Hacking the ML Matrix: My Journey in BSoC and Open Source

Hey tech savvy peeps! 👈(ﾟヮﾟ👈)

I'm Shivansh Fulper, a passionate tech lover and student hailing from IIITDM Jabalpur. Embracing the world of technology and its endless possibilities, Today, I'm thrilled to share my journey as a contributor and my unforgettable experience in the BSoC program. Let's dive into the world of collaborative coding and discover how it has shaped my path as a developer and community enthusiast.

Perfect first-time Open Source experience.

My passion for Open Source stems from its collaborative nature and its ability to be able to contribute to awesome projects and software which can make people's life easier. I am new in the open source space and exploring it I have previously contributed to GirlScript Summer of Codes which was my first time contributing towards open source.

What is Open Souce?

For those who are not familiar with open source ill try to summarise it in brief Open Source refers to a type of software where the source code (human-readable form of the program), is made freely available to the public. This means that anyone can view, use, modify, and distribute the code as per the terms of the specific Open Source license governing the software.

You can find many open-source projects on the hosting platform for collaboration using the Git Version Control System like GitHub, GitBucket and GitLab. You can explore more about open source via the page below. 👇

Understanding Open Source Programmes.

Open Source contribution programs provide opportunities for individuals to contribute to Open Source projects while gaining valuable experience and mentorship. These programs are often organized by various companies, communities, foundations, and organizations in the software industry. These programs foster a strong sense of community, collaboration, and skill development.

BitByte Summer of Codes is one such program that was conducted by our college's Programming Club for beginners to experience the open-source world.

Let's dive deep and explore BSoC.

Getting Started with BSoC

What is BSoC?

BitByte Summer of Codes is an open-source program organized by The Programming Club (TPC) IIITDM Jabalpur which was conducted from May to July. You can visit the official GitHub page here.

This program is designed to provide students with a unique opportunity to enhance their coding skills, collaborate on exciting projects, and contribute to open-source software development. To know more check out the website.

There were 6 projects to work on:-

• Resource Sharing Platform

• Merch Shop GetIt

• 2D PvP Platformer game

• Busify

• Busify Android App

• College Forum

There was also a Workshop for Machine Learning offered under BSoC known as Summer Analytics.

The Application process.

The process to register for BSoC was fairly easy you just need to visit the official website and apply for the project which you liked and would be interested to work on.

I applied for Summer Analytics as I was interested in exploring the Data Science and Machine Learning domain and BitByte Summer of Code provided a perfect opportunity for me to understand and explore the basics of ML. The other projects were good but I wanted to try something new since I had previously worked on a web development project for the HackByte hackathon.

My Experience and Journey

Summer Analytics was a 4-5 week workshop consisting of various Machine learning topics which covered the basics of the ML domain.

Every week we were given different topics starting from basics like Python programming in week 0 to understanding the Neural Network in week 5. We were provided with a Jupyter-notebook which was having the topic description as well as the task to complete in the form of a hands-on assignment and tutorial content to follow was shared via Google Docs. For our final evaluation, we needed to fill out a Google form that contains questions to test our understanding of the topics. The best thing about summer analytics was that it began from very basics and gradually advanced to various ML algorithms.

I enjoyed the entire process and this helped me a lot to understand in and outs of machine learning.

My Contributions

During summer analytics I made some projects which were fun to develop and helped me to start my open-source contribution while learning machine learning

here are some of the projects I made during summer analytics.

click on images to visit the live demo

Rating Predictor app

Video Game Data Analysis

BSoC summer analytics played a significant part in my development journey.

Mentors and Support

I faced various problems during my development and learning journey but the mentors (Aryan Pandey sir) were really helpful in solving my queries on Discord and under their guidance I was able to understand machine learning and had smooth sailing in my summer analytics.

The entire organisation team were very supportive and I was able to collaborate with many other like-minded participants who were together with me throughout this session.

Conclusion

The BitByte Summer of Code Program was a superb experience and I did get a great learning curve which I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else. The program provides the opportunity to work on real-world, open-source projects, dedicated mentorship and webinars and most importantly great community engagement.

I would like to thank my mentors Aryan Pandey, Tushir Sahu, and Prajwal Kapoor because, without their support and patience, this wouldn’t have been possible.

All in all BitByte Summer of Code is the best way to kickstart your open-source journey.

BSoC helps you From Student to Trailblazer.

Well, this was my BSoC voyage hope you enjoyed the read （￣︶￣).

So, what are you waiting for? Let's get started with open-source!

For any doubts or information, you can connect to me on LinkedIn.