Aurora Rossi (PhD candidate) is ready to present her Google Summer of Code project to MIT

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Published on June 15, 2023 – Updated on June 20, 2023
Dates

on the June 15, 2023

Location

Campus SophiaTech

Aurora Rossi has embarked on a fully funded doctorate in 2022 with a grant from DS4H Graduate school.

Interview

Aurora Rossi has embarked on a fully funded doctorate in 2022 with a grant from DS4H Graduate school. She is challenging her expertise in the Julia programming language through a participation in the Google Summer of Code program and JuliaCon 2023 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


Extract:

You recently took part in one of the most challenging open source projects, Google Summer of Code. Tell us about it.

Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is an international online program designed to introduce new contributors to open source software development under the guidance of experienced mentors. It is a highly competitive program, and a great way to gain experience and demonstrate your skills on a specific topic.
My project is with the Julia programming language organization. I am contributing to a Julia package of graph neural networks; in particular, I am extending the package to support temporal graph neural networks. To have a good chance of being accepted into the program, I started working on my application many months before the deadline by contributing to the software library and discussing the topic with the mentor in order to submit a solid proposal.
There were 43,765 applicants from 160 countries. In early May, I received the good news that I was one of the 967 students selected this year! This means that I will have the opportunity to participate this summer in a 12-week coding project under the guidance of an expert mentor.