Google has started accepting applications for Google Summer of Code 2010!  Get your proposals ready and submitted before April 9, 2010 (19:00 UTC)!!

As some of you may know, I participated in Google Summer of Code 2008.  And the project I worked on is called Cytoscape.  So if any of you are interested in this project, here are a few links:

Google Summer of Code 2010 — GenMAPP, Cytoscape, WikiPathways & Reactome

• Organization Profile
• Cytoscape-Discuss Google Group
• Project Ideas

For those of you who are interested in working on the project idea I worked on two years ago, it’s this one:

IDEA 16: Automatic (Smart) Node and Edge Label Layout

Cytoscape currently has a large number of layout algorithms that place nodes according to various criteria. However, a common problem with all of these layout algorithms is that node and edge labels are not accounted for in the aesthetic criteria of the algorithm. This means that labels frequently end up in awkward locations which are hard to read, overlap or obscure other labels, and otherwise don’t look quite right. As a consequence, users are frequently forced to adjust the position of labels s, which is a time consuming and tedious process. To fix this, we propose developing a layout algorithm for labels. Perhaps this algorithm could be integrated with a normal layout algorithm, or perhaps it could be a subsequent step that lays the labels out in an intelligent fashion once the nodes have been placed. Some work has been done on this, but more layouts are needed.

Language and Skills: Java, graph layout algorithms

Idea by: Mike Smoot

Potential Mentors: Ruth Isserlin, Gary Bader

My blog posts that are related to this project can be found here.

The eighteenth Toronto Girl Geek Dinner will be held this coming Monday, January 25th at Fionn MacCools. Ladies, if you’re interested, more information can be found here.

Leigh Honeywell will be speaking at the event.  She’s had a ton of experience in IT security and is an amazing (and inspiring) speaker — I’ve attended her presentations a few times, and she’s got lots of experience and knowledge to share (as well as interesting stories).  Leigh is the co-founder and director of HackLab.TO, attended the University of Toronto, and is a mentor for the Google Summer of Code program.  So she’s definitely somebody you’d want to meet!

As for me, I’m definitely going to go if work and school permits.

And yes, this is a ladies night out — sorry gents!

Congratulations to all the Google Summer of Code students whose proposals got accepted this year!!

I just came across this WordPress blogpost congratulating their Google Summer of Code 2009 students.  And at the very bottom, Jane Wells, the author, asks: “Where are all the geek girls?” I’m sure this isn’t a surprise to anybody, but what is surprising is the fact that the number of GSoC applicants went down this year.  This is disappointing, since a lot of us are really trying to get the word out.  Just looking at the University of Toronto for example, we’ve held many info sessions for GSoC 2009.  We even had threads on our department bulletin board answering any questions students might have regarding GSoC.  And I’m sure we’re not the only ones promoting it, so I personally found this very surprising — at first at least. Read the rest of this entry »