Interested in contributing early for OpenVINO GSoC 2026 – guidance needed

[Manuteja2007]

Hi everyone 👋

I’m an undergraduate student preparing for Google Summer of Code 2026 and I’m very interested in contributing to OpenVINO. I understand that the official GSoC 2026 project ideas are not announced yet, but I would like to start contributing early to get familiar with the codebase and relevant projects and prove my ability to work on GSoC projects to mentors.

About me (short intro):

Background: Machine Learning / Computer Vision
Skills: Python,Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Computer Vision ,AI
I’m currently at intermediate level and actively learning through contributions.

I’d really appreciate guidance on:

Which repositories or areas are good to start with right now?
Any ongoing or recurring projects that are likely to be relevant for GSoC 2026 proposals so that i can start contributing to those projects?

Tagging @adrianboguszewski in case you can help point me in the right direction.
Thank you, and I’m looking forward to contributing to the OpenVINO community 🙂