Bonjour,
@kushaldas advise it is best to apply to GSoC under the umbrella of the Python Software Foundation. The first steps are:
Deadline January 19th 2018 to Send an email indicating interest to gsoc-admins(at)python(dot)org
As a next step, we should write down a few big ideas, which can take at least 2 months to finish. We need little bit of detailed plan.
Here are a few idea I have. From past experience I’m sure they match the average GSoC participant ability to deliver. I also know my ideas are not sexy at all and do not attract many students 
@kushaldas would you be so kind as to add a copy of the mail sent to gsoc-admins(at)python(dot)org here for the record ?
For the record, ideas are available at https://github.com/freedomofpress/securedrop/wiki/Google-Summer-of-Code-2018-Ideas
Another idea:
Improve monitoring of SecureDrop source interfaces (Python + Django + stem) - We currently use nagios to monitor source interfaces. We send alerts to SecureDrop administrators when we detect their source interfaces are down. Unfortunately the current approach leads to a lot of false positives, which causes admin frustration and confusion. The student’s project would be to develop an improved monitoring solution using the Tor stem library and integrate it into the securedrop.org directory (being migrated to Django).
Other idea(s): we also need to migrate SecureDrop to Python 3 and to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and do a better job of pinning pip packages.
Just in terms of general strategy in picking projects that are appropriate for students: I think it’s best to have students work on useful work (including prototyping work) that the core team does not have the bandwidth to take on, but not have students work on critical work on the roadmap as it creates unnecessary pressure (e.g. moving to Xenial).