[BiO BB] Phyloinformatics Summer of Code 2011 - Call for student applications

[Hilmar Lapp]

*** Please disseminate widely at your local institutions, ***
*** including posting to message and job boards, so that  ***
*** we reach as many interested students as possible.     ***

PHYLOINFORMATICS SUMMER OF CODE 2011

http://informatics.nescent.org/wiki/Phyloinformatics_Summer_of_Code_2011

The Phyloinformatics Summer of Code program provides a unique  
opportunity for undergraduate, masters, and PhD students to obtain  
hands-on experience writing and extending open-source software for  
evolutionary informatics under the mentorship of experienced  
developers from around the world. The program is the participation of  
the US National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) as a mentoring  
organization in the Google Summer of Code(tm) (http://code.google.com/soc/ 
).

Students in the program will receive a stipend from Google (and  
possibly more importantly, a T-shirt solely available to successful  
participants), and may work from their home, or home institution, for  
the duration of the 3 month program. Each student will have at least  
one dedicated mentor to show them the ropes and help them complete  
their project.

NESCent is particularly targeting students interested in both  
evolutionary biology and software development. Initial project ideas  
are listed on the website. These range from visualizing viral  
epidemics to 3D protein structure evolution, rich annotation for  
TreeBASE content, exposing phenotype observations to the Encyclopedia  
of Life, to enhancing R packages for phylogenetic analysis. All  
project ideas are flexible and many can be adjusted in scope to match  
the skills of the student.  We also welcome novel project ideas that  
dovetail with student interests.

TO APPLY: Apply online at the Google Summer of Code website (http://socghop.appspot.com/ 
), where you will also find GSoC  program rules and eligibility  
requirements.  Each organization has a slightly different application  
format, and ours is at http://bit.ly/PhyloSoC2011-apptemplate. The 12- 
day application period for students opens on Monday, March 28th, and  
runs through Friday, April 8th, 2011.

INQUIRIES: phylosoc {at} nescent {dot} org. We strongly encourage all  
interested students to get in touch with us with their ideas as early  
on as possible. Working closely with potential mentors to develop your  
project proposal greatly increases your chance for acceptance. Do not  
underestimate the amount of time it takes to develop a competitive  
proposal.

2011 NESCent Phyloinformatics Summer of Code:
http://informatics.nescent.org/wiki/Phyloinformatics_Summer_of_Code_2011

Google Summer of Code FAQ:
http://socghop.appspot.com/document/show/gsoc_program/google/gsoc2011/faqs

---------

Karen Cranston and Hilmar Lapp
National Evolutionary Synthesis Center
http://nescent.org