Dr Antonis Giannopoulos selected for Google’s Summer of Code

Software developed by the School’s Dr Antonis Giannopoulos and Northumbria University’s Dr Craig Warren has been selected by Google to take part in its prestigious Summer of Code mentoring programme. The pair's project is one of 207 worldwide handpicked by Google.

Google’s international scheme connects talented student coders with software development companies offering paid opportunities over the summer holidays. Participants are given the opportunity to develop open source code which then becomes available worldwide. 

The software for which Dr Giannopoulos and Dr Warren were selected – known as gprMax – simulates and models Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). gprMax carries exciting applications across industries, including archaeology, engineering, geophysics and medicine – from discovering ancient Egyptian tombs to mapping the subsurface of cities, investigating glaciers in the Antarctic, and imaging tumours in the human body.

The pair have been selected as one of 207 participants worldwide to take part in GSoC.

Two students – John Hartley from the University of Edinburgh, and Manish Agrawal from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur in India – will now work with Dr Giannopoulos and Dr Warren over the next three months to refine and develop gprMax.

Dr Giannopoulos, the School’s Director of Discipline of Civil and Environmental Engineering, commented: “I am delighted to see gprMax being given this unique opportunity. gprMax’s foundations were set 20 years ago in Edinburgh after recognising that as a research community we need powerful openly available tools to develop novel practices and understanding in GPR technologies.

“Being open source, it became a driving force for future discovery and the involvement of more experts. I am looking forward to an exciting summer of code, working together with Craig, John and Manish!”

Northumbria University’s Dr Warren added: “We were very pleased to be selected to take part in the Google Summer of Code, especially as we’re one of just 27 new organisations chosen to be involved in this year’s scheme.

“The Google Summer of Code is a fantastic opportunity for students from around the world to contribute their skills, and learn about developing open source code in real software projects.”

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