Blog - Posts by Medha Bhardwaj

Week 7: Rounded Rectangle Research and Website Enhancements

2026-07-13T00:00:00-04:00

During the week, I focused on researching different approaches for implementing a Rounded Rectangle UI component in FURY and continued working on the FURY website revamp.

Overview

This week, I worked on the following pull requests and carried out a design study for the Rounded Rectangle component.

Website Revamp

Community page (both light and dark mode) (#1293) I built the Community page for the FURY website with full support for both light and dark mode, maintaining visual consistency with the rest of the site.
Adds FURY next to logo in homepage in navbar (#1284) I added the “FURY” text alongside the logo in the homepage navbar to improve brand visibility and recognition.

Rounded Rectangle Approaches

A significant portion of this week was spent researching and documenting four different approaches for creating a Rounded Rectangle primitive in FURY. I wrote a detailed comparison document covering each method’s implementation, pros, and cons.

1. Fragment Shader SDF: Render a simple rectangular quad and use a Signed Distance Field in the fragment shader to mathematically carve out the rounded corners per pixel. This gives resolution-independent, perfectly smooth curves with minimal geometry (just two triangles), and is easy to extend with borders and outlines. However, it requires careful scaling management and proper depth sorting so that the transparent corners don’t occlude elements behind them.
2. Geometry Composition (Rectangles + Discs): Physically assemble the shape from six actors: two overlapping rectangles and four quarter-disc arcs placed at the corners. This approach is simple and uses only existing FURY components, and click/hover detection works correctly out of the box. The downsides are six separate draw calls per rectangle, a transparency overlap artifact (the center appears darker at partial opacity), and difficulty adding continuous visual effects like outlines or gradients.
3. Custom Geometry Primitive: Mathematically calculate the full outline using trigonometry for the curved corners and fill the shape with triangles to form a single continuous mesh. This solves the transparency overlap problem, gives accurate interactivity, and requires only a single draw call. The trade-off is that the curves are approximated by straight-line segments (which can appear jagged at extreme zoom), and resizing requires rebuilding the entire mesh.
4. Texture-Based (Canvas Rendering): Use a Python image library to draw a rounded rectangle image with transparent corners and apply it as a texture to a flat quad. This is straightforward, makes it easy to add gradients and borders via image processing, and looks crisp at native resolution. However, it becomes blurry when zoomed in, resizing requires regenerating the image on the CPU, and each unique size/color combination consumes separate texture memory.

What I Learned

This week gave me a deep understanding of the different trade-offs involved in rendering 2D shapes within a 3D visualization framework. I learned about Signed Distance Fields and how fragment shaders can produce resolution-independent curves, the compositing problems that arise from overlapping semi-transparent geometry, and the balance between mesh complexity and visual fidelity when building custom geometry primitives. On the website side, I continued refining the site’s look and feel with the new Community page and navbar branding.

In the upcoming week, I plan to:

Begin implementing the Rounded Rectangle component using the chosen approach.
Work on additional UI components.

Connect with Me

GitHub: medha-14
LinkedIn: Medha Bhardwaj

Week 6: Combobox UI Component and Global Theme Integration

2026-07-06T00:00:00-04:00

During the week, I focused on adding a new Combobox UI element to FURY and implementing global theming for the FURY website’s internal pages.

Overview

This week, I worked on the following pull requests:

UI Components Development

Introduces Combobox (#1271) I added the Combobox component to FURY, allowing users to select an option from a drop-down menu within the UI.

Website Revamp and Global Theming

Migrate images to PNG and update logo card styling (#1275) I migrated existing images to PNG format, so they work well even in dark mode and updated the styling of the logo cards on the website for a cleaner look.
Extracts shared navbar/footer styles into fury_theme.css and scope homepage.css to home.html (#1276) To prevent unintentional CSS side effects on non-homepages, I extracted the shared navbar and footer styles into a separate file and scoped the homepage styles appropriately.
Implements global light mode theme for internal pages (same as homepage) (#1281) I expanded the new light mode theme from the homepage to all internal documentation pages, ensuring a consistent look and feel throughout the website.
Implements global dark mode theme for internal pages (same as homepage) (#1278) Following the light mode implementation, I added a global dark mode theme for all internal pages. I also ensured that the red gradient remains visible when scrolling in dark mode.
Override Default CSS with Custom Styles to Update Doc Page Colors (#1282) I identified and overrode the default colors for the documentation pages with custom styles. This is a temporary update to match the new themes while the final designs are being completed.

