Google Announces 9th Edition Of Its Summer Of Code Program, Will Start Taking Applications In April

As expected, Google will once again run its Summer of Code program for college students around the world this year. Students who make it into the competitive program get to work on open-source projects for mentoring organizations from around the globe. Over the past eight editions, 6,000 students from more than 100 countries participated in the program. Students will able to submit their applications starting April 22.

Summer of Code is meant to introduce students to the world of open source software and to help interesting projects find smart volunteers who can help them push their ideas forward. The company’s goal, Google’s Carol Smith writes in a blog post today, “is to help these students pursue academic challenges over the summer break while they create and release open source code for the benefit of all.”

Google provides participating students with a stipend of $5,500. A small portion of this ($500) goes to the mentoring organization, and students only receive the full amount if their project passes a final examination at the end of the program.

Just like Google chooses the students that participate in the program, potential mentoring organizations also have to submit applications. The deadline for these is March 29, and organizations can start submitting their ideas on March 18. In total, Google says, it has now worked with more than 3,000 mentors.

If you are interested in participating (or know somebody who would be), Google just updated its FAQ, which is available here.