[SciPy-Dev] GSoC 2018: Cythonizing

[Lars G.]

Dear SciPy devs,

I'm currently thinking about an application for this year's GSoC as
well. As there already seems to be a large interest in the rotation
formalism I'm trying to find another area that matches my interest and
skill.

I've dug up this proposal in scikit-image from GSoC 2015
https://github.com/scikit-image/scikit-image/wiki/GSoC-2015#rewriting-scipyndimage-in-cython
and judging by the state of scipy/ndimage/src/ nobody has worked on this
proposal yet (feel free to correct me).
Alternatively I could imagine something similar for other sub-packages,
e.g. scipy/signal which features many source files in C as well.

So basically if there is an interest I could try to port C / Python code
to Cython. What I would like to know:

- Is there an interest? ;)
- Is the original proposal in scikit-image still unfinished and are the
  potential mentors still interested in mentoring?
- If there is a general interest to cythonize C or Python code during a
  GSoC project, which parts / sub-packages of SciPy would you priorize?

As for my current involvement with SciPy:

- I've already added a small function written in Cython
  https://github.com/scipy/scipy/pull/8350
- as part of a larger PR extending the signal module
  https://github.com/scipy/scipy/pull/8264
  which will possibly merged this week.
- I already cythonized slow parts of the above PR and plan
  to add these with new PRs after #8264 is merged.

If this receives positive feedback I'd be happy to draft a more complete
proposal / application based on the discussion around this.

Best regards,
Lars