Google Summer of Code 2024 and Outreachy Round 28/Monthly Highlights/August 2024

 Highlights from the month of August 2024

This page highlights learnings from the blogposts of Google Summer of Code 2024 (GSoC) contributors and Outreachy 2024 interns. The coding period for both programs started in May 2024 and goes until August 23rd for Outreachy and August 26 for GSoC.

During the month of August, our participants focused on finishing up their projects, talking next steps with their mentors, and finalizing their reports and evaluations. Zulip meetings were held with their fellow interns and other experts from GSoC and Outreachy to wrap-up each of their contributions and to talk about open-source opportunities. Here's a sampling of some of their final blog posts:

It's a wrap!

“ GSoC has been a lot of fun to work through, and I really appreciate the work all of my mentors did. I learned a lot about both my own limits and technologies like Swift and Python. As a result of the program, I feel a lot more confident in my own abilities and that I can handle working full-time. ” —Marcel Mehl, GSoC			“ At the start, I was gripped by the fear that my internship might not be successful if I didn’t complete every detail of my initial timeline. The pressure to achieve everything I had written in my application felt overwhelming. But as the weeks passed, I learned something profound: Outreachy is not just about ticking off tasks on a list. It’s about personal and professional growth. I realized that as long as I was putting in the required hours and soaking up the experience, I was already succeeding. ” —James Okolie, Outreachy
“ When I began this internship, I was filled with a mix of excitement and apprehension. The task ahead of me — building a data visualisation tool for the evolution of Wikipedia articles maintained by WikiProjects — felt daunting yet exhilarating. I knew that this project would challenge me in ways I hadn’t been challenged before, and it did, but it also rewarded me with invaluable skills and insights...Outreachy is more than just an internship; it’s a platform that brings out the best in its participants. It taught me that enthusiasm and a willingness to learn can take you far. It also demystified the world of open-source contributions for me. What once seemed like an exclusive domain of experts now feels like a welcoming community where I can continue to contribute and grow. ” —Mahima Agarwal, GSoC			“ During my Google Summer of Code (GSoC) project, I had the opportunity to work on enhancing the user experience and functionality of the InlineComments feature. My focus was on improving comment interactions, user notifications, and ensuring robust handling of permissions across different scenarios. This experience allowed me to dive deep into the complexities of collaborative editing tools, sharpening my skills in both front-end and back-end development. My mentors have been incredibly supportive and guiding, playing a crucial role in my growth as a developer. Their constant feedback and encouragement have significantly improved my programming skills. Being at the initial stages of my career, I found their guidance invaluable. They not only helped me navigate complex coding challenges but also instilled in me the importance of writing maintainable and efficient code. ” —Jayanth Vikash, GSoC
“ In my first month as a GSoC intern, I worked on migrating the Lingua Libre SignIt extension to Manifest V3. During the community bonding period, I made minor contributions, like UI enhancements and state persistence...As I continued my GSoC journey, I concentrated on sending messages to the service worker in order to fix internationalization. Because of this, I was still able to use banana.i18n despite Chrome’s limitations...I want to express my gratitude to Wikimedia community and my mentors for this fantastic learning opportunity this summer. If not for this opportunity then I would still have been unaware of the ins and outs of chrome extensions. ” —Kabir Singh, GSoC			“ For the duration of my summer internship, I worked on a wide range of tasks that included: feature enhancements, bug fixes, and performance improvements for the project...I also faced challenges with API integration for page editing and creation. I focused on improving pending uploads design and functionality in the subsequent weeks which involved resume/pause features; retry for failed uploads; and deletion of pending uploads among others...This summer was a great experience as I learned a lot working on the project. I want to express my gratitude to my mentors and the Wikimedia Community for guiding me through the project. ” —Kanahia Kaushal, GSoC
“ Docker wasn’t quite playing nice, so I decided to focus on some fun stuff instead! I rolled up my sleeves and got to work on some new commands for the CLI. I added the `version` command to help users check which version of the tool they’re using and then `upgrade` command...I’m still wrestling with Docker a bit (a bit??!!!), but I’m determined to figure it out. You know what they say — slow and steady wins the race, right (finger crossed)? My mentor, Will really helped me to figure it out where and why I am facing the problem, and it was super helpful...I’m so excited to see where this project goes and to finally see our Scribe-Data CLI making waves in the Wikidata world. ” —Mahfuza Mohona, GSoC			“ One of the major challenges I encountered when starting this project was understanding and determining the necessary timeline parameters for effective data copying. I overcame this by discussing the issue with my mentor and developing robust methods for data transfer between servers, ensuring accurate and efficient data copying for admins. Through these discussions, I enhanced my ability to gather and define project requirements and improved my technical skills in server-to-server data transfer...I also gained substantial knowledge about handling HTTP requests in Ruby on Rails, including working with various HTTP methods and understanding how Rails processes these requests through its routing and controller mechanisms...My GSoC journey has been a comprehensive experience filled with challenges, learning opportunities, exploration of new ideas, interaction with diverse people, and, most importantly, a significant amount of coding. A huge shoutout to my mentors Sage Ross and Shashwat Khanna for their constant support and guidance throughout this journey. A huge thanks to the Wikimedia community as well. I couldn’t have imagined a more supportive and welcoming community. ” —Pranjal Rajput, GSoC
“ I got great exposure working remotely, learned how to effectively communicate, in timely reporting, complete tasks, and overall ensure availability and smooth workflow...I was able to adapt myself to all new frameworks, and build up my confidence that I can easily adapt to any new tech-stack/framework in web-dev and this also opens up a lot of opportunities as now I am not bind with a particular framework...The entire journey in GSOC has been amazing although challenging, but I was still able to complete it successfully. ” —Pushkar Bansal, GSoC

Thank you for reading - check back next month for new updates! You can follow the work of these contributors and interns by subscribing to their project on Phabricator and giving them feedback. All project information is available on the individual Google Summer of Code 2024 (GSoC) and Outreachy 2024 program pages.