list of file locations can be kept ‘live’.  His code for the inotify interface should be committed to DragonFly very soon.

(This was written in part for Google to use on their Open Source Blog.)