CERN Google Summer of Code 2024

Introduction

Google Summer of Code is a program that allows students to contribute to the development of open-source projects, mentored by participating organizations.

Particle physics is an exciting field where large collaborations of scientists collect and analyze petabytes of data from high-energy physics experiments, such as those at the Large Hadron Collider, hosted at the CERN laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland. Some of the questions that we collectively ask are:

To answer these questions, particle physicists build software to simulate and analyze what happens in particle physics detectors.

The CERN software for experiments (CERN EP-SFT) group has participated in the GSoC since 2011. Since 2017 the program has expanded to involve the high-energy physics community under the umbrella of the HEP Software Foundation.

Information from last year’s GSoC can be found here.

GSoC 2024

In 2024 HSF is participating in the program as a GSoC umbrella organization, under the name CERN-HSF. The HSF project ideas are listed below. Please have a look at the general program rules and the timeline provided by Google.

The selection process in our organization will be split into two phases. All candidates will have to pass pre-selection evaluation tests prepared by mentors, demonstrating the skills needed for the respective projects. The successful candidates will have a detailed exchange with mentors on a given project idea, and their proposals are then evaluated for the final student selection. The detailed timeline of these phases is shown below.

For Students

If you are interested in the HSF projects, please start by having a look at our guidelines for students.

New projects for HSF GSoC in 2024 will be published by February 7. Meanwhile you can take a look at last year’s HSF GSoC projects since many of those may also propose subjects this year. The student application period will begin on Mar 18, but discussions about student project ideas with mentors will take place starting on February 21, when the list of accepted Organizations is announced. You are encouraged to monitor this website in order to get acquainted with our projects and be prepared for contacting their mentors. Due to the high number of applicants for CERN-HSF projects, the application period procedure become more formal this year, so please try to follow our guidance.

Please avoid having the first contact with the mentors of HSF projects before February 21 or after March 18! You are encouraged to take the time to read our project proposals, focusing on only one or two projects that attract your interest. Once you have identified those, you should e-mail the respective mentors, attaching your CV and describing the motivation for your choice. The mentors will first propose an evaluation test, waiting for your solution. Note that the test you are given is private, your solution should be personal and the response time is part of the evaluation. Mentors will let you know the test results, and if you passed they will start discussing and helping you develop a project idea. The student application period is March 18 - April 2, when you will have to write and review your proposal with help from your mentors.

For further information, feel free to contact the HSF GSoC admins or join our open chat channel below. Note that the channel is intended for exchanging with the admins, the other candidates and some of the CERN-HSF students from previous year, and we do not maintain a mailing list for candidates. Please avoid posting extended information about yourself in the chat channel and reserve this for the direct exchange with the mentors.

hsf-gsoc-admin@googlegroups.com

Gitter

Student pages

Student blogs are mandatory for receiving a positive evaluation in CERN-HSF! If you are a CERN-HSF student, please read this blog. Previous blogs from 2022 are available. Check them out!

For Projects and Mentors

Instructions for participating projects and mentors can be found here. The main differences compared to last year are that proposals can now be 90-hour, 175-hour or 350h project length, and the target objectives must be well-defined deliverables.

We have a mentor-only Google group where we handle all announcements related to GSoC for our HSF Umbrella Organization. Please write us a mail to hsf-gsoc-admin@googlegroups.com if you want to add your preferred email to this list. Note that all participating mentors in 2024 HSF GSoC will have to be added to this group. Please let us know if for some reason your want your mail removed from this list.

For new HEP-related groups wishing to join HSF GSoC umbrella rather than being independent organizations: there is no formal procedure, you will just need to add a description and logo for your organization. Note that your project needs to have some connection with high-energy physics to join us. We need one contact person for each new group, so please write us an e-mail.

Timeline

Jan 29 Announcement of GSoC 2024 program in HSF
Jan 29 Call for 2024 HSF GSoC projects and mentors
Jan 29 - Feb 7 Mentors add project proposals available on the HSF GSoC website
Feb 7 Deadline for CERN-HSF proposals
Feb 21 Accepted Organizations announced by Google
Feb 22 - March 18

Phase 1 selection

Candidates have a first contact with project mentors.
March 18 Mentors announce to students the result of phase 1 selection
Mar 18 - March 27 Candidates discuss with mentors their project idea, timeline and objectives.
March 27 - Apr 2 Mentors help candidates improving their proposals, proposals are submitted
Apr 2 Student application deadline
Apr 2 - Apr 20

Phase 2 selection

Mentors evaluate and rank student proposals.
April 20 Rankings due for mentors, sent to HSF Org Admins
April 20 - April 24 Admins propose a range of slots to be asked, amended by the HSF committee.
April 24 Student slot requests due for Org Admins
May 1 Accepted student projects announced

Projects in 2024

ATLAS

ATLAS is one of the four major experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. It is a general-purpose particle physics experiment run by an international collaboration and is designed to exploit the full discovery potential and the huge range of physics opportunities that the LHC provides.

