[GSoC] Contributor candidate introduction

Hello,

I'm interested in participating as contributor for the project "Reachability bitmap improvements". The area I'm interested in, the most, is the alternate compression scheme e.g. Roaring+Run, however I'm ecstatic about any bitmap performance improvement. Expected project size I'm targeting for is large (350 hours). I've already completed my micro-project and I will submit it in a few hours. I wanted to be sure I could submit v1 of it before committing to introducing myself.

I'm Plato Kiorpelidis, undergraduate student from Greece, studying Computer Science. I've been developing software systems for academic purposes and Greek universities for the previous 1.5 year inside my university department as full time job.

The idea of reading and implementing ideas proposed in academic papers, then running performance tests to compare and evaluate them, thrills me and peaks my interest. I've been browsing the git source code on and off for two years as an undergraduate, thinking it would be awesome if I could contribute, influence and become actively involved in a widely used tool such as git. The opportunity given by GSoC provides the environment and support for it to actually happen.

I've gone through the mailing list and looked for other candidates that could
also be interested in this project. Shubham Mishra is also interested.
- Could we collaborate on this project considering how broad it is or only one
can be selected?
He/she already has experience in open source and has participated in
GSoC before.
- Does that make me a better fit considering GSoC is for introducing someone to
open source and their communities or should I strive for a different
project instead?
I should note that the best case scenario for me is if we are both selected,
probably on different bitmap performance areas under "Reachability bitmap
improvements" project, however I don't know if it's possible. It probably
depends on the mentors listed for this project and the work load involved.
- Has this happened in a previous GSoC? Did it work?

Thanks, Plato Kiorpelidis