The Summer of Code in Space (SOCIS) is very similar to Google Summer of Code. Students may apply to work for a project (Gerbil!) and receive good money for their valuable work. The results will be incorporated into the project and serve the public as free software.

Ideas

It is in the spirit of SoC, and also SOCIS, that students can always apply with their own ideas on features or improvements to the software they would like to implement. However, here you can also find a list of existing ideas that would be helpful to the project, especially in the face of astronomical imaging.

The best course of action is to have a close look at this list, then talk to us on IRC or via email about your interests. See the contact information.

General Note

This year we think it is best to consolidate the current feature set and give users better access to the capabilities of the software before introducing new features. This is why we do not propose fancy projects like GPU programming this year.

1. GUI enhancements

One of the most prominent goals in Gerbil is an intuitive user interface that is fun to use. There is a huge list of needed improvements and additional features to the UI.

Examples are:

• Better label manipulation in the topological view, e.g. different brush sizes
• A new docklet for handling labels/clusters of data and cycling through them
• Ability to spawn several topological viewport docklets at once and control their visualization (e.g. overlays)
• Control of key visualization parameters in the spectral distribution view, e.g. the alpha curve (currently a fixed logarithmic curve)
• Exposure of several other parameters in a way that does not clutter the UI

This is a very helpful project to Gerbil and consists of several small steps as compared to a single huge task.

Skills needed: Qt, C++

Getting in Touch

Before applying, you should get in touch with the project first. See the contact information. Talk to us, we are always happy to hear about your own ideas as well!