List of proposals
CBACK

The C(ERN)BACK(UP) system is a stateless, backup orchestrator used to provide scheduled, automatic backups at CERN. CBACK is primarily utilised for backing up the CERNBOX and CEPH-FS services. Primarily written in GO and Python, CBACK serves a substantial number of end users, efficiently and with minimal intervention.

List of proposals
CernVM-FS

The CernVM-File System (CVMFS) is a global, read-only POSIX file system that provides the universal namespace /cvmfs. It is based on content-addressable storage, Merkle trees, and HTTP data transport. CernVM-FS provides a mission critical infrastructure to small and large HEP collaborations.

List of proposals
Clad

Clad is an automatic differentiation (AD) tool for C++

List of proposals
Cppyy

Cppyy is an automatic, run-time, Python-C++ bindings generator, for calling C++ from Python and Python from C++.

List of proposals
Ganga

Ganga is a computational task-management tool, which allows for the specification, submission, bookkeeping and post-processing of computational tasks on a wide set of distributed resources. Ganga has been developed to solve a problem increasingly common in scientific projects, which is that researchers must regularly switch between different processing systems, each with its own command set, to complete their computational tasks. Ganga provides a homogeneous environment for processing data on heterogeneous resources.

List of proposals
Geant4

Geant4 is a toolkit for the simulation of the passage of particles through matter.

List of proposals
JuliaHEP

The JuliaHEP working group brings together a community of developers and users of Julia in Particle Physics, with the aim of improving the sharing of knowledge and expertise, as well as unify effort in developing Julia packages useful for the community.

List of proposals
Key4hep

The Key4hep project builds an experiment-independent, complete HEP stack focused on future collider concepts. Its key ingredients are event processing framework — Gaudi, event data model — EDM4hep, detector geometry description — DD4hep, and distribution platform — Spack.

List of proposals
MCnet

MCnet is a community linking the developers of particle-theory simulations with experimentalists and others who use and make tools for analysing the simulated events. Projects may be available from both aspects of the community.

List of proposals
ROOT

A modular scientific software framework. It provides all the functionalities needed to deal with big data processing, statistical analysis, visualisation and storage. It is mainly written in C++ but integrated with other languages such as Python and R.

List of proposals
Xeus-Cpp

Xeus-Cpp is a Jupyter kernel for C++ based on the native implementation of the Jupyter protocol xeus.

List of proposals

Participating Organizations in 2024

ANL

Argonne National Lab (ANL) is a multidisciplinary science and engineering research center, where talented scientists and engineers work together to answer the biggest questions facing humanity, from how to obtain affordable clean energy to protecting ourselves and our environment.

List of proposals
CEA-IRFU

The IRFU, Institute for Research on the fundamental laws of the universe, of the Fundamental Research Division of the CEA, brings together three scientific disciplines, astrophysics, nuclear physics and particle physics, as well as all the associated technological expertise.

List of proposals
CERN

At CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, physicists and engineers are probing the fundamental structure of the universe. They use the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments to study the basic constituents of matter – the fundamental particles.

List of proposals
CompRes

The Compiler Research Group is a group of programming language enthusiasts at Princeton University and CERN. It’s primary goal is to research foundational software tools that help scientists program for speed, interoperability, interactivity, flexibility, and reproducibility.

List of proposals
DESY

The Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) is a major German physics laboratory with a long interest in high-energy physics. DESY is a major centre for photon science and the site of the European XFEL laser. DESY scientists are part of major international HEP experiments, such as ATLAS, CMS and Belle II.

List of proposals
ImperialCollege

Imperial College London is a world top ten university with an international reputation for excellence in teaching and research. Consistently rated amongst the world’s best universities, Imperial is committed to developing the next generation of researchers, scientists and academics through collaboration across disciplines. Located in the heart of London, Imperial is a multidisciplinary space for education, research, translation and commercialisation, harnessing science and innovation to tackle global challenges.

List of proposals
MonashUniversity

Monash University Monash University is one of Australia’s leading universities and ranks among the world’s top 100. We help change lives through research and education.

List of proposals
UCLondon

Founded in 1826 in the heart of London, University College London is London’s leading multidisciplinary university, with more than 13,000 staff and 42,000 students from 150 different countries. It is one of the UK’s leading groups in the field of particle physics.

List of proposals
UofGlasgow

The University of Glasgow is a leading UK research university based in Scotland’s largest city. We work on particle physics experiments from the LHC to neutrinos, particle theory from interpretations of Higgs and top-quark measurements to the strong force, and high-performance distributed computing.

List of proposals
umanitoba

The University of Manitoba is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba, located on original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.

List of proposals

Summary

Full list of Proposal Ideas

Full list of Mentors


Contacts

HSF GSoC mentor discussion e-group

HSF GSoC administrators: Wouter Deconinck, Benedikt Hegner, Baidyanath Kundu, Valentin Volkl