Student-laefy

Introduction

Personal statement

My name is Céline NOEL. I live in Paris and I study Computer Science at Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée University (UPEM). I am in second year of License and I would like to prepare a Master Image in double degree with an engineering school called IMAC.

GSoC

I want to participate in Summer of Code for several reasons.

First of all, I love programming. Really. Some people love playing video games (I do too), or doing sports, or singing, or whatever, me, I love programming. And I also love mathematics, and algorithmic, because I am keen on racking my head over problems and having the satisfaction of solving them ! Even if I hate the frustration of being unable to find a solution.

Second reason : compared to working as a cashier in a supermarket, participating in GSoC would be something really interesting, fun, and valuing. Of course, I am aware of the amount of work that I would have to provide to deliver a working and cleaned code at the end, but when you are working on something, rather by willingness and interest than by obligation, you take a lot of pleasure in it. This is, I think, the main reason I applied to it.

In addition, coding on a project for a complete summer would give me an overview of what the developer job is. For my own good, I would be forced to code depending on other people (the mentor for example) and other standards; this could really help me to become more flexible and efficient. The GSoC is also a good opportunity to make friends and contacts, to build experience in programming skills as much as in the professional area. For all these reasons, I am really motivated and I will do my best !

Disponibilities : I am most likely to be able to join IRC at evening and during the weekends, or holidays. I have nothing planned during the summer holidays. If I am taken for GSoC, I am not planning to do anything else. Maybe just giving some courses to some friends or friends's children (2 / 3 hours a week at max), because I enjoy teaching.

Experience

According to my cursus, I am studying C, HTML/CSS, algorithmic in programs, Shell, databases (MySql and PHP). Last year, with a friend, we programmed a 3-dimensional labyrinth with SDL (1.2), and an air traffic simulator (you can add flights, see the planes taking off at time, the different tracks, etc.) with our faculty library (lib-MLV) this time. This year, I did my projects alone : there was a Chomp (a 2-p game, in which you have to eat a chocolate tablet, knowing that the player who eat the last piece lose), an implementation of the Eight Queens puzzle (how to put 8 queens on the board, without any one of them threatening another), and a kind of Snake. I used SDL (2.0) for the graphical interface. We also had to implement a glossary by using ternary trees in algorithmic. On this semester, we are coding a implementation of the problem of the Traveling Salesman by using genetic algorithms, and we will have to do a database using MySql and PHP.

On my own, I have studied C++ and Object-Oriented Programming. I am trying to make a library in C based on SDL2 to render 3D. I also 'need' to code a little software to help me manage my money and (I hope, maybe) spend less (but I don't have the motivation for the moment, I prefer coding my library and my school project).

Hobbies

Besides coding, I am keen on music (rock, pop, dubstep, electro), and I played piano for two years learning by myself (the piano was at the boarding school, I am not in boarding school anymore, I have no piano anymore :'( ). I am fond of video games, and I used to play a lot when I was young (Zelda makes my childhood). Considering the price and the degrading quality of current games, I prefer playing with my dear Gamecube and GBA SP, or using emulators (PS2, Snes). Among my favorite games, you find Zelda OOT, Fable I, FFX, Pokemon Crystal and PSO EpI&II. I have an account on Dofus (shame on me, but I don't use it anymore), LoL (this one, I use it, and I am not ranked), Tera (I will replay this game as soon as I can afford a cooling pad) and Dragonica too. And maybe others, but I don't remember, so they must not be very important... Globally, I would say that I mainly enjoy adventure and strategic games. To answer the questionnaire a little more, I am not a regular player during non-holidays, and story is as important to me as gameplay. If the game has a bad story, I will find it boring, and if it lacks in gameplay, it lose part of his interest (a game should be pleasant to play, even if the difficulty is high). Finally, to be honest, I have never played Wesnoth, but I have already the game installed, and I will give my opinion on it as soon as I play enough to make one.

Communication

I hope that my English is not too bad (this wiki may give you an overview). Logically, I have quite a good level (I was in a reinforced English section in highschool). I watch series in original version without subtitles for instance. My main problem is all the acronyms that I don't always understand and findind an translation can be a challenge (exemple : "What VCS has its name inspired from a British slang/insult?", which is the antispam question to create a Gna account; hopefully, some good people are present on the IRC to help poor and lost souls like me). English set apart, I am really, really fluent in French, have notions in German (5 years) and Japanese (3 years).

When I play League of Legends, I am calm and friendly. I never flame, because this is useless and costs too much energy. In real life as in games, I try to give advice when I can, and I forbear myself when I am not sure of what I want to say; when other people give me advice, I start to apply them, and if it turns out that they are helping me, I carry on following them.

Eventually, I never start coding before mapping and discussing (with myself first, and others after) what I am going to do and what I am going to need. When I have defined the modules I am going to use, I start thinking about the main methods I am going to use. It is only after doing this that I can start coding and testing.

Project Idea

Description

TODO: Write a small (1-4 sentences) description of your proposal here.

TODO: Add more first-level sections to detail your proposal

Contact

Email : celine.noel.7294 (at) gmail.com

Wesnoth forums : Laefy

IRC : laefy

Questionnaire

TODO: fill out the questionnaire, on your copy of this page. The questions are provided in the SoC Information for Google page.