Summer of Reproducibility: Strengthening Reproducibility through Matchmaking and Mentorship

Accepting Proposal Ideas from Mentors! Deadline February 7. 

The REPETO project is excited to be organizing the first Summer of Reproducibility (SoR), a remote mentorship program which pays students to support the efforts of researchers working on reproducibility artifacts over the summer. This program is modeled after the UC Santa Cruz Open Source Research Experience (OSRE), which itself is modeled after the Google Summer of Code (GSoC).  Both OSRE and GSoC match students with researchers working on open source projects. The new SoR program similarly plays matchmaker for mentors who are interested in the reproducibility of computational research and students looking to acquire valuable skills related to reproducibility. 

The SoR program is able to attract a large pool of talented students through the world wide reach of our parallel OSRE and GSoC efforts, as well as outreach by the REPETO steering committee and project team. Students who are selected are paid a competitive stipend to work with the SoR mentors. Mentors can also rely on the SoR team to manage all administrative aspects of the program, as well provide guidance and support with student on-boarding and management throughout the program. The program team’s goal is to enable mentors and students to have a productive summer that positively impacts the mentor’s research and relevant reproducibility efforts.

The SoR team is actively seeking summer proposal ideas from potential mentors – and the deadline to submit is February 7. These proposal ideas are the basis for students summer project applications. Any researcher working on reproducibility topics can be a SoR mentor and identify summer students to help in their reproducibility related activities. Becoming a SoR mentor is easy – simply create initial proposal ideas that include activities that a student would undertake as part of a summer project. Guidelines for submitting to the proposal idea list are here. Proposal ideas can include a wide variety of activities for the summer student including (but not limited to): preparing reproducibility artifacts for publications; sharing or reviewing artifacts; creating reproducibility  artifacts for in the classroom; or enabling reproducibility in building software. (See examples of current proposal ideas here.)  Mentors only need to provide a short description of what the work should entail and the skill level needed. Once posted, mentors can edit and adjust as needed (even after the February 7 deadline.)  

Beginning in mid-February, interested students will start to review the posted proposals ideas and reach out to the relevant mentors for input on their applications. Through this interactive process mentors get to know the students interested in working with them and can evaluate who they see as the “best match” for them. Likewise, interested students can assess in the proposal process if they see the mentor and the project as a good match for their interests. 

Student proposals are due on April 4. Mentors rank the student applications received related to their proposal ideas and let the program organizers know how many student slots they would like to have funded. Final student slot allotment is based on the rankings provided by mentors. The student slots are announced on May 4. 

Selected SoR students are expected to work with their mentors for 10 to 12 weeks over the summer – with start and end dates dependent upon the needs of both the mentor and student. Both part-time and full-time projects are allowed depending on the needs of the project. Mentors will be expected to do a mid-term and final evaluation of the students work, and students will also be expected to provide feedback on how their project is progressing.  The final results from the student project will be highlighted by the REPETO team through inclusion on the REPETO website and public events in Fall 2023. 

  • Interested and want to hear more about the SoR Program? Take a look at our intro session video here and slides here
  • Want to hear more or have specific questions about becoming a mentor? Join us on January 26 and/or February 2 for an “Ask Me Anything” Session from 10:30 – 11:30am Pacific Time. Or email slieggi@ucsc.edu 

 

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