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gsoc: add summaries for 2011 and 2012 (#1716)
* gsoc: add summaries for 2011 and 2012 * placate linkchecker * placate linkchecker
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‎.github/config/mdcheck.json‎

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‎_activities/gsoc.md‎

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* [Student blogs 2024]({{ site.baseurl }}/gsoc/2024/blogs.html)
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* [Student blogs 2023]({{ site.baseurl }}/gsoc/2023/blogs.html)
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* [Student blogs 2022]({{ site.baseurl }}/gsoc/2022/blogs.html)
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* [Blogpost summarizing 2012]({{ site.baseurl }}/gsoc/2012/blogs.html)
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* [Blogpost summarizing 2011]({{ site.baseurl }}/gsoc/2011/blogs.html)
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### For Projects and Mentors

‎gsoc/2011/blogs.md‎

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---
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title: CernVM's fruitful Summer - GSoC 2011
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layout: plain
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year: 2011
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---
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{:refdef: style="text-align: center;"}
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![gsoc-logo-2011](https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-developer-goog-blog-assets/images_archive/original_images/GSOC_2011_300x200px_URL.png)
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{: refdef}
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This was the first year [CERN](http://public.web.cern.ch/public/)
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participated in *[Google Summer of Code](http://code.google.com/soc/)*,
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and it turned out to be an amazing experience for us! We were given four
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students to mentor, all of whom proved to be very skilled developers.
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The students quickly familiarized themselves with our code base and
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managed to make valuable contributions within the three month time frame
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of *Google Summer of Code*. Our students were very open and willing to
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learn and spent a considerable amount of their time researching tools,
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libraries, and the latest technological developments. As a result, all
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four students were able to solve their problems and come up with
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interesting ideas for future development. The code and the documentation
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they produced is available
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[here](http://code.google.com/p/google-summer-of-code-2011-cernvm/downloads/list).
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The specific problems (projects) that we suggested to our students
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spanned several domains, ranging from consistent replication of
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terabytes of data across several remote sites to automated testing of
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virtual machine releases.
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**Josip Lisec** was working on the development of the monitoring system
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for the [CernVM](http://cernvm.cern.ch/portal/) Co-Pilot framework,
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which is mainly used as a distributed computing platform within the
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LHC\@home 2.0 volunteer computing project. The [LHC\@home
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2.0](http://lhcathome2.cern.ch/) project currently has more than 9,000
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registered users who contribute their spare CPU cycles for the
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simulation of the particle collision events in CERN\'s [Large Hadron
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Collider](https://home.cern/science/accelerators/large-hadron-collider) (LHC).
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After some research, Josip decided to integrate existing tools with the
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Co-Pilot as opposed to trying to reinvent the wheel by rewriting
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everything from scratch. This resulted in a nicely engineered monitoring
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framework, parts of which were put into production while the *Google
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Summer of Code* was still going on (Josip\'s developments have now been
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fully integrated after completion of the program). Since this was
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Josip\'s first encounter with Perl, he has been seen adding support for
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\'[my](http://perldoc.perl.org/functions/my.html)\' keyword to every
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other major programming language since the *Google Summer of Code*
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concluded.\
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\
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The goal of **Yin Qiu**\'s project was to devise a mechanism for a
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consistent replication of changes made to the central repository of
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[CernVM File System](http://cernvm.cern.ch)
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(CernVM-FS) to a globally distributed set of mirror servers. CernVM-FS
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is used to host and distribute the application software of CERN LHC
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experiments to hundreds of Grid sites, as well as the laptops and
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workstations of users worldwide. As such, it is currently one of the
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central components of the distributed computing infrastructures on which
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CERN [ATLAS](http://www.atlas.ch/) and
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[LHCb](http://user.web.cern.ch/public/en/LHC/LHCb-en.html) experiments
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rely. Yin\'s approach was to organize CernVM-FS mirrors into a
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Paxos-managed replication network and to enforce state machine version
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transitions on them. Following the suggestion of Jakob, his mentor, Yin
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implemented a messaging framework which is used to orchestrate the
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replication process and facilitates the implementation of new features.
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He also managed to implement a couple of Python plugins which ensure the
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consistency of data across replicas. The project is currently in the
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state of a working prototype.\
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\
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**Jesse Williamson** took up the challenge of designing a new library
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for CernVM-FS to consolidate support for various cryptographic hashing
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algorithms. The first task was to survey the implementation of CernVM-FS
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and establish a list of requirements. Next, quite a bit of effort was
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spent on designing the library specifically so that it would be easy to
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use, comparatively simple to extend, and robust enough to support
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extensions like a streaming interface and compression. Since CernVM-FS
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is heavily used in production, it has been very important to make sure
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that the new developments do not break anything. Jesse has developed a
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set of unit tests which ensure that all the existing features and
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properties were maintained.\
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\
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The design of new C++ libraries was certainly an improvement, but it
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also became clear late in the cycle that a further abstraction to fully
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separate digests and hash functions will be necessary to avoid memory
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fragmentation issues and ensure stronger const-correctness\
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\
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**Jonathan Gillet** worked on implementing a solution for automating the
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testing of CernVM virtual machine images on multiple hypervisors and
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operating systems. The solution, which is a ready to use testing
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infrastructure for CernVM, was developed in collaboration with other
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open source projects such as AMD
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Tapper (used for the reports and web interface), [libvirt](http://libvirt.org/)
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(interaction with hypervisors), and
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Homebrew (OS X support).  The main
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goals of the project were accomplished with support for all major
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hypervisors running on Linux and OS X platforms. The framework automates
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the task of downloading and configuring the CernVM images on the fly,
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and executing a series of thorough tests which check various features of
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CernVM images before release. Documentation was also an important goal
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of the project; in total there are now over two hundred pages of
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documentation which cover everything from setting up the testing
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infrastructure and virtual machines to a complete API reference.\
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\
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We certainly enjoyed *Google Summer of Code* 2011, and we sincerely
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congratulate all of our students and mentors for successfully completing
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the program!\
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\
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*By Artem Harutyunyan, Senior Fellow, CernVM Project (CERN) and Google
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Summer of Code Mentor*\
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[(original article on Google Open Source
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Blog)](http://google-opensource.blogspot.fr/2011/12/cernvms-fruitful-summer.html)

