Google Accepting Applications for Summer of Code

Google announced March 23 that it is now accepting student applications to participate in its Google Summer of Code program.  

Google officials said the company will be accepting student applications to participate in the Summer of Code program from March 23 through April 3.

In a March 23 blog post, Leslie Hawthorn, a program manager on the open-source team at Google, said:

Google Summer of Code, our program to introduce students to open source software development, is now in full swing for 2009. Over the past four years, we've paired nearly 2,500 "graduates" with more than 2,500 mentors from industry to academia, with some spectacular results: millions of lines of source code produced and over $15M in funding provided to open source development. This year student participants have more than 150 open source software and technology–related projects to choose from when submitting their applications, from operating systems to content management systems.

A description of the program on the Google Web site said:

Google Summer of Code is a global program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source software projects. We have worked with several open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund several projects over a three month period. Since its inception in 2005, the program has brought together nearly 2500 successful student participants and 2500 mentors from 98 countries worldwide, all for the love of code. Through Google Summer of Code, accepted student applicants are paired with a mentor or mentors from the participating projects, thus gaining exposure to real-world software development scenarios and the opportunity for employment in areas related to their academic pursuits. In turn, the participating projects are able to more easily identify and bring in new developers. Best of all, more source code is created and released for the use and benefit of all.

Google also has produced a video describing the Summer of Code program.

Hawthorn added: "During the 2008 program, we had more than 975 students successfully complete their projects. Each participant received a $4,500 stipend and an ultra-awesome t-shirt to go along with their newly honed programming skills. We're particularly excited by the social ties our students form through the course of the program, as well. We've connected people in more than 98 countries, and hope to bring people from even more places into the Google Summer of Code community this year."

Hawthorn said Google will be accepting student applications "through April 3, 2009 at 12:00 pm [PDT]."