[2009-2010] Present yourself!

[Yestin]

Hi all,
My Name is Yestin. It's my second year on my successive postgraduate and doctoral programs of study in Chinese Academy of Sciences now.

My research area is HCI, information visualization and sketch. During my R&D, I used a number of open-source project to do my favor. I used xstream to deal with XML files, jama to do matrix computation, JFreeChart and prefuse to display data and implement new algorithms. I used to use GEF(a framework based on Eclipse platform) to develop some graphic-edit based program and my graduation thesis(A pen-based graphical edit framework) is also based on it.

I often discuss problem I found on the forum and tell others the solution of the problem I met before. But I have not participate in any open-source project to do coding work. I want to do much more things for open-source community, and I found GSOC is a good opportunity for me to participate in. I am interest in the mentor way because he/she can help me to infuse quickly.

On the other side, I think the project I participate in is related to my recent work. I looked through the list and Gephi come into my eyes. Network visualization is an important part of infovis, and social network visualization is even hotter now. I am working on graph layout and combining, a novel tree layout algorithm has just been implemented using prefuse toolkit. In my view, Gephi is a graph visualization tool. It is developed in Netbeans in plug-in mode. I think it is easy to add new layout algorithm and any other new features.

I looked through the ideas of GSOC,I have confidence that I can do any of those things well:Dynamic attributes and statistics,Force-Directed Edge Bundling,Data Laboratory,Graph Streaming API,Direct Social Networks Import. I have downloaded the source of GSOC and I will read the docs and codes in detail. Not only for GSOC, but for further using.

I am familar with j2se. I often use swing or swt to develop interface of my program. Because of my IDE is Eclipse before, I am familar with plug-in develop mode too. To be honest, I seldom use Netbeans except for some small games based on j2me. But I think the IDE problem is easy to overcome.

Talking of new ideas about Gephi,I also think that using GPU to improve the performance of rendering is a good idea.Besides that, In my point of view, HCI techniques and cognitive theory can be thought of in the development of Gephi. For example, node text and edge text should resize while zooming the graph, if the node is too small, the text should not display even though the show text option is selected. I do not know whether these are help to the project:)

Thank you very much for your attention.

Yestin

[shami]

Hi,
My name is Mykhailo. I am 21 years old. I am from Ukraine. I am a student of Computer Science faculty of the Kharkov national university of radio-electronic.
I have experience in Java, Python, Silverlight, Flex, web-services etc. While studying at university, I participated in projects involving the use of Twitter API, Flicker API, Last.FM API and Google API.
I have 3 years of work as a programmer in various companies of Kharkov. Last year, working in the Teamdev company, on opensource library SevenHats.
At university, I worked with applications Gephi to work with graphs. Also I am very interested in social processes in social networks, so I would like to work on "Direct Social Networks Import" in GSoC 2010
Sincerely,
Mykhailo.

[hoanghai]

Hi everybody,

My name is Nguyen Hoang Hai. I'm Vietnamese currently studying in the National University of Singapore in the course of Computer Engineering. I'm third year student (..already=() and it would be great having this summer for an software project. I like maths, programming (and music and guitar as you want to know more..) My proficient programming languages are Java, C, C# and C++. I'm currently working on an open source project in accordance with my studying course (which is going to its last period) but joining a big open source community and development team on GSoC - specifically Gephi could be more challenging as well as exciting.

I like the new idea that Gephi brings about - apart from most of the graph theory lectures. It's not about abstracted models and properties - it is the system that is visualized in front of us as we can directly see and study from it. And I like the emergence phenomenon that comes out from the big picture that abstracted theory could not predict (it doesn't mean I don't like thinking and looking at things in an abstracted way..) I've just discovered it as a potential proposal for Gephi project but "graph streaming API" could be a nice idea, too. That's all I want to introduce myself. Thank you for paying attention.

[paulg]

Hey everyone!

My name is Paul Grigoras and I'm a first year student in the Department of Computing at Imperial College London, doing a 4 year MEng course.

Firstly, I'd like to thank the Gephi team for making the first part of the application process so straightforward and easy to understand and to use, and also for their very interesting project ideas. This has a particular impact on myself since it is the first time I'm participating - or trying to - in an open source project. Furthermore this is also my first major programming project as well. So please don't hold my late posting against me ( it took me quite some time to find the courage:)) ).
Secondly, I'd like to wish good luck to all applicants. I see competing alongside people with so much more experience in programming than myself as a sort of an achievement in itself. This experience, although potentially short lived, has already proven itself to be a stimulant of my desire for knowledge.

And I believe that through the passion and commitment that I employ in every project or task I undertake, I can rapidly overcome my lack of experience.
Although I have been programming for more than 8 years now, my interest has been mostly in the area of theoretical computer science and its applications to algorithms or data structures and as such no opportunity to be part in a major project has appeared – such chances are quite rare for high school students. However, my first year at university has given me some of the skills I think are needed to go out there in 'the real world' and I must say that this perspective thrills me.

So I intend to put my theoretical knowledge and the programming skills I have to good use and apply for the "Dynamic attributes and statistics" project.
It goes without saying that I would be truly excited to be a long lasting partner to an open source project, Gephi in particular because it brings about issues in which I take a great interest.

Thank you for your time!
Paul

[eduramiba]

Hello everybody.

My name is Eduardo Ramos and I am a 20 year old spanish student, currently studing third year of a Computer Science degree.

I have experenience with Java, C/C++, Ada, web development and some more languages.
Java is my main programming language and I have good experience with Swing and java web programming.