What I Learned

This week was largely focused on CSS architecture and theme management. I learned how to effectively scope CSS to specific pages to avoid style leakage and how to create a consistent theming system across both light and dark modes. I also gained experience in overriding default Sphinx styles to align with custom design requirements. In addition, I successfully integrated a new UI element, the Combobox.

In the upcoming week, I plan to:

Finalize the custom styling for the internal documentation pages once the final designs are ready.
Continue working on advanced UI components, such as the Tree UI.
Adding new Rounded Rectangle to FURY.

Connect with Me

GitHub: medha-14
LinkedIn: Medha Bhardwaj

Week 5: Advancing the FURY Homepage Revamp

2026-06-29T00:00:00-04:00

During the week, I focused on advancing the FURY website’s homepage redesign, adding interactivity and ensuring mobile responsiveness.

Overview

This week, I worked on the following pull requests:

Homepage Redesign and Interactivity

Adds interactive features to homepage (both dark and light mode) (#1260) I enhanced the homepage with interactive elements, ensuring a consistent and engaging experience across both light and dark modes.
Add interactive science domain showcase section to homepage (light and dark mode) (#1262) I introduced a dedicated section to showcase FURY’s applications across various scientific domains.
Adds examples gallery and installation section to the homepage (#1264) To help users get started quickly, I added an installation section and an interactive examples gallery directly on the homepage.
Adds community and support section to homepage (#1265) I implemented a community section to highlight how users can connect, seek support, and contribute to FURY.
Implement and integrate custom documentation footer (#1266) I created a custom footer for the documentation and homepage to improve navigation and provide essential links.
refactor: enhance homepage responsiveness and refine mobile UI components (#1267) I focused on refining the mobile experience, making sure all the new homepage components look great and are fully responsive on smaller screens.

Documentation and Usability Enhancements

Improve copy-to-clipboard functionality with improved UI feedback and minor refactor (#1258) I enhanced the code snippet copy functionality across the documentation, adding better visual feedback for users.

What I Learned

This week provided a great opportunity to dive deeper into front-end development within the Sphinx documentation ecosystem. I learned a lot about managing state for dark and light modes using CSS variables and integrating them smoothly across custom layouts. I built the interactive examples gallery and science domain showcase, taking care to ensure everything remains responsive and functional across different screen sizes.

Next Week

In the upcoming week, I plan to:

Finalize any remaining website homepage tweaks.
Implementing more UI components in FURY LIKE ComboBox, Tree UI.

Connect with Me

GitHub: medha-14
LinkedIn: Medha Bhardwaj

Week 4: UI Components and Website Homepage Revamp

2026-06-22T00:00:00-04:00

During the week, I focused on introducing new, UI elements to FURY and starting the revamp of the FURY website’s homepage.

Overview

This week, I worked on the following pull requests:

UI Components Development

Introduces ListBox2D (#1248) I added the ListBox2D component to FURY, which provides a convenient and interactive way to present lists of selectable items within the UI.
Introduces Card 2D (#1250) Following the ListBox addition, I implemented the Card2D element. This component is perfect for displaying grouped and structured content with images and text within the scene.

Website Revamp

Implement custom homepage layout with hero section and navigation overrides (light mode) (#1254) I started the website redesign by implementing a custom homepage layout. This PR introduces a completely new hero section and updated navigation styles specifically tailored for the light theme.
Implement dark mode for the homepage on top of light mode (#1256) Building upon the light mode changes, I added full dark mode support to the newly designed homepage. This ensures that the documentation and landing page look great across different user preferences.

What I Learned

I learned a lot about building more complex 2D UI components in FURY by combining our existing primitives. On the documentation side, diving deeply into the Sphinx theme implementation to override navigation defaults and properly support both light and dark modes was a good learning experience.

Next Week

In the upcoming week, I plan to:

Continue revamping the UI of the website to the newer version.
Work on implementing more advanced UI components, specifically focusing on a Combo Box and a Tree UI.

Connect with Me

GitHub: medha-14
LinkedIn: Medha Bhardwaj

Week 3: Expanding UI Components and Automated GIF Recording

2026-06-15T00:00:00-04:00

During the third week I dedicated most of my time to expanding the library’s UI components and tackling the automated GIF recording support for animation examples.

