written by Sanju Tiwari
My association with DBpedia began in 2022 when I visited DBpedia as a DAAD Postdoc Net AI Fellow. Since then, I have continued to be part of the DBpedia community as a researcher and have been actively involved with GSoC as a mentor. I started my mentoring journey in 2022 with the project “Template Discovery for Neural Question Answering over DBpedia”. In 2024, I served as the lead mentor for the project “DBpedia Chapter in Hindi”.
In October 2025, I had the opportunity to join the GSoC Mentor Summit held in Munich from 22–25 October 2025. It was an exciting event that brought together GSoC contributors from across the world.
Summit Highlights — Munich 2025
The summit was organized at the Marriott Hotel in Munich, and all accommodation arrangements were provided at the venue. A welcome dinner was planned on 22 October at Berliner Str. 93, 80805 Munich. I attended the dinner and had the chance to interact with many contributors for the first time, including meeting Stephanie Taylor in person.
This year marked the 21st edition of GSoC! The event celebrated many ongoing projects and achievements, with 133 organizations participating in the 2025 Mentor Summit.
Day 1 — Sessions & Community Exchange
On 23 October, the summit was officially opened by Stephanie and Mary, who invited all contributors to propose session topics following the unconference format. Multiple brainstorming sessions were conducted, covering a wide range of ideas shared by contributors.
One of the unique attractions of the summit was the Chocolate Room, where people brought chocolates from around the world to share. I contributed Indian sweets — Kaju Katli. Day 1 was a great experience full of discussions, learning, and community building over breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Day 2 — Lightning Talks
Day 2, on 24 October, began with a series of lightning talks, and I was the first speaker of the session.
During my talk, I had the opportunity to present DBpedia, its mission, and my contributions to the GSoC Program under the DBpedia project. I also showcased results from previous GSoC work, which were later published as a research paper.
I also visited the State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich, despite the rainy weather. The museum visit was a memorable cultural experience, and I also met Ronit Banerjee, another DBpedia mentor, during the summit.
Day 3 — Closing & Return
On Day 3, we had a closing lunch and received several GSoC souvenirs. After lunch, I left to catch my flight back home.
Overall, the GSoC Mentor Summit 2025 in Munich was a wonderful experience. I am grateful to DBpedia for giving me this opportunity to participate and connect with global contributors.
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