I would like to participate in GSoC, and after checking some open source projects, Gephi was the one that I really liked when I saw the video and tried the program. Also this project fits my skills better than others and would give me good experience on open source projects and programs with an existing large code base to learn.
I use Netbeans everyday and I find it interesting to build the application on Netbeans platform.

About the GSoC ideas, I like "Force-Directed Edge Bundling" and "Data Laboratory" , being the last one a really useful and necessary feature for Gephi.

See you on irc!

Thank you,
Eduardo.

[kimochka]

Hi,

My name is Kim. I am currently studying a Master's degree in telecommunications engineering in Catalonia Polytechnic University (Barcelona, Spain)
As far as i understand, your idea on this project is gathering data from social networks (e-mail, twitter, NYT, flickr and Youtube) connecting to their API's in order to process it for generating a virtual behavior-based network and visualize it using Gephi.

I have to say that i am new on Gephi but i find it quite interesting as an analyzing tool as far as i've been playing with it.

I have experience on social networks profiling as i worked in Telefónica R&D [ http://www.tid.es/en] for mobile applications department. Our job consisted in designing an application which made possible to gather all the possible social networks accounts information using their current API's (facebook, flickr, twitter, orkut, youtube) and gather it in a unique user account named KETEKE [http://news.keteke.com/]. This account was not only able to be visualized in a browser but we made a J2ME and Symbian mobile clients called NEMOS [https://www.cmsworkshops.com/ICME2009/P ... erNum=1921] to contribute to this accounts with additional information (geolocated content such as pictures and voice data).

I would be pleased and excited to contribute to your idea with my experience since i was working in both, the front -end and the back-end, where we had to study and use the public API's of the social networks we were using.

Best Regards,

Kim del Río

[apatriarca]

Hi,

my name is Antonio Patriarca and I'm studying a Master degree in Mathematics in Università degli Studi di Torino. I'm currently working on my master thesis and I plan to graduate in October or December this year.

I discovered programming when I was at the first year of high school (approx. 10 years ago). At that time I wanted to be a game developer and I studied both the DirectX and OpenGL APIs. I learned the basics at the Game Institute and then bought several books and read several online resources to study the subject more in depth. Even if my interests are changed, I'm still interested in real-time computer graphic and I'm an active member on the gamedev forum (I use the same username).

Indeed, it is on that forum I learned about this project and decided I want to help. I'm obviously interested in the "Shader Engine" idea. I worked on a lot of small tech demos and applications, but never on some large project. I was planning to join some open source project for some time, but never found something interesting. I think you have done a great job with Gephi and the challenge to make a graph visualization shader engine really intrigue me.

I usually use C++, but I also know Java, C# and Haskell. In Java I made a 3D chess game for a university course, but I never used JOGL. I think it can't be too different from the OpenGL bindings in the other language and I can probably learn it in few days.

Best Regards,
Antonio Patriarca

[cezar_1]

Hi,

I am Cezary Bartosiak, a student of computer science at the Cybernetics Faculty, Military University of Technology, Warsaw.

First of all I'd like to say that I'm lost in admiration how fast your visualization engine is. When I first saw the Gephi demo video, it instantly encouraged me to take an interest in the project.

I have a passion for computer science. My father is a computer scientist and thanks to him I've become interested in this discipline. I wrote my first programme 10 years ago, it was "Hello World"... So I've got some programming experience ;) - including commercial experience for local companies. I have also participated in a small open source project concerning epidemics spreading, which utilizes pioneering sociological theories. I'm proficient in C, C++, Java as well as .NET Framework.

As for scientific interestings I have got a working knowledge of graph and networks theory. I am very keen on this. My engineering thesis concerns graph similarity algorithms. Of course I'm not narrow-minded and my interests include a wide range of algorithms and data structures. But graphs theory is the apple of my eye ;)

As I mentioned in another topic I'm taking my interest in "Dynamic attributes and statistics" idea. This seems very interesting to me and a bit challenging. It would be a great experience to take part in developing this idea.

Best,
Cezary

[darkhus]

Hi,
My name is Dariusz, I'm computer science student from Poland, but currently I study in Finland at UEF. This is my last year of study. I have never took part in gsoc before. Chance to take part in developing open-source software is for me great opportunity to develop my self and get experience in this field. I was working sometime as game and graphic programmer, so now I would like to try my self in open-source;) I'm really excited about that idea.
During my long study period I completed several IT project, mostly connected with 3d graphic and visualisations. Programming graphic is pleasure for me, it is also great adventure;)
There is also life beside programming, I'm deeply interesting in folk music, in my free time I play in folk band as didgeridoo and bandoura player.
Good luck with your projects!:)

[AJuggler]

Hello, I'm Andrew.

Currently, I'm a senior, about to be graduate student at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Formerly UMR). I'm a mechanical engineer with an unusual amount of programming experience (for mechanical engineers anyway). I do most of my programming in Java, so I'm fairly confident in my ability to pursue one of these projects over the summer.

I Found the GSOC website by chance one day, and wound up following it to the Gephi website. I was very interested in what was shown, and have since been reading up on graph theory and topology.

I'd be interested in pursuing either the Shader project or the Dynamic attributes project. I admit though to having no real knowledge of OpenGL, but I would be greatly interested in learning about it whilst doing the project.

Another idea, of dubious usefulness perhaps, for a project was to add 'source' and 'sink' type attributes into Gephi, so that any given node could be labeled a source or sink, of some flow capacity. With a little bit of fine tuning, in addition to the functions Gephi already serves, it could also be used to simulate flow in networks, which would allow for simulation of all manner of things, such as heat flow, fluid flow, electronic circuits, etc.
This idea doesn't seem to be in line with the main function of Gephi though, but I thought it would add a great deal of additional functionality and could also be implemented alongside the Dynamic attribute system.