Overview

This week, I worked on the following pull requests:

UI Components Development

Introduces Rangeslider and LineDoubleSlider2D (#1241) I introduced the Rangeslider and LineDoubleSlider2D UI elements to FURY. These new sliders make it much easier to define and manipulate range-based values interactively inside a scene.
ImageContainer2D Introduced (#1239) Following the slider additions, I also introduced the ImageContainer2D. This component allows straightforward visualization of 2D images directly inside the FURY user interface.

Automated GIF Recording

Add automated GIF recording support for animation examples (#1243) My main focus this week was implementing automated GIF recording for our animation examples. Generating previews for animations is vital, and this feature seamlessly records the animation window to produce lightweight demonstrations.

Below are some demonstrations of the animations recorded using the new feature:
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What I Learned

This week provided a great opportunity to dive deeper into FURY’s documentation pipeline. I learned a lot about how the image scraper actually works behind the scenes to capture scene frames via self.renderer.snapshot(). To implement the automated GIF recording, I utilized the ShowManager’s callback system (self._callbacks) to trigger frame captures sequentially during the animation loop. This ensures that we can extract frames accurately as the animation plays out.

Additionally, I realized that offscreen rendering is incredibly versatile and is used for many different things across the library, not just for building the documentation. Finally, to seamlessly integrate this new recording functionality, we introduced a new environment variable, FURY_RECORD_ANIMATION, which, when used alongside FURY_OFFSCREEN, effortlessly enables GIF recording across our animation examples.

Next Week

In the upcoming week, I plan to:

Begin working on the new website interface for FURY.
Begin work on other UI components like ListBox2D and Card2D.

Connect with Me

GitHub: medha-14
LinkedIn: Medha Bhardwaj

Week 2: Fixing Doc Build Warnings and Improving Documentation Pipeline

2026-06-08T00:00:00-04:00

The second week of the coding period was a highly productive start, and I was able to accomplish a lot of work that I am honestly proud of. This week, my primary focus was on improving the FURY documentation pipeline and fixing various build warnings.

Overview

This week, I worked on the following pull requests:

Documentation Improvements and Build Fixes

Integrate Version Switcher, Add Local Docs Server, and Fix Version Redirection (#1233) This pull request focused on integrating a Version Switcher, adding a Local Docs Server, and fixing Version Redirection to improve the overall documentation navigation. Specifically, if a user is on a page and selects a different documentation version, they will now be properly redirected to that exact same page in the selected version. If the page does not exist in the older version, they are smoothly redirected to the index.html page instead.
Fix GL01 and address SS06 warnings (#1237) Here, I addressed and fixed the NumPy warnings that were previously suppressed as exceptions in the pyproject.toml file. I tackled these changes across several commits, utilizing automated tools to speed up the process:
- Removing TOML Exceptions: First, I removed the SA04, GL01, and GL02 exceptions from pyproject.toml so that these rules are actually checked going forward.
- Automated GL01 Fixes: I was able to fix most of the GL01 warnings automatically by running ruff check --select D213 --fix ., because D213 and GL01 check for the exact same docstring rules.
- Docformatter Edge Cases: There were some edge cases that the automated tools couldn’t catch, like single-line summaries and missing line breaks at the end of docstrings, so I went in and fixed those manually.
- SS06 Warnings: I also cleaned up the few lingering SS06 warnings across the codebase.
- Reinforcing Rules with Ruff: To make sure these issues don’t come back, I set up Ruff to handle the GL01 and GL02 validations. This means the rules are now enforced automatically, and contributors won’t have to worry about resolving them manually since Ruff takes care of it during the pre-commit hooks.
Enable strict documentation builds with warnings treated as errors (#1244) I configured the build system to treat warnings as errors. This ensures that any new warnings will automatically fail the CI/CD documentation build upon creating or updating a Pull Request.
Update Gallery Examples and Handling (#1238) I will likely close this PR. Although the current approach to building the gallery is complex, it provides the ability to avoid duplicate examples by mentioning them in the .toml file.

Understanding the Build Pipeline

In addition to the code changes, I spent time understanding the entire FURY documentation build pipeline, including how it works and how it can be optimized in the future. I also proposed and discussed a few ideas for improvement with my mentor.

What I Learned

Beyond the code itself, this week helped me better understand some of the development practices followed within FURY.

One thing that stood out was the importance of maintaining a clean repository history. Through reviews and discussions, I learned how presenting work in a smaller number of meaningful commits makes changes easier to review, understand, and track in the future. It is a simple practice, but one that has a significant impact on project maintenance in the long term.

