how awesome is this? too bad i haven't expected it, so i have no ideas..

8.
The National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent:
http://www.nescent.org/) is participating in 2008 for the second year
 as a mentoring organization in the Google Summer of Code
(http://code.google.com/soc). Through this program, Google provides
undergraduate, masters, and PhD students with a unique opportunity to
 obtain hands-on experience writing and extending open-source
software under
 the mentorship of experienced developers from around the world.

Our goal in participating is to train future researchers and developers
to not only have awareness and understanding of the value of open-source
 and collaboratively developed software, but also to gain the
programming
 and remote collaboration skills needed to successfully contribute
to such
projects. Students will receive a stipend from Google, and may work
 from their home, or home institution, for the duration of the 3 month
 program.
Students will each have one or more dedicated mentors with expertise in
phylogenetic methods and open-source software development.

NESCent is particularly targeting students interested in both
evolutionary biology and software development. Project ideas (see URL
below) range
 from visualizing phylogenetic data in R, to development of a Mesquite
 module, web-services for phylogenetic data providers or
geophylogeny mashups,
implementing phyloXML support, navigating databases of networks,
 topology queries for PhyloCode registries, to phylogenetic tree
mining in a
 MapReduce framework, and more.

The project ideas are flexible and many can be adjusted in scope to
 match the skills of the student. If the program sounds interesting
to you but
 you are unsure whether you have the necessary skills, please email the
 mentors at the address below.  We will work with you to find a
project that
 fits your interests and skills.

INQUIRIES:
Email any questions, including self-proposed project ideas, to phylosoc
 {at} nescent {dot} org.

TO APPLY:
Apply on-line at the Google Summer of Code website
(http://code.google.com/soc/2008), where you will also find GSoC
 program
rules and eligibility requirements.  The 1-week application period for
students opens on Monday March 24th and runs through Monday, March
 31st, 2008.

Hilmar Lapp and Todd Vision
US National Evolutionary Synthesis Center

=====
URLs:
=====

2008 NESCent Phyloinformatics Summer of Code:
http://phyloinformatics.net/Phyloinformatics_Summer_of_Code_2008

Eligibility requirements:
http://code.google.com/opensource/gsoc/2008/faqs.html#0.1_eligibility

Stipends:
http://code.google.com/opensource/gsoc/2008/faqs.html#0.1_administrivia

To sign up for quarterly NESCent newsletters: with announcements about
upcoming programs at the Center:
http://www.nescent.org/about/contact.php