I’m excited to share that I’ve been accepted as a Google Summer of Code contributor with DBpedia for a project called “Ontology Time Machine / Package Manager using DBpedia Archivo for DBpedia.”

What many people don’t know is that this was my third time applying. I first learned about DBpedia during my master’s course on ‘Open Data and Knowledge Graphs,’ taught by professors from the Ontology Engineering Group. I loved the course and even wrote my master’s thesis with these professors. After taking a year off from academia, I decided to pursue a PhD with the same group.

For the past two years, I applied to GSoC with DBpedia for a different project, related to my PhD but not too closely. This year, I found a project that seemed perfect for me. I wrote my proposal carefully, using my experience from previous applications. The project was such a great fit that my GSoC mentor and I will present our research at the same conference next week.

The lesson here? Never give up. Failure is just a way to redirect you. Keep trying, and you’ll succeed eventually.

I’ve been studying the topic for the past three weeks, and the coding part of the program starts next week. I’m super excited to finally get hands-on with the project!