Welcome to the Sorrentum Project

Hello!

Nice to meet you.

We are very happy that you are interested in the Sorrentum Project!

The project aims to combine open-source development, startups, and brilliant students. We’ve seen this mixture of ingredients work exceptionally well at Stanford / Berkeley / MIT / etc, where every student seems to be trying to start a company on the side. Our goal is to bootstrap the same virtuous cycle at UMD so that instead of just looking for a job, you create your own.

We are still figuring out things as we go, and we are working with UMD and other interested parties to provide research assistantships and grants. Besides the immediate financial benefit, this is a unique opportunity for you to:

• work on cutting-edge problems on machine learning and Web3
• learn about startups and how to start your own project
• write academic papers
• get internships and full-time positions at companies working on Sorrentum applications or from our network

Most importantly, this is a unique way to be part of a community of individuals interested in building innovative products.

Useful links

• Google drive
• Collaborator list
• Project list
• Research office hours
• Meeting room
• Sorrentum - Task list
• Git issues
• Technical docs
• UMD DATA605 Big Data Systems
  • Contains lectures and tutorials about many of the technologies we use in Sorrentum, e.g.,
    • Dask
    • Docker
    • Docker Compose
    • Git, github
    • Jupyter
    • MongoDB
    • Pandas
    • Postgres
    • Apache Spark

First steps

1. Send an email to gsaggese@umd.edu asking to be added to the project

   • We need your email and your GitHub user name to add you to the documentation site and to GitHub project

2. Accept the invite from GitHub that we will send you

   • The invite is in your email or at https://github.com/sorrentum/sorrentum/invitations
   • Please fork, star, watch the Sorrentum repo so that GitHub promotes our repo (we gotta work the system)

3. Take a look at the list of interesting projects Project List

   • Please comment on the Google docs about what projects interest you (e.g., by adding the word INTERESTED close to the task)
   • Don't worry: you can change your mind and we will make sure your skills are a good match for the task

4. Take a look at the minutes from the research office hours

   • You can watch recordings of previous research meetings

5. Please fill out the Collaboration Survey so we know a little about you and your (initial) skills

   • Don’t worry: by working with us, you will soon become a coding machine

6. Ask for a task at Task Allocation Survey

7. Make sure the info on the Task List are correct

   • E.g., especially email, GitHub account, and Telegram handle

8. Communication will happen through:

   • GitHub on the repo like in a open-source development
   • a Telegram IM channel for higher bandwidth discussion

9. We have research office hours twice a week over Zoom to discuss typically 2 projects

   • The current hours are:
     • Every Tue 3 to 3:45pm ET
     • Every Fri 2 to 2:45pm ET
   • The link is: Zoom (see invitation)

IMPORTANT

This is our only request to you.

We understand that due to classes and other commitments, you might not be able to work on Sorrentum consistently. That’s ok. At the same time, please be aware that taking on a task means that:

1. the same task might not be available to your colleagues; and

2. we spend time helping, training, and mentoring you

   • So the energy we put into helping you will be taken away from your colleagues
   • If you give up our effort could have been better used for other teammates that committed more firmly to making progress

In other words, if you are not sure you can commit a meaningful amount of time to Sorrentum (e.g., 10 hours / week), it is wise to wait to be sure you can do it. If you are excited and want to start, go for it, do your best, and we’ll make this experience the best possible for you.

Admin links

• Survey results