Overall, it was encouraging to start the coding period by gaining a deeper understanding of both the codebase and the contribution workflow.

Next Week

Next week, I plan to work on the following tasks:

Port Textbox2d to v2 architecture
Introduce Rangeslider and LineDoubleSlider2D
Add GIFs to animation examples

Connect with Me

GitHub: medha-14
LinkedIn: Medha Bhardwaj

Week 1: Fixing Doc Build Warnings and Introducing RingSlider

2026-06-01T00:00:00-04:00

The first week of the coding period has been a productive start. This week, I primarily worked on two contributions:

Fixing documentation build warnings across the FURY codebase.
Completing the migration of the RingSlider2D to the new PyGfx implementation.

Both of these pull requests were successfully merged during the week.

Overview

This week, I worked on the following pull requests:

Fix documentation build warnings (#1164)
Port RingSlider2D to v2 architecture (#1121)

Fixing Documentation Build Warnings

I opened this pull request during the community bonding period and continued refining the changes and discussing them with maintainers during the first week of the coding period.

While building the documentation locally using:

make -C . clean && make -C . html-no-examples

I encountered dozens of warnings. Most of them originated from .rst files, while a few were related to attributes that were intended to be private but were not documented as such.

I went through the warnings individually, updating documentation where necessary and removing outdated or redundant content. Since many of the warnings were repetitive, this was a good opportunity to become more familiar with the project’s documentation structure and conventions. After review and discussion, the pull request was merged successfully.

Working on RingSlider2D and PyGfx Migration

I also continued work on RingSlider2D and its migration to the new PyGfx implementation.

Most of the work this week involved fixing bugs, polishing the implementation, and ensuring that the slider behaved correctly. Through testing and feedback, I identified a number of smaller issues that needed to be addressed before the feature was ready to be merged.

After making the necessary fixes and final refinements, the pull request was merged successfully.

What I Learned

Beyond the code itself, this week helped me better understand some of the development practices followed within FURY.

Overall, it was encouraging to start the coding period by gaining a deeper understanding of both the codebase and the contribution workflow.

Next Week

Next week, I plan to work on the following tasks:

Enable the version switcher on the FURY website.
Address review comments and complete the TextBox2D PyGfx implementation pull request.
Better understand the FURY documentation workflow.
Explore Sphinx Gallery and understand how it can be used to improve the documentation workflow.

Connect with Me

GitHub: medha-14
LinkedIn: Medha Bhardwaj

Week 0: Community Bonding Period

2026-05-25T00:00:00-04:00

Hello everyone!

I’m Medha Bhardwaj, and I’m incredibly happy to share that I have been selected for Google Summer of Code 2026 with FURY. This summer, I will be working on Optimizing FURY’s Documentation Pipeline and Website Architecture, a project aimed at improving the documentation workflow and enhancing the experience for both contributors and users.

About Me

I am a Computer Science student with a minor in Business. I started contributing to PyBaMM, and since then, open source has become an important part of my learning journey and growth as a developer.

I am also actively involved with the FOSS Wing at my college as a senior member, where I help students take their first steps into open source and project contributions.

This eventually led me to participate in Google Summer of Code 2025 with PyBaMM under NumFOCUS. It was a really rewarding experience that enhanced my technical skills and also taught me how to collaborate and communicate effectively while working within a team.

After GSoC, while exploring other projects, I came across FURY. What initially drew me in was how creative and interactive the project felt. I started contributing to the project, became more involved with the community over time, and I’m grateful that this eventually led to me being selected for Google Summer of Code 2026 with FURY.

Community Bonding Period

The community bonding period has already been an amazing start to the summer. I had the opportunity to meet my mentors and Tomás, who is a fellow GSoC contributor at DIPY. It was inspiring to interact with so many passionate people from different backgrounds, all connected by a shared enthusiasm for open source.

We also talked about expectations for the summer, communication practices, project timelines, and the overall flow of the coding period. One thing I really appreciated was how direct and open the communication was from the very beginning. The mentors were very clear about what they expected from us and how the project would progress, giving me a clear understanding of what I am expected to do and how I can contribute effectively.

It was also very reassuring to see how welcoming and collaborative the community is. Even before the coding period officially begins, the atmosphere already feels incredibly motivating and supportive, and I am really looking forward to learning and contributing over the next few months.

Connect with Me

GitHub: medha-14
LinkedIn: Medha Bhardwaj

Stay tuned for updates on my GSoC journey as I share my progress, challenges, and everything I learn along the way!