Guidance for GSoC 2026: Contributing to sympy.physics.continuum_mechanics

[sai udayagiri]

Hey everyone!

For those interested in contributing to the sympy.physics.continuum_mechanics project, I wanted to share some guidance based on my GSoC 2025 experience. We currently have a few open PRs and plenty of scope for new contributions.

If you already have a plan approved by Tom, that’s great! But if you’re still wondering where to start, my advice is to read through both Borek’s work and mine (links below; detailed reports can be found in the documents section at the bottom).

• Borek’s Work

• My Work

Specifically, check my GSoC report, where I’ve outlined potential future improvements for the module to help you get started.

If you are genuinely interested, I suggest trying to solve a variety of problems using the Beam, Column, and Structure2D(Open PRs #28309 and #27130) modules. You can use this Beam Problems Tutorial to help. Once you solve these problems, you’ll have a much clearer understanding of what might be missing in the module.

From there, either you can create an issue to share observations from your tests to get feedback or directly write in the proposal. Feel free to tag me so I can check and comment. You can tag Tom as well, but please keep in mind that getting feedback might take some time. In the meantime, start drafting your proposal and adjust it once you receive feedback.

A note on TDD: Tom is very clear about Test-Driven Development (TDD), even during the GSoC period. Writing tests first is highly valued here. I’d love to see that approach: test a problem, note your analysis, seek feedback, and then write your proposal.

Just a heads-up: I am not a maintainer or an official mentor yet, though I have listed myself as a potential mentor. Tom remains the primary mentor for this project. To the maintainers: apologies if this message is in any way inappropriate!

One final piece of advice: Please do not chase PR merges or spam the maintainers. They give their valuable time to SymPy, so let's not drain their energy. Contribute for the fun of learning—quality always matters more than quantity!

If tom has something he can add it here

Happy learning,

- Sai Udayagiri

[Chidroopa Kanaparthy]

This is incredibly helpful for those of us navigating the continuum_mechanics module right now.  I especially appreciate the heads-up on the TDD approach and the suggestion to contribute for the fun of learning and respect the maintainers time . Thank you for taking the time to share your GSoC experience and for pointing us toward those specific reports and tutorials. Thanks for looking out for the new cohort!

[Rishab Kumar]

Thanks sir for sharing these modules with all of us. It gonna help us for our proposal

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sympy" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sympy+un...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/dbaf7808-ea23-4bde-9132-0c111ec70f93n%40googlegroups.com.

[Peter Stahlecker]

Dear Sai,

I am just a user of Sympy, too old (70+) and not good enough to contribute, but I follow the discussions closely.

What a good piece of advice you gave in my opinion!

Peter

[Tom van Woudenberg]

Hi Sai,

Nice overview. Just one note, your links to Borek's and your own work are incorrect.

Tom

Op dinsdag 24 maart 2026 om 19:17:53 UTC+1 schreef peter.st...@gmail.com:

[sai udayagiri]

Thanks Tom. 

Boreks work

My work

Best regards,
Sai Udayagiri

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "sympy" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sympy+un...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sympy/178af1ef-99af-4a0e-b6d9-2dc2d40889ffn%40googlegroups.com.