[mlpack] GSOC 2013 Introduction.

[Ryan Curtin]

On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 11:54:30PM +0530, Udit Saxena wrote:
> Hi.
> 
> I am Udit Saxena from BITS Pilani, India. I’m currently doing my bachelors
> in Computer Science and master in Mathematics.
> 
> I’m interested in applying for GSoC under Mlpack. I have experience in
> C/C++, Python, Java, MySql, HTML5, CSS along with basic PHP, Javascript and
> Jquery.
> 
> I’ve gone through the list of projects and ideas on your page and I’ve
> listed the ones I’m interested in:
> 
> 
>    1. Packaging in Debian and Ubuntu: I've spent time on Arch Linux,
>    another linux distro and am fairly familiar with Linux. Though I have never
>    packaged for debian, I feel I would fit right in the Debian community
>    easily. I am currently getting familiar with Debian packaging.
>    2. Python bindings and R bindings.
> 
> Considering the difficulty ratings you have posed for the ideas, I was more
> of the opinion of doing the above mentioned projects together during the
> summer.

Hello Udit,

Doing multiple projects during the summer is definitely an acceptable
idea.  Given the background you've listed, I think it's certainly
reasonable that you could do both of those.  I'd also consider taking a
look at the automatic bindings project, which is somewhat harder but
also interesting (in my opinion):

http://trac.research.cc.gatech.edu/fastlab/wiki/SummerOfCodeIdeas#Automaticbindings

Realistically automatic bindings would be more useful to the project,
but if nobody can easily do those, then Python and R bindings will work.
Maybe through SWIG; not enough research has been done into the
alternatives yet.

> Can you guide me to (potential) mentors for the above mentioned projects ?

I would be the mentor for those, so feel free to ask me questions either
on-list or off-list.

Thanks,

Ryan

-- 
Ryan Curtin       | "Hold still."
ryan at igglybob.com |   - Mr. Blonde