‎gsoc/2012/blogs.md‎

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---
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title: CERN Summer Thrills GSoC 2012
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layout: plain
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year: 2012
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---
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{:refdef: style="text-align: center;"}
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![gsoc-logo](https://wiki.osgeo.org/w/images/a/a7/Gsoc-2012-logo-color.png){: width="600" }
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{: refdef}
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For the physics software development group at
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[CERN](http://public.web.cern.ch/public/), our second year of *[Google
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Summer of Code](http://code.google.com/soc/)* couldn't have come at a
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better time. Motivated by CernVM\'s [awesome experience in
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2011](http://google-opensource.blogspot.ch/2011/12/cernvms-fruitful-summer.html),
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our colleagues from the [Geant4](http://geant4.cern.ch/) and
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[ROOT](http://root.cern.ch) software projects joined us as mentors this
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summer. And while physicists around the world snatched the first
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evidence of a long-sought [Higgs
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boson](http://cds.cern.ch/record/1459565) from the Large Hadron Collider
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(LHC), our seven *Google Summer of Code* students worked on core parts
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of the open source software engine that makes LHC data processing
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possible.
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Two of our students worked with the Geant4 team at CERN. Geant4 is a
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toolkit for the simulation of the response of a material when
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high-energetic particles are passing through it. Geant4 can be used to
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model a gas detector, a gamma-ray telescope, an electronic device next
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to an accelerator or the inside of a satellite. In order to keep up with
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the rate of real data coming from the LHC detectors, Geant4 has to be
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both accurate and fast.
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- Stathis Kamperis improved the speed of Geant4 by re-ordering the
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simulation of particles according to particle type. By simulating,
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for instance, first all electrons, than all photons, and so on, the
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number of instruction cache misses decreases. In the course of this
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work, Stathis also ported Geant4 to Solaris which gives us access to
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the very powerful [DTrace](http://dtrace.org/blogs/) profiling
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machinery.
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- Dhruva Tirumala Bukkapatnam contemplated Geant4 pointers and data
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structures. He developed code for a particle navigation algorithm
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optimized for use on GPU architectures.
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\
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Two more students were working together with the ROOT team. The ROOT
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framework is the main working horse for LHC experiments to store,
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analyze, and visualize their data.
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- Omar Zapata Mesa worked on an
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[MPI](http://www.mcs.anl.gov/research/projects/mpi/) interface for
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ROOT. On a cluster of machines, the MPI interface enables ROOT to
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toss around its C++ objects from node to node while also integrating
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with ROOT\'s C++ interpreter.
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- Eamon Ford worked on the CERN iOS App.The App brings CERN news and
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information on an iPad or iPhone. In case you can't sleep at night,
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you can now peek at the live display of particle collisions from
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inside the LHC.
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For the CernVM base technology, we had three more students working with
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us this summer. CernVM provides a virtual appliance used to develop and
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run LHC data processing applications on the distributed and
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heterogeneous computing infrastructure that is provided by hundreds of
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physics institutes and research labs around the world.
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- Josip Lisec, back for his second *Google Summer of Code*, worked on
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the log analysis and visualization of CernVM Co-Pilot, the job
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distribution system which powers the [LHC\@home
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Test4Theory](http://lhcathome2.cern.ch/) volunteer computing
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project. Want to see the world map of active volunteers from the
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19th of November at 3:07pm?  Check out the [Co-Pilot
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dashboard](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXHSXt9poCA).
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- Francesco Ruvolo worked on broken network services, such as
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misconfigured DNS or HTTP servers. Breaking such services in a
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controlled way comes in handy when simulating the behavior of a
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CernVM running on a hotel WiFi.
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- Rachee Singh programmed maintenance tools for the content
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distribution network that is used by the CernVM File System to
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distribute terabytes of experiment software to all the worker nodes.
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All the proxy servers of the content distribution network can now be
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plotted on a map and every CernVM can automatically find a close
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proxy by means of a [Voronoi
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diagram](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voronoi_diagram) produced by
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Rachee\'s code.
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Overall, we were very glad to see so much interest and enthusiasm from
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the student programmers in LHC software tools. We'd like to
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congratulate all of our students on their hard work and on successfully
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completing the program!
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Sun, 09/30/2012 - 00:00
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*By Jakob Blomer, CERN Organization Administrator*
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[(original article on Google Open Source
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Blog)](http://google-opensource.blogspot.fr/2012/12/cern-summer-thrills.html)

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