Today marks the last day of my Google Summer of Code 2014 project. Evaluations are due midday Friday PDT, and code submissions for successfully passed projects start soon thereafter. The end result of my project can be found at Sage Trac Ticket 16773. In total it's just over 2000 lines of Python and Cython code, to be added to the next major Sage release (6.4) if/when it gets a final thumbs-up review.
When I write just the number of lines of code it doesn't sound like very much at all - I'm sure there are GSoC projects this year that produced at least 10k lines of code! However, given that what I wrote is complex mathematical code that needed a) significant optimization, and b) to be be mathematically sound in the first place, I'd say that isn't too bad. Especially since the code does what the project description aimed for it to do: compute analytic ranks of rational elliptic curves very quickly with a very low rate of failure. Hopefully this functionality can and will be used to produce numerical data for number theory research in the years to come.
The Google Summer of Code has been a thoroughly rewarding experience for me. It's a great way to sharpen one's coding skills and get paid in the process. I recommend it for any university student who's looking to go into any industry that requires programming skills; I'd apply to do it again next year if I wasn't planning to graduate then!
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