Google has announced the Summer of Code this year too. Summer of Code is a program started by Google last year to make more students to develop Free/Open Source Softwares. The students will be aided by organisations which develop Open Source softwares. Each student will be assigned one mentor and will also get stipend. If a student is selected in the program, then Google pays $500 initially. Then during the middle of the program (if sufficient progress has been made), then it pays $2000, and at the end of the program, will pay $2000. The mentoring organisation will also get $500 for every student it helps. So, Google spends $5000 for every student. Last year of the 8744 applicants, 419 students were accepted into the program and more than 80% of them succeeded, which means they received the full stipend of $4500. This year, Google plans to take in more students.
This is a nice oppurtunity for students to showcase their coding skills and also contribute to the open source community – also get paid for it.