GSoC and IfcOpenShell / BlenderBIM Add-on & utilities

M by Moult on 11 Nov 2020, edited 10 Mar 2021 #

The 2021 program for GSoC has been announced. One of the prerequisites for a mentoring organisation is two developers (quoted from FAQ: ... at least two contributors to serve as organization administrators and/or mentors for the entire program in ...). Given that @aothms and I are actively contributing regularly, and now @htlcnn , @krande and @bernd are also getting involved, this makes it eligible as an organisation. Similarly, the growing Python side of the code make it more accessible to students, and as the BlenderBIM Add-on has packaged a lot of the dependencies cross-platform, this makes getting started on hacking much easier than in the past.

A short summary of GSoC: Google sponsors (i.e. pays a stipend) to students to contribute to FOSS projects. FOSS projects provide mentorship to these students. An example of outcome is the bcfplugin code, which is now used in both FreeCAD and the BlenderBIM Add-on for BCF support. The code was well written and was able to spot mistakes in upstream examples.

Given that there are existing discussion around connecting with academia, this can complement it. The deadline for mentoring organisations is Feb 2021, but this year is closing fast and things tend to accelerate at the end of the year (well, at least I feel it does!). It may be now a good time to start floating the idea about and talking with students and universities.

We may also want to consider how to collaborate / join with OpenCAx. If so, we should do so prior to Jan 2021, which is when applications start. Prior to Jan 2021, we may also want to focus more on developer documentation and wiki-authoring.

Experience from those who have handled GSoC like @yorik is also very welcome :)

B by brunopostle on 11 Nov 2020 #

I was a gsoc mentor for the Hugin project, so I can chip in with advice, though I don't have time to mentor again. My experience is that you shouldn't approach this as a way of getting free coding, mentoring is a lot of work and the benefit is primarily for the student - unless you already have a candidate who is ready to go and just needs funding - this works out well too.

D by duncan on 11 Nov 2020 #

With barely any knowledge of their organisation - I think getting involved with OpenCAx seems like a really good idea. They already exist and have some solid backers - let's build on shared interests and work with them (assuming we have the resources to do a GSoC project)

Even if we don't feel ready for GSoC I think building relationships with the people in OpenCAx is a natural progression from where we are now.

M by Moult on 11 Nov 2020 # +1 votes

@brunopostle good point on not approaching this as a way of getting free coding. I think we will approach this to make sure that we have time to mentor before confirming.

I've posted a "hello" :) https://github.com/opencax/opencax.github.io/issues/2

B by bernd on 23 Nov 2020 # +3 votes

I have been mentoring 3 times for FreeCAD FEM and have more or less been involved in the FreeCAD Arch mentoring in helping here and there.

Yes, Mentoring takes time. It is not just getting free codeing.
Most important, IMHO the tasks has to fit in the knowledge of the student. If he is involved in the project already it would be great, if not he needs to get into which can take time.
In most cases the student either knows the topic (in my case FEM or Architcture) but is rather poor in coding or is an informatik student which does not know the topic but does know how to code.
If you find one who knows both you will be really happy. I had one in the first FEM. It was amazing what he has done in these three month. But all other GSoC worked out well too, because the topics had been fit into the students knowledge. This is also important for the student himself to be successful in the GSoC.
The time before the GSoC really starts is very important. There is more than a month in which it is not really clear if the student gets the contract, thus the students do a lot to show their knowledge. At that time most of our students have learned the FreeCAD ecosystem. Thus they really could start when the coding period started.
Eventually all FreeCAD GSoC I have been involved have been a success in the regard of the outcome, one more one less.
Do not assume the student will stay in the project. Most students leave the project after the GSoC. Some of them come back for the next GSoC but do not do anything within the time between.

Bernd

M by Moult on 10 Mar 2021, edited 10 Mar 2021 # +6 votes

An update that the OpenCAx umbrella has once again been approved for GSoC 2021! IfcOpenShell (& therefore the BlenderBIM Add-on) is also part of the party!

Here's a generic promo graphic which promotes all apps under the umbrella, and the proposals I've put forward so far will benefit at the very least two user-facing projects (BlenderBIM Add-on + FreeCAD), as well as unknown future others! So please help promote this in social media etc as well as in your own academic networks as this can really help further collaboration and code sharing between us in the FOSS world :)