Hello fellow contributors!
My name is Tom Cowan, a BSc Software Engineering student from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom with a strong interesting into wanting to contribute to real-world projects and have a successful and lasting impact. The project of choice that peaks my interest within Joplin is the Support for encrypted notes and notebooks, because I believe that from what I have learnt through my studies at university, I can apply my newfound knowledge surrounding cryptography and secure cyber systems into a real-world application such as your own.
I have got some experience with modern web development and cryptography with me doing a group project based upon UK flood warnings and alerting users to the potential risks, before, during and after a flood alongside how they can eliminate those risks and survive. Alongside this, I have completed a cryptography piece of coursework for my studies where we have to encrypt and decrypt a string in python utilising AES encryption under the CBC mode, PKCS padding and a SHA256 hash algorithm hmac to verify that the encrypted data hasn’t been modified.
Throughout my time contributing to this project for GSOC 2026 and hopefully beyond, I believe I can submit quality code via pull requests and collaborate with the community and other collaborators whilst working on impactful ideas that can help improve Joplin whilst also providing me with newfound experiences in the technology industry.
Hope everyone is well and I am looking forward to contributing alongside you!
GitHub: KayakTom · GitHub
Kind Regards,
Tom Cowan