So the results for Google Summer of Code 2016 came, and I got accepted =D
This is the first time I applied to the GSoC program. And the result has made me absolutely cheerful since I consider this opportunity a great stepping stone for my career.
For those who don’t know, Summer of Code is a program sponsored by Google with the goal of increasing awareness of open-source software development among students. Students are paired with open-source organizations to work on projects during summer. And all projects are funded by Google, as each student receives a very nice stipend of $5000 after completing his/her project. This year, a total of 1206 students and 178 organizations are participating in the program.
I will be working for Drupal on a project related to web security (more on the project details in a later post). You can view my project proposal here which got me into the program. A huge shoutout to Colan Schwartz and Adam Bergstein who immensely helped me fine-tune the proposal during the application period and are now my mentors for this project.
Interestingly, last summer I took an online course on Theoretical Computer Science, available at Udacity, just out my curiosity for the subject. Cryptography was one of the course topics I really enjoyed learning. Now my project with Drupal heavily involves Public & Private Key Encryption. But I wouldn’t have been able to even consider that project if it weren’t for the knowledge I gained in that course. This reminds me of what Steve Jobs once said, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future” :’)