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18 Comments
- jer2eydevil88, on 05/21/2009, -0/+14I love this. All sorts of open source projects get an influx of fresh ideas and new talent plus these kids get a chance to work in the industry and can garner real world experience in their industry. Win. Win.
- tofagerl, on 05/21/2009, -0/+7Why is Google the only company who does these kinds of things? Or do they all do it, and Google is the only one we ever hear about?
- AZRoboto, on 05/21/2009, -0/+7The Summer of Code event isn't for people like you. It's for people still relatively fresh in their studies--"college or pre-college students", so people around 17-20 who won't be able to make any serious contributions to AI, robotics, and so on that you mention.
I'm studying CS at my school, a standard 4 year university, and with my first year done, I've learned some Java and C++ so far. This event is great for students like me with a basic understanding of programming and how data structures work. - Astark, on 05/21/2009, -3/+9Nerdstock!
- varchar255, on 05/21/2009, -0/+5Was just wondering that myself. Microsoft sponsors some programming contest(s?) at my school but I never see those on Digg (or elsewhere in tech news).
- jeexbit, on 05/21/2009, -0/+4Codestock... sounds like a blast.
- replaysMike, on 05/21/2009, -0/+3I'll bring the beer.
- Nicholas1989, on 05/21/2009, -0/+1But what you really want is a Win. Win. Win.
- sickthoughts, on 05/21/2009, -0/+1Serenity now
- jordanlgta, on 05/21/2009, -0/+1You forgot all caps and exclamation points and 1's for humor:
SERENITY NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111 - iDoraemon, on 05/21/2009, -2/+3I remember these Summer of Code events in previous years when I was in undergrad in computer science. It's an interesting concept, and are basically the "apprenticeship" analogs for software engineering. Note that I typed software engineering and not computer science, since computer science isn't about coding.
A part of me is saddened that these Summer of Code events have become too successful, since these type of events take students away from summer computer science research programs to participate instead in summer software engineering/development projects. We could definitely use more computer scientists to solve open problems in fields such as artificial intelligence, human-computer interaction, robotics, etc., and summer research programs are valuable experiences to motivate and prepare CS students into research in grad school.
Well, at least tech companies benefit from the success of these programs.
/bitter CS grad student researcher - jordanlgta, on 05/21/2009, -0/+1I PROCLAIM THIS...THE SUMMER OF GEORGE!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQbtXVn-PA8 - ssjtoma, on 05/21/2009, -0/+1yea its a good initiative but i just really hate the hype around google..
- iDoraemon, on 05/21/2009, -0/+1Well, the point I'm trying to get across is that universities around the country are also holding summer research programs specifically for undergrads in the hopes of giving them a taste of research in the event that they decide to pursue graduate studies. Even though undergrads won't make a huge impact in a particular research field, their exposure gives them an idea of the great research they can do to solve open research problems to advance these difficult field.
With the success of summer projects like Google's Summer of Code, what is happening is that these CS undergrads that could have conducted valuable undergrad research or enrolled in introductory topics of various research topics are instead shifting over to work on software development projects for industry. Put another way, these undergrads are getting industry experience, not academic or research experience. When you're getting trained or gaining experience for one thing, the tendency is for people to veer their future into that direction.
I like Summer of Code, and I think it's a great training program for CS undergrads interested in going into the tech industry. I just wish there was as successful a program to get people into research, like providing funding to have CS undergrads enroll in upper-division research-level courses or stipends to take part in a research lab. Something like...Summer of Research, haha. - zhenkel, on 05/21/2009, -0/+1I agree. I'm an undergrad CS student who has worked on research projects every summer since my freshman year. You're right about there being a lot more pull from industry than summer research at the university. It would be great to get more students into the research programs, CS really needs them. I think most people would be surprised to know how fun and interesting CS research can be.
- Tanktunker, on 05/24/2009, -0/+1Insanity later.
- inactive, on 05/21/2009, -0/+1Bring on the Drugs....Coffee....
- emm87j, on 05/27/2009, -0/+0True talk!
I hate the hype too.
Why? I don't know. I just have a problem with companies being "over-rated". Although I still have a Microsoft Bias.
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