Kotlin
A concise multiplatform language developed by JetBrains
Google Summer of Code 2025: What Our Contributors Built
Congrats to all GSoC 2025 contributors and mentors! This year’s projects have made a real impact on the Kotlin ecosystem and the contributions are already being integrated, used, and appreciated. Thank you all for your hard work!
Let’s take a closer look at this year’s projects:
IntelliJ Platform Gradle Plugin – Gradle Reporting and Parallel Verifications
“GSoC was the perfect opportunity to give back to the tools I use daily and move from user to contributor because I’d already been building IntelliJ plugins myself.”
Mentor: Jakub Chrzanowski (JetBrains)
For Victoria Alajemba, a Software Engineer from Nigeria studying in Paris, GSoC was a bridge between learning and impact. Working on the IntelliJ Platform Gradle Plugin, she integrated Gradle’s Problems API and Reporting API, creating richer, standardized reports and exploring parallel verification for faster builds. Guided by Jakub Chrzanowski from JetBrains, she strengthened key workflows used by thousands of plugin developers.
Improving Configuration Cache in Key Gradle Plugins
“Working with my mentors was an amazing experience. They provided invaluable guidance, from high-level architectural advice to detailed feedback on pull requests.”
Mentors: Oleg Nenashev (ex-Gradle), Rafael Chaves (Gradle), Rodrigo Oliveira (Gradle)
Hailing from Cairo, Nouran Atef spent her summer making Gradle builds faster and more reliable. Her project tackled Configuration Cache compatibility across major community plugins, refactoring them to remove bottlenecks and enable smarter caching. She contributed fixes, documentation, and patterns now adopted across plugins, boosting performance for developers everywhere.
Enhanced Kotlin Code Quality Reporting with Gradle Problem API: Integration with Detekt and Ktlint
“Participating in GSoC opened my eyes to the open-source community. Collaboration, communication, and more Kotlin all helped me grow into a better, well-rounded engineer. To anyone considering GSoC, especially beginners, I would say to apply! It is very beginner friendly and you can acquire valuable skills that you would not easily gain elsewhere.”
Mentors: Donát Csikós and Reinhold Degenfellner (both from Gradle)
Based in New York City, Android Engineer Vanessa Johnson spent her summer improving how Kotlin developers experience code quality. Her project integrated the Gradle Problems API into popular tools like Detekt and Ktlint, unifying error reporting across consoles, IDEs, and HTML reports for cleaner, more actionable feedback.
Support Android and iOS Targets in Kotlin Multiplatform for Gemini Using Vertex AI in Firebase
“GSoC ultimately strengthened my passion for the developer experience and mobile infrastructure, inspiring me to keep building tools that make complex technologies more accessible.”
Mentor: Matt Dyor (Google)
As one of the first Firebase libraries with native Kotlin Multiplatform (KMP) support, Sean’s project bridges Android and iOS with a shared Gemini-powered Firebase AI layer. His modular SDK and Swift-Kotlin bridge simplify AI feature integration across platforms, answering one of the top community requests for Firebase. Mentored by Matt Dyor from Google, Sean’s work lays the foundation for future official KMP-compatible Firebase libraries.
Gradle Convention Plugin for Developing Jenkins Plugins
“The moment that acceptance email landed in my inbox, I couldn’t stop smiling. Working with my mentors was one of the most rewarding parts of this journey.
”
Mentors: Oleg Nenashev (ex-Gradle), Rahul Somasunderam (Netflix), Steve Hill (Netflix)
For Aarav Mahajan, a computer engineering student from Punjab, India, it wasn’t just writing a Gradle plugin – it was about expanding what’s possible for Jenkins developers and modernizing plugin development for Gradle.
The Gradle Convention Plugin introduces a clean, Kotlin-first way to build, test, and publish Jenkins plugins, standardizing best practices, automating checks, and bringing long-requested Gradle parity to the community.
Maven Central Publishing Plugin for Gradle (New APIs)
“GSoC really broadened my perspective. It taught me what it takes to build, promote, and grow an open-source project, which is especially meaningful since becoming a maintainer is one of my long-term goals.”
Mentor: Oleg Nenashev (ex-Gradle)
Yongjun Hong set out to make publishing to Maven Central easier. His new Gradle plugin brings modern Kotlin DSL support, automatic validation, and smart inheritance of shared metadata, turning a tedious, error-prone process into a smooth, consistent workflow. Mentored by Oleg Nenashev, Yongjun delivered a tool that not only simplifies multi-module publishing, but also improves build reliability and compliance – a small change that will save countless hours for open-source maintainers.
Build a Modern, Compiler-Integrated Kotlin Language Server
“It was incredibly rewarding to see my work tested, reviewed, and used by others in the community.”
Mentors: Shauvik Roy Choudhary, Ryan U, Michael Noah, Claudia Babescu (all from Uber)
From picking up Kotlin from scratch to building a compiler-integrated Language Server with the new Analysis API, Hemram’s project expanded the boundaries of Kotlin tooling.
Working with mentors from Uber and the Kotlin Foundation, he delivered a modern, open foundation for editor integrations and future AI-assisted tools for the Kotlin Language Server Protocol.
Thank you to our contributors and mentors from the Kotlin Foundation member companies and other great partners supporting open-source – Google, Gradle, Uber, Netflix, and JetBrains – and to everyone who reviewed issues, gave feedback, and merged PRs.
If you are considering taking part in GSoC, check out the blogs from this year’s contributors – they’re full of insights on writing strong proposals and what the program can teach you.
If you’d like to go deeper, check out the linked contributor posts and repos above.
To stay up to date on the next GSoC or other ways to contribute to Kotlin, join our GSoC channel on Slack.
Let’s keep building great things together!
Subscribe to Kotlin Blog updates
