[mlpack] mlpack accepted to GSoC 2017!

[Ryan Curtin]

Hello there,

A couple weeks ago (or maybe it was more?  I can't remember) we
submitted the application for mlpack for Google Summer of Code 2017.
Just a little while ago, we heard back from Google that we have been
accepted into the program.

I'm looking forward to what another year in GSoC can bring; in our
previous three participations, we have had great improvements, like a
benchmarking system, an entire collaborative filtering package, lots of
tree types implemented, many new algorithms... the list is much longer
than that.  I'm hoping that this year we can continue this tradition of
excellent projects!

Currently, the list of ideas for the summer is here:

https://github.com/mlpack/mlpack/wiki/SummerOfCodeIdeas

If you would like to add an idea or mentor a project, feel free to get
in touch and edit the page!  Being a mentor is not hard---though it does
take some time and commitment of course---and in my opinion it can be a
very fulfilling experience.

We can, as always, expect a big influx of new and prospective
contributors.  Usually they are looking for issues to solve!  So if you
have any changes you'd like to see, or work you've been planning to do
but just haven't gotten around to it, feel free to open an issue on
Github about it.  In general, I've found that if I write an issue
clearly and provide a new contributor with all of the information they
need to understand the issue and know how to test when it is fixed, it
is not long until someone comes along and fixes it.

In either case, I am looking forward to another great summer of
mentoring!

Thanks,

Ryan

(P.S. if you mentor you get a free t-shirt, a small stipend, and
possibly a trip to San Jose for the mentor summit---so there is more in
it for mentors than just good feelings.  I think at this point most of
the shirts I own are GSoC shirts... I am surprised to see that I am not
waring one today actually...)

-- 
Ryan Curtin    | "Moo."
ryan at ratml.org |   - Eugene Belford