[Biopython-dev] GSoC Student Applicant

[Wibowo Arindrarto]

On Sun, Apr 1, 2012 at 21:28, Brad Chapman <chapmanb at 50mail.com> wrote:
>
> Bow;
>
>> Thank you for the comments and suggestions. I've added a little bit
>> more details to my personal profile and put it up front. My project
>> details have also been broken down into single weeks. And I've edited
>> the commenting permission.
>
> Thanks for the updates, this is coming along well. My most general
> suggestion is to spend more time expanding the week-by-week
> timeline. As an example, take this weekly goal:
>
> * Write iterator and random-access parser for EMBOSS water
>
> It would be great to see more specific plans for what exactly you
> deliver and implement during the week. Something like:
>
> - Write iterator for EMBOSS water, expanding test suite to ensure
>  produced AlignIO objects are compatible with previous BLAST and HMMER
>  iterators.
>
> - Expand index functionality to handle EMBOSS water format for random
>  access. Test edge cases: initial records, final records, empty
>  records.
>
> - Document 'water' parsing with a use case emphasizing differences from
>  BLAST and HMMER searching.
>
> Peter probably has more specific thoughts on the actual content but it's
> important to think through things in this manner. This will make it
> easier to approach weeks during the summer since you'll already have
> tasks broken down, and will also demonstrate you've thought about
> potential problems and roadblocks and have solutions to overcome them.

Thanks for another feedback, Brad. I am in the process of adding more
detailed descriptions of my weekly tasks.

>> As for my other obligations, I didn't mean to give that impression. I
>> added a little bite more detail about the project itself, but I'm not
>> sure about the time that I should write. I estimate that at most, for
>> each week day, I spend 8 hours doing my Master's project in my lab's
>> campus. Since the project started, I usually use the remainder of the
>> time (~6 hours/day) for my own personal programming projects. I plan
>> to use the personal programming time slot for my GSoC instead, if
>> accepted. Should I be this thorough in the proposal?
>
> This is exactly my worry. You're proposing working two full time jobs
> all summer long. Not to denigrate your work ethic, but 80 hour weeks are
> hard and leave you no time for important things like having a life
> outside of work. My suggestion would be to see if you can scale back
> your Master's commitments for the summer if accepted into GSoC. This
> would definitely improve your proposal since reviewers will worry about
> the time commitment.
>
> Hope this all helps,
> Brad

Ah, that's ok, I understand your concern :). I talked with my
supervisor yesterday regarding this and he understood that I can scale
back the time spent for my current project if accepted. I've revised
this detail as well in the proposal.

Thanks again,
Bow