Interested in Contributing to NumFOCUS

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Shubhika Jain

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Jan 3, 2026, 2:23:56 AM (3 days ago) Jan 3

to NumFOCUS GSOC

Hello NumFOCUS community,

My name is Shubhika Jain, and I’m a second-year undergraduate student majoring in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. I’m reaching out to formally introduce myself and to express my intent to contribute to NumFOCUS projects as I prepare for GSoC 2026.

My background is primarily in Python-based data analysis and machine learning, with hands-on experience in building end-to-end projects involving data cleaning, feature engineering, model training, and evaluation. Over the past year, I’ve worked on multiple applied ML projects, including time-series analysis, statistical modeling, and data-driven dashboards, which has motivated me to contribute to robust, community-driven scientific software.

Recently, I’ve been exploring the NumFOCUS ecosystem to better understand how large-scale scientific Python libraries are designed, documented, and maintained. I’m particularly interested in projects focused on data analysis, scientific computing, and ML-adjacent tooling, where I can start by contributing to documentation, testing, or small code improvements while gradually building a deeper understanding of the codebase.

At this stage, I would really appreciate guidance on:

which NumFOCUS repositories are most beginner-friendly for first technical contributions beyond documentation
whether there are recommended starter issues, testing tasks, or refactoring efforts that would help new contributors understand project internals
the best communication channels to engage with maintainers early and productively

I’m committed to learning project workflows, following contribution guidelines closely, and contributing consistently over time. I’m looking forward to becoming an active and useful member of the NumFOCUS community.

Thank you for maintaining such impactful open-source projects, and I appreciate any direction or feedback.