Eric Wilhelm and I attended a Google Summer of Code info-session at UWashingtion on Friday, which was attended by a few dozen students that had very diverse backgrounds and interests. We answered many basic questions about how mentoring works, especially when mentors and students are spread across time zones and language barriers.
Trista Taylor (a university liaison for Google) had slides and gave an overview of what GSoC is about, then Eric did a general overview of the state of Perl. I followed up with some specific about what TPF did last year and some hints for prospective students on these slides. Then Craig Dowell from the ns-3 Network Simulator Project talked about their organization's involvement and experiences in GSoC. All around it was a good experience and many students that had never heard of GSoC before got a taste for what it's all about.
I would definitely recommend doing this to other mentoring organizations and I am definitely interested in further activities strengthening the ties between Perl and academia.
Trista Taylor (a university liaison for Google) had slides and gave an overview of what GSoC is about, then Eric did a general overview of the state of Perl. I followed up with some specific about what TPF did last year and some hints for prospective students on these slides. Then Craig Dowell from the ns-3 Network Simulator Project talked about their organization's involvement and experiences in GSoC. All around it was a good experience and many students that had never heard of GSoC before got a taste for what it's all about.
I would definitely recommend doing this to other mentoring organizations and I am definitely interested in further activities strengthening the ties between Perl and academia.
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