GCC GSoC 2026: Call for project ideas and mentors

[Martin Jambor]

Hello Tucker,

On Tue, Jan 20 2026, Tucker Taft wrote:
> We plan to submit another project to implement Ada 2022 features in the GCC
> Ada front end that have not yet been implemented.  Last year's
> implementation of the Ada 2022 parallel features was successful, and
> received a lot of interest.  A related feature is compile-time checking of
> the safe use of global variables and other shared variables in the context
> of parallel processing, and would have the effect of detecting data races
> at compile time, ensuring that the parallel features are being used
> correctly.
>
> -Tucker Taft and Richard Wai

this is great, but we need to have the list of project ideas ready by
couple of hours ago.  Sorry that I am only replying now, I was ill and
in bed the entire last week.

In reality I hope that we still have a few (but really only few) days to
add it.  Can you please write the project idea down and either directly
enter it to the wiki or email it to me?

I do need all the information described in points a - g below, but the
actual description really only needs to be 5-2 sentences and most of the
rest is even shorter.  Point h can be provided later but please think
about it so that you have something when students start applying.

Thanks a lot,

Martin


>
> On Mon, Jan 19, 2026 at 10:11 AM Martin Jambor <mjambor@suse.cz> wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> another year has passed, Google has announced there will be again Google
>> Summer of Code (GsoC) in 2026 and the deadline for organizations to apply
>> is already approaching (February 3rd).  I'd like to volunteer to be the
>> main org-admin for GCC again but let me know if you think I shouldn't or
>> that someone else should or if you want to do it instead.  Otherwise I'll
>> assume that I will and I hope that I can continue to rely on Thomas
>> Schwinge and David Edelsohn to back me up and help me with some decision
>> making along the way as my co-org-admins.
>>
>> ======================== The most important bit: ========================
>>
>> I would like to ask all (moderately) seasoned GCC contributors to consider
>> mentoring a contributor this year and ideally also come up with a project
>> that they would like to lead.  We are collecting proposal on our wiki page
>> https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/SummerOfCode - feel free to add yours to the top
>> list there.  Or, if you are unsure, post your offer and project idea as a
>> reply here to the mailing list.
>>
>> Additionally, if you have added an idea to the list in recent years,
>> please review it whether it is still up-to-date or needs adjusting or
>> should be removed altogether.
>>
>> =========================================================================
>>
>> At this point, we need to collect list of project ideas.  Eventually,
>> each listed project idea should have:
>>
>>   a) a project title,
>>   b) more detailed description of the project (2-5 sentences),
>>   c) expected outcomes (we do have a catch-almost-all formulation that
>>      outcome is generally patches at the bottom of the list on the
>>      wiki),
>>   d) project size - whether it is expected to take approximately 350,
>>      175 or just 90 hours (see below about the last option),
>>   e) difficulty (easy, hard or medium, but we don't really have easy
>>      projects),
>>   f) expected mentors,
>>   g) skills required/preferred, and...
>>
>>   h) [this is new] ...pointers to things applicant should study in order
>>      to learn about the topic.  Please think also about a way to verify
>>      they can get basic stiff done (post test results, look up basic stuff
>>      in a gdb session... etc) though these do not need to be listed, these
>>      can be requested when they approach us. (See notes from Cauldron 2025
>>      GSoC BoF: https://gcc.gnu.org/pipermail/gcc/2025-October/246780.html
>> ).
>>
>> Project ideas that come without an offer to also mentor them are always
>> fun to discuss, by all means feel free to reply to this email with yours
>> and I will attempt to find a mentor, but please be aware that we can
>> only use the suggestion it if we actually find one or ideally two.
>>
>> Everybody in the GCC community is invited to go over
>> https://gcc.gnu.org/wiki/SummerOfCode and remove any outdated or
>> otherwise bad project suggestions and help improve viable ones.
>>
>> Finally, please continue helping (prospective) students figure stuff out
>> about GCC like you have always done in the past.
>>
>> GSoC 2026 should be quite similar to the last year, the most important
>> parameters probably are these:
>>
>>   - Contributors (formerly students) must either be full-time students
>>     or be "beginners to open source."
>>
>>   - There are now three project sizes: roughly 90 hors (small), roughly
>>     175 hours (medium-sized) and roughly 350 hours (large) of work in
>>     total.  The small option was introduced in 2024 but because our
>>     projects usually have a lengthy learning period, I think we will
>>     almost always want to stick to the medium and large variants.
>>
>>   - Timing should be pretty much as flexible as last year.  The
>>     recommended "standard" duration is 12 weeks but depending on
>>     contributor's and mentor's needs and circumstances, projects can
>>     take anywhere between 10 and 22 weeks.  There will be one mid-term
>>     and one final evaluation.
>>
>> For further details you can see:
>>
>>   - The announcement of GSoC 2026:
>>
>> https://opensource.googleblog.com/2025/12/shape-future-with-google-summer-of-code.html
>>
>>   - GSoC rules:
>>     https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/rules
>>
>>   - Detailed GSoC 2026 timeline:
>>     https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/timeline
>>
>>   - Elaborate project idea guidelines:
>>
>> https://google.github.io/gsocguides/mentor/defining-a-project-ideas-list
>>
>> Thank you very much for your participation and help.  Let's hope we
>> attract some great contributors again this year.
>>
>> Martin
>>