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It is possible to contribute to the Wockets project simply by joining the mailing list, adding to the wiki, posting messages, modifying code, etc.

Sometimes, though, students or professionals want to participate with more formal mentoring from a faculty or research staff member at MIT. Students frequently approach MIT House_n interested in doing summer internships or doing remote mentored projects that they can receive credit for at their home universities.

Unfortunately, everyone working on the Wockets project at MIT is extremely busy -- advising time is a very scarce resource! Therefore, we usually decline such requests until we have gotten to know someone's work product.

We therefore ask most students interested in mentoring or future summer internships at MIT to first complete a substantial independent project remotely so that we can see what they are are capable of.

If you want to do that, here's how it works:

First, identify a project with an opening from the independent project listings. Be sure to pick a project where you know that you can make a strong contribution based on your existing skill set.

Next, send us an email and ask for more details on the project that you have selected. If you have an idea for a new project, send us a note with a clear description of what you would do and why it will help advance the Wockets project.

We will then send you a packet with more information about the project, which will include a potential MIT mentor and what we'll call an independent study milestone. This milestone will be something that we feel you should be able to accomplish in a relatively short time on your own given the materials that we will send you and a lot of hard work. If you can't accomplish the milestone, you would not be able to complete the whole project. The milestone will have a clear, testable deliverable that may take you several weeks of hard work to accomplish.

Until you complete the independent study milestone you will be on your own. You can, of course, use the Wockets web site and mailing lists to get help, but your mentor won't be able to devote much (if any) effort to helping you other than clarifying the milestone goals.

Once you complete the independent study milestone, your MIT mentor will evaluate it. If you have succeeded and want to go forward, your mentor will then ask you to: (1) create a detailed schedule indicating when and how you will complete the remainder of the project, where you set clear milestones for yourself, (2) create a Skype account and setup a regular meeting time to talk about project progress, and (3) provide any material you need filled out so that you can get credit for the project as a remote, mentored independent study, assuming your university requires or allows such a thing.

From that point on, you will work directly with the mentor to complete the project!

Questions? Ask us!