Google Summer of Code¶

Carbyne Stack is applying to become a Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2022 mentoring organization. For those not aware of what GSoC is, here comes the official description from Google:

Students interested in becoming a contributor to the Carbyne Stack open source project as part of the GSoC programme can find all the information related to our participation as a mentoring organization on this page.

Application 101¶

Want to apply for working with Carbyne Stack in GSoC 2022? Great! Read below what it needs to get things going¹.

How to Apply¶

Applying is not witchcraft as long as you take the following points to heart:

1. Read carefully all the information provided on this page and in the GSoC student guide.
2. Get in touch with the Carbyne Stack maintainers ( Caryne Stack Maintainers) or with your prospective mentors (see contact information below in the topics list) in case you want to discuss your project idea or understand better the expectations towards GSoC applicants.
3. Write your application. See hints on this below.
4. Submit your application to Google before the deadline. We actually recommend you to submit a few days early in case you have internet problems or the system is down. Google does not extend this deadline, so it's best to be prepared early! You can edit your application up until the system closes.

Anatomy of a good Application¶

A promising application will contain at least:

1. A descriptive title for the project. In case you are interested in one of the projects proposed by us that should be straightforward. Otherwise, put some effort into to this as it's the first opportunity to trigger the interest of potential mentors.
2. A concise CV with a special focus on your practical experiences with relevant technology and open source projects, including contact information. No problem if you don't have that much experience yet, as long as you have the skills to master the envisioned project.
3. Information about your (proposed) project. This should be reasonably detailed and include a timeline with concrete milestones. Please also include any learning tasks that you anticipate to get you prepared for mastering your GSoC project.
4. Information about other commitments that might affect your ability to work during the GSoC period (exams, classes, holidays, other jobs, weddings, etc.). We can work around a lot of things, but it helps to know in advance.

Topics¶

We have an attractive mix of potential GSoC project proposals. Each project is rated according to effort (, either 175h or 350h) and difficulty / complexity (, one of Easy, Medium, or Hard). While projects rated low complexity tend to require adapting a single or a small number of Carbyne Stack software components (like a microservice) only, those with high complexity require contributors to get a good understanding of the Carbyne Stack system as a whole or require in-depth knowledge of a single or a few components.

FAQ¶

Why do we want to participate in GSoC?

We are passionate about the ideas behind Carbyne Stack and the possibilities cloud-native Secure Multiparty Computation opens up for secure and privacy-friendly processing of sensitive data. With Carbyne Stack being a security-related enabling technology project, we think going down the open source path is exactly the right way to go.

By participating in the GSoC program, we aim to attract the interest of tech-savvy, highly skilled people who are passionate about open source and help them expand their skills while making useful contributions to the Carbyne Stack platform to make it even better.

What would we consider to be a successful GSoC?

Our foremost goal is to spark long-term interest in Carbyne Stack. A successful GSoC would give us active community members who have come to stay.

As a young open source project and first-time participant in the GSoC program, there is plenty for us to learn. In the best case, this year's participation will lay the foundation for regular participation in the program.

We believe that the GSoC projects we propose will add significant value to the Carbyne Stack developer and user community. We will do our best to ensure that GSoC contributions actually find their way into the Carbyne Stack codebase.

How will we keep mentors engaged with their GSoC contributors?

We only accept mentors who we know well, who are active members of the community, and who are fully aware of their responsibilities as GSoC mentors.

We foster the exchange of knowledge and best practices between mentors in regular mentoring meetings.

As administrators of the mentoring organization, we see it as one of our main tasks to keep the mentors engaged and spend enough time to make sure that everything runs smoothly.

How will we keep GSoC contributors involved in our community during (and after) GSoC?

We host community meetings every two weeks. GSoC contributors are invited to attend these meetings to present their work, interact with community members, and receive the input and guidance they need to achieve their project goals. Weekly meetings with their mentors help participants learn about relevant activities within the community. All (written) interaction within the community takes place on GitHub, which keeps the barriers to entry low for GSoC students.

The participating industry partners regularly offer opportunities to interested students to do internships or academic theses on topics related to Carbyne Stack within their company. This might be interesting for certain GSoC contributors as a way to keep in touch with the community after GSoC will have come to an end.

How will we help our GSoC contributors stay on schedule to complete their projects?

We will implement the following measures to ensure the success of GSoC projects for both GSoC students and us:

• Mentors will meet weekly with their mentees to identify and address emerging issues early.
• GSoC contributors are invited to attend our regular community meetings, and are encouraged to interact with others in the community via regular GitHub communication channels or email.
• Code reviews are an integral part of our routine within the Carbyne Stack community - not only as a quality measure, but also as a means of knowledge transfer. This routine is naturally extended to GSoC contributions as well.

Have we been accepted as a GSoC mentor organization before?

Carbyne Stack is a young open source project kick-started some months back in September 2021 by means of an initial contribution by Bosch Research. Therefore, it is our first time applying as GSoC mentoring organization.

Where does our source code live?"

Our project and community is hosted on GitHub under the Carbyne Stack organization.