Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2024 Wrap-Up: Large Project

As we enter the new year, we at MDAnalysis are still reflecting on and grateful for the work of our contributors in 2024. Namely, we would like to recognize the completion of Luna Morrow’s (@lunamorrow) Google Summer of Code (GSoC) project with MDAnalysis, Extend MDAnalysis Interoperability with OpenBabel — read more about this incredibly useful enhancement of MDAnalysis’s interoperability with other packages in the field in Luna’s blog post.

We have enjoyed watching Luna navigate the full cycle of planning, designing, implementing, testing, and documenting a software solution and look forward to seeing what she accomplishes next!

We also thank Google for supporting this project and continuing to support MDAnalysis as a GSoC organization since 2016.

Looking ahead to GSoC 2025

The MDAnalysis community remains enthusiastic about continuing to participate in the GSoC program. Given that there is an application process for organizations — such as MDAnalysis — to participate, there is no guarantee that MDAnalysis will be selected by Google as a participating GSoC organization. Once we know more, we will share updates on our #gsoc Discord (join using this invite link) and #GSoC Discussions GitHub Discussions channels.

In the meantime, we welcome you to start learning MDAnalysis and familiarizing yourself with the project through our introductory videos. To dive into the code base, check out the MDAnalysis User Guide; we suggest starting by installing the MDAnalysis package and working through the Quick Start Guide. Once you are a bit familiar with the MDAnalysis package, you can look at the User Guide sections explaining how to contribute.

Please note that in addition to code contributions, we highly value participating in the MDAnalysis community in other ways, including submitting general feedback and issues via the GitHub issue tracker and/or engaging in discussions on the MDAnalysis Discord server (join using this invite link) and GitHub Discussions forum.

— @cbouy @hmacdope @IAlibay @jennaswa @richardgowers @xhgchen @yuxuanzhuang (GSoC 2024 mentors